A UK product studio, writing software like a script.
Deviant Botanicals Limited, trading as DevBot, is the company behind ambivalence. We make tools for the public sector - software that treats civic professionals as the thoughtful, time-poor audience they are, and learning content that earns their attention rather than demanding it.
Dr Will Pearson
Will combines a research background in public sector learning with a working practice in software engineering. Deviant Botanicals started as a side project testing what happens when narrative design, learning science and modern software engineering are taken seriously in the same room, by the same person, instead of being parcelled out to three different agencies.
It grew into a studio when it became clear that public sector buyers were hungry for consumer-grade tools but kept being sold enterprise-grade disappointment.
Public sector learning deserves better
The tools are generic, the content is dull, the measurement is meaningless, and the learners know it. Half the budget leaks on a platform people close at the first plausible excuse.
Story, not streaks
Learning wrapped in genuine narrative: animated fables about the politics, trade-offs and human side of civic work. Short, focused training nobody regrets making time for.
Credentials the learner owns
Every badge is an Open Badges 3.0 credential, verifiable by anyone and shareable on LinkedIn. It doesn't expire when a licence does, or when the council is reorganised.
Voices that sound like the workforce
Season 1 is narrated across twelve UK regional voices, including Black British and minority-ethnic regional representation, not one broadcast voice over a sector with thirty accents.
News and development together
Understanding what's happening in the sector is how you get better at your job. That's why ambivalence is one platform, not two.
Not better in a manifesto sense. Better in a minute three of Episode 1 sense.