BDUK is rolling out gigabit broadband across the country. There was no reliable way for anyone to find out when it reached them, so they wrote to Parliament instead.
Building Digital UK (BDUK) is an executive agency of the UK government tasked with expanding fast broadband and mobile coverage to rural and hard-to-reach areas. The organisation manages large-scale infrastructure initiatives, including Project Gigabit and the Shared Rural Network, to deliver reliable digital connectivity across the nation.
Thunk helped us transform how we communicate with the public. What was once a confusing and manual process became a clear, self-service tool. They brought speed, creativity, and a deep understanding of user needs, leaving us with a GDS-ready prototype and a roadmap to scale.
James Carpenter, Head of Campaigns and Promotions, BDUK
Project Gigabit is one of the largest infrastructure programmes in the country. The public had no dependable way to check where it had got to, so they asked their MPs, who asked BDUK, which generated casework instead of answers.
We designed and tested a public availability checker through Alpha. It came out GDS-ready with a roadmap to beta.
Nobody could find out what was happening to their own street. The maps didn’t agree with each other, the timelines were vague, and plenty of people didn’t know BDUK existed.
So they wrote to their MP. The MP wrote to BDUK, where someone looked up the answer and typed a reply, one household at a time.
Public information was inconsistent and hard to interpret
Many people had no idea who was responsible for the rollout
Casework volumes grew as the programme expanded
Staff time went on manual replies rather than delivery
The Alpha ended with a GDS-ready prototype and a roadmap to beta.
The service answers a postcode-level question in plain language, and never ends a journey without a next step. Users can flag errors and ask for updates, which turns a dead end into a route back into the programme.
Behind it, BDUK moved from answering questions one at a time to publishing the answer once. Reactive support became proactive transparency, which is a different operating posture rather than a better web page.
Eight prototype versions, tested across four rounds of research
Integrated with Ofcom APIs while respecting commercial sensitivity
Designed for people with low digital confidence and high frustration
A roadmap and the evidence to take it to beta
01
Citizens, broadband champions and MPs, because the casework problem and the information problem were the same problem seen from different ends.
02
Four rounds of user research, iterating on clarity and accessibility rather than debating it.
03
Our GDS-aligned prototyping setup meant daily stakeholder access and same-day changes.
04
Plain language results, no journey without a next step, and a way to report when the data is wrong.
A disciplined hunt for value — the structure to explore the unknown without the usual cost of getting it wrong.
1-hour (remote)
Bring us the thing everyone in your organisation disagrees about. We'll tell you what we'd do, whether that involves us or not.
1-day (in person)
One day won't solve everything, but it'll tell you exactly where to start. 'Too many ideas' become one clear plan with the evidence to back it.