Category: Transformation

  • The importance of having a Product Mindset.

    This week is @DWPDigtials Product Mindset week; with some fantastic sessions and Digital Showcases on the work DWP have been doing to deliver Products that add value for users; with sessions covering things like storytelling, Design thinking, Product Management, Prioritisation and how we should be using data to help decision making, etc.   The resounding…

  • Encouraging join up across Departments.

    Yesterday at GovCampNorth, there were multiple pitches all based on one common theme; how we can encourage and support collaboration and sharing across Government Departments. The reason given behind increasing this collaboration was varied; from improving opportunities for re-use and the sharing of best practices; to the opportunity to tackle and solve societal problems that…

  • The Disability Price Tag

    The Disability Price Tag

    How bad service design punishes those with a disability. If you’ve never heard of the ‘Disability Price Tag’; the simplest way to describe it is that it’s the price you pay for costly mistakes due to symptoms of (or a byproduct of) your disability. People with ADHD are so often hit by the disability price…

  • How do we make legacy transformation cool again?

    How do we make legacy transformation cool again?

    Guest blog first published in #TechUk’s Public Sector week here on the 24th of June 2022. Legacy Transformation is one of those phrases; you hear it and just… sigh. It conjures up images of creaking tech stacks and migration plans that are more complex and lasting longer than your last relationship.   Within the Public Sector,…

  • Maximising the Lean Agility approach in the Public Sector

    Maximising the Lean Agility approach in the Public Sector

    First published on the 26th June 2022 as part of #TechUk’s Public Sector week here ; co-authored by Matt Thomas. We are living in a time of change, characterised by uncertainty. Adapting quickly has never been more important than today, and for organisations, this often means embracing and fully leveraging the potential of digital tools.…

  • Product vs Service vs Programme?

    Product vs Service vs Programme?

    How we define a product vs a service is a debate that comes up regularly; as proved by Randal Whitmore (Deputy Director of New Propositions at the UKHSA) today on Twitter: In fact, it comes up so regularly, I could have sworn I’d blogged about it before; but if I have, it isn’t on here!…

  • Assessing Innovation

    Assessing Innovation

    (co-written with Matt Knight) Some background, for context Just over a month ago I got approached to ask if I could provide some advice on assessments to support phase two of the GovTech Catalyst (GTC) scheme. For those who aren’t aware of the GovTech Catalyst Scheme, there’s a blog here that explains how the scheme…

  • Cost vs. Quality

    Cost vs. Quality

    A debate as old as time, and a loop that goes around and around; or so it seems in the Public Sector commercial space. Every few years, often every couple of spend control cycles, the debate of cost vs. quality rears its head again; with Commercial weighting flip flopping between Quality as the most important…

  • Service Owner vs. Programme Manager vs. Product Lead

    Service Owner vs. Programme Manager vs. Product Lead

    What’s the difference? Does the name matter? Over a year ago, following an interesting chat with David Roberts at NHSBSA, I got to thinking about the role of the Service Owner; and why the role wasn’t working in the way we intended back in the dawn of the Service Manual. This in turn (as most…

  • Partnership

    The good and the bad. At Difrent we always talk about our desire to deliver in partnership with out clients. To move beyond the pure supplier and client relationship to enable proper collaboration. One of my main frustrations when I was ‘client side’ was the amount of suppliers we’d work with who said they would…