on the US Digital Service and Working at Google for 17 Years

Cutts recalls joining Google in 2000, when only three people started on the same day and the company worked late nights and weekends. Projects and staffing were informal: after working on SafeSearch, he joined the small ads group when it needed help. Google’s success was uncertain during the dot-com crash, and he worried competitors such as AltaVista might catch up.

Cutts describes early ad experiments, including a prototype that strained Google’s servers when caching was disabled for 30% of users. Self-service AdWords showed the potential of reaching niche customers, such as people buying Maine lobster online. He explains that search quality work meant responding to spam while giving businesses practical guidance, such as making sites faster and easier to navigate.

After leaving Google, Cutts joined the U.S. Digital Service, which grew out of efforts to stabilize HealthCare.gov. USDS works with agencies on urgent system problems, short discovery sprints, and longer projects, including helping immigrants become citizens and veterans claim benefits. Its roughly 180 people include engineers, designers, product managers, procurement specialists, recruiters, and lawyers, often serving for a limited tour.

Cutts says technical staff can help agencies assess contractors, avoid unsuitable systems, and make procurement decisions based on code quality. He describes progress such as federal bug bounty programs beginning in 2016 and agencies exploring cloud services, while noting that government technology still lags private industry. Small improvements can matter at scale, such as making benefits claims easier to track or forms usable on phones.

Cutts argues that watching users and hearing from them helps teams find problems they would otherwise miss. A Veterans Affairs team spoke with 5,000 veterans and built a tool to help some upgrade discharge status and qualify for benefits. He contrasts Google’s fun workplace with USDS’s difficult but meaningful work, and says people can contribute through a six-month government tour or other civic technology roles.