How do you help government departments make smarter investment decisions when they struggle to rank local authority projects fairly and consistently? Mindsheet solved this by adapting our private-equity valuation tool, ACE, into a nationwide project-evaluation system — delivered using Agile long before Agile was fashionable in government. And in the process, HM Treasury received the best IT system they’d ever had… without ever issuing a tender.
Transforming a Private Equity Valuation Tool into a National Policy Engine
Mindsheet originally built ACE — the Automated Concept Evaluator — as a way for private equity firms to rapidly value early-stage innovations. With my colleague Christopher Chadwick, we created a tool that let investors walk into a prospective acquisition and, within a day, produce not only a credible valuation but also a clear roadmap of how to multiply the value post-deal. It was fast, structured, and commercially shrewd. Private equity firms loved it.
From Venture-Backed Innovation to Government Decision Support
Then came an unusual request from the Digital Inclusion team inside HM Treasury. They wanted to license ACE — but for a completely different purpose. Instead of valuing technology start-ups, they wanted to evaluate local authority projects across the UK. And they favoured our approach because ACE didn’t just provide abstract scores; it produced proper valuations and strategic insights.
However, government projects aren’t like equity investments. Benefits for one stakeholder might be burdens for another. Some authorities gained, others lost, and these tensions needed to be modelled formally. So our consulting work gradually evolved into a redesign of ACE’s entire logic.
Then came the critical request:
Local authorities wanted a portal where they could self-enter projects and immediately get valuations and rankings.
We agreed it made perfect sense — only to be told that HM Treasury couldn’t allow us to build it. Under procurement rules, we could only create the specification. A separate IT tender would then be issued to build the real system.
So we approached the challenge differently.
Raglan and Chris’s methods have been instrumental in helping us to develop our innovation projects and toolkit for local authorities. We are sold on the method. Paul Waller, HM Treasury, Digital Inclusion Programme
Introducing Agile to Whitehall in 2009
Instead of long requirements interviews (which users struggled with), we introduced Agile and Scrum — in 2009, years before it became mainstream in UK government. We built small MVPs, simply to show users what things might look like. Each iteration unlocked clearer feedback than any meeting ever could.
And something unexpected happened.
Scrum prototypes — properly engineered with tests and working code — quickly became real, production-quality components. Every sprint, the system grew. Every user session made it stronger. Every iteration gave HM Treasury exactly what they needed.
Three months in, the team said:
“This is the best feedback process we’ve ever had. Keep going.”
A Fully-Working National Portal Without a Tender
Eighteen months later, HM Treasury had a fully-working, national-level project-evaluation portal rolled out across local authorities — even though no IT tender had ever been issued.
It worked flawlessly, was actively used nationwide, and earned a level of praise that no government IT system had previously achieved:
“This is the best IT implementation we’ve ever received.”
When we asked if they’d like Mindsheet to build more systems, the response was bittersweet:
“We’d love to… but we technically can’t. The only reason this system exists is because it sat under consulting. Procurement rules simply don’t support Agile delivery.”
A strange ending — but a complete success.
A system that was never meant to be built was not only delivered, but became the benchmark for future digital services.
Painting the Picture Instead of Describing It
Most government IT projects start by asking users what they want — like asking someone to describe a painting they haven’t seen. Mindsheet instead painted the canvas first, stroke by stroke, until the picture became unmistakably clear. The result wasn’t a theoretical specification; it was a finished masterpiece.
If you want high-stakes innovation delivered with speed, clarity, and user-led certainty — without the waste and drift of traditional IT projects — Mindsheet can help.
👉 Accelerate innovation, eliminate ambiguity, and deliver systems that work first time.
Contact Mindsheet