Closing the Citizen Experience Gap

Too often, we leave our interactions with the government feeling treated like a number instead of a person; like a bother instead of a beneficiary. The shift to digital government has further traded human engagements for transactions that feel robotic and, well, transactional.

We believe it's the duty of our government to leave us feeling heard, dignified and valued — as individuals. After all, it’s our government and it’s supposed to work for US.

Restoring Trust: Leading by Design

For lots of reasons, government has struggled to keep up with our ever-increasing expectations. The result is a widening “experience gap” that has eroded trust and slowed meaningful progress, underscoring how every interaction is now a micro-moment that either rebuilds or erodes trust. But what if we’ve been thinking about it all wrong by focusing on playing catch-up?

We want to work with visionary public sector leaders who believe that government can actually lead the way, by designing for people, not profits; by being bold, and never settling for “good enough”.

Our Mission: Transform the Public Sector

The Government Experience Practice is the newest venture by Code and Theory, the only network with a balance of 50% creative and 50% engineers at scale. Our technology-first team within Stagwell Group is built to partner with organizations to navigate the complexity of changing consumer behaviors, emerging technologies and AI. With a global footprint and the capabilities to work across the entire personal journey, we crave the hardest problems to solve. We have all the creativity, expertise and passion of a digital start-up, with the size and backing to deliver at government scale.

We bring 20+ years of business and digital transformation experience for the world’s most ambitious and complex organizations — from JPMorganChase, Microsoft and Pfizer to the NFL — and apply that expertise to the government’s unique challenges. Unlike traditional contractors, we start with the human experience and deliver measurable outcomes: higher enrollment, greater satisfaction and restored trust.

Level Setting the Landscape

Too often, the state of the government's digital service delivery today is impersonal, complex, slow and frustrating for its users. Five key issues are impeding progress:

1. Risk Aversion -Historically, without tangible incentives or clear mandates, government tech tends to aim for “good enough” over “best in class” leading to a culture of compliance over excellence

2. Technical Debt - Huge sunk investments have been made in legacy systems built by vendors who profit off dependency and operational costs, crowding out lower cost and more innovative and better-designed modern solutions

3. Compliance Hurdles - Byzantine contracting and technical requirements provide endless hurdles to shipping good tech, and help keep potential new entrants out of the market

4. Resource Limitations - Challenges with recruiting and maintaining government tech talent and unpredictable budgets increases dependence on vendors and incentivize buyers to seek out lowest cost, minimally-viable solutions over best long-term value

5. Trust Deficit - Public trust in government is at historic lows, making experience-led change urgent but putting pressure on agencies to do more with.

Thought Leadership and Press

• The Fate Of Human Work In The Age Of Intelligent Machines, Forbes, written by Dan Gardner, co-founder of Code and Theory
• Fast Company Names Code and Theory One of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, Fast Company
• How The National Design Studio Could Transform Government Services, Little Black Book
• How Code and Theory is Rethinking the Agency Model with AI At Its Core, The Drum
• Code and Theory's Dan Gardner on Crafting The Future of Creativity, The Wall Street Journal
• "Take a Lesson from The Business World", says Code and Theory’s Head of Government Experience, Medium

Redefining How Citizens Experience Government

• Code and Theory is the only agency with 50% creatives + 50% engineers, at scale.
• GSA Schedule holder, delivering Section 508/USWDS-compliant work.
• Civic platform expertise and Adobe strategic partnership for government implementations.
• Backed by the Stagwell Network — 13,000+ professionals worldwide.
• Named 8x Agency of the Year in 2025 by Fast Company, Ad Age, The Association of National Advertisers, Digiday and more.

Company information

Unique Entity ID: LD9NE21AGYS3

DUNS: 624447400

CAGE Code: 7M8N2

GSA Schedule: 47QTCA25D002Z SIN: 54151S

Get in touch to discuss your next project.