Mamdani’s new ‘PIT Crew’ tech teams to help New York agencies improve digital services
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Lisa Gelobter, the city’s chief technology officer, announced on Monday the launch of the Public Interest Technology Crew, or PIT Crew, initiative, a new program that will pair teams of in-house technologists with city agencies to solve problems with digital services.
The administration shared the news from Coney Island’s Luna Park on Monday after Mamdani and his team rode go-karts around the park’s raceway. Mamdani shared that the PIT Crew teams will feature product managers, designers, engineers, user researchers and data experts that will help city agencies to design, build and launch digital products quickly. The teams will allow agencies to move quickly on implementing new technology solutions, enabling them to move from idea to implementation in a matter of months, city officials said in a news release.
There will be a total of five PIT Crews, the release said. The first is tasked with building an online portal in collaboration with the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to support the mayor’s “Click to Cancel” consumer protections, which were announced Friday. The “Click to Cancel” rule requires businesses in the city to provide a straightforward way for consumers to cancel their subscription-based services. And the online portal will allow New Yorkers to easily file complaints against companies that violate the rule or trap customers in hard-to-cancel, costly subscriptions.
Three other teams will be directed to advance the mayor’s priorities of affordability and public excellence. The fifth PIT Crew will work with the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, a nonprofit that was established to promote partnerships between the city and the private sector. It will receive support from The Rockefeller Foundation.
“Government should be as responsive and innovative as the people it serves,” Mamdani said in the news release. “New Yorkers should not be forced to navigate systems that are confusing, outdated and burdened by bureaucracy. The PIT Crew turns that model on its head. These teams will move quickly and deliberately to solve real problems, make City government easier to use, deliver for working New Yorkers and advance our agenda of affordability and public excellence. It’s fitting that our first project will enforce our Click to Cancel law by making it easier to hold companies accountable when they engage in predatory practices to squeeze working people.”
Gelobter, who serves as commissioner of the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation, added that as technology becomes a more crucial part of delivering government services, making those services easier for residents to access and use should be an equal priority.
“Every confusing process, unnecessary step or difficult interaction makes government harder to navigate. Every simpler experience strengthens trust. New Yorkers shouldn’t have to understand how government is organized to get the services they need,” Gelobter said in the release. “Our job is to make government work better for people. The PIT Crew gives us a new way to do that — partnering with agencies to understand problems, rapidly test ideas, launch solutions, learn from real users and prove what works. By demonstrating better ways of solving public problems, we can help agencies move faster and give New Yorkers the government they deserve.”
The city is hiring experienced product managers, software engineers, designers, user researchers, service designers and other technologists to join its PIT Crews.
