Category: Difrent

  • Onboarding – It’s an experiance

    Onboarding – It’s an experiance

    Every time we start a role at a new company, we go through Onboarding; and for every company it’s different; so what are the things we need to be considering as we try to perfect the onboarding experience, especially in this more virtual/remote/hybrid working world. Having just gone through this process again with Deloitte; I…

  • Delivering Value for yourself and others

    Just short of two years ago I accepted the role of Director of Delivery at Difrent, a big move for me as I’d only worked in the Public Sector, but a good opportunity to see how things worked on the other side of the commercial table; and a great opportunity to work with some fantastic…

  • Buy out, or buying in.

    So, we’re ten days into Difrent being ‘bought’ by The Panoply group; people keeping saying ‘congratulations’, ‘how’s it working for a new boss/ company?’, ‘how do you feel about the buy out?’ So I thought it was a good opportunity to reflect on my thoughts about the acquisition. And the answer is, I’m feeling pretty…

  • Notes from some Digital Service Standard Assessors on the Beta Assessment

    The Beta Assessment is probably the one I get the most questions about; Primarily, “when do we actually go for our Beta Assessment and what does it involve?”  Firstly what is an Assessment? Why do we assess products and services? If you’ve never been to a Digital Service Standard Assessment it can be daunting; so…

  • From Colocation to Remote First

    Changing how we work, to ensure we can still deliver. One of the big tenants of agile working has always been about the importance of colocation, and there are a million blogs out there on why colocation makes a big difference. The first value of the Agile Manifesto states: Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and…

  • How to change a culture

    When delivering digital or business transformation, one of the things that often gets overlooked is the cultural changes that are needed to embed the transformation succesfully. There can be many reasons why this happens, either because it’s not been considered, because it’s not been considered a priority, or simply because the people leading the transformation…

  • Delivering in a crisis

    One of the key personal aims I had when I joined Difrent, just over six months ago, was to work somewhere that would let me deliver stuff that matters. Because I am passionate about people, and about Delivery; After 15 years, right in the thick of some pioneering public sector work, combining high profile product…

  • How do we determine value?

    And how do we make sure we are delivering it? In a previous blog I discussed the importance of understanding the value you are trying to add, and how you measure cost vs vale. How we measure value and ensure we are delivering a valuable return on investment is one of the ‘big’ questions at…

  • #OneGreenGov

    One of the key reasons I joined @Difrent was their commitment to #TechForGood. In my experience #TechForGood is one of those phrases that gets batted around, as such I was very keen when I started to understand what that phrase meant to Difrent and if it really meant anything at all! Much to my delight,…

  • Thoughts from the other side

    No, don’t worry, I’ve not passed on and started speaking from beyond the grave; but given I’m now 3 months into my role at Difrent I thought it might be worth reflecting on how I’ve found things on the other side of the commercial table so to speak. In the first 3 months I’ve worked…