Category: Product Management

  • 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 […]

  • Being Product Led

    Helping organisations move from ‘doing Product Management’ to ‘being Product led’. As you might expect from someone who’s career has been within the Product space, and who has worn various ‘Head of Product’ types hats over the years; I spend a lot of thinking and talking about Product Management. For the last few month’s I’ve […]

  • Becoming Product Led

    Becoming Product Led

    Recently I was asked how I would go about moving an organisation to being Product Led; when agile and user centric design are equally new to the company, or when agile has not delivered in the way that was expected. Before diving into the how, I think it’s worth first considering the what and they […]

  • 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! […]

  • 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 […]

  • How to be a Product Advocate

    Why you need a Product Person in your team. Since joining Kainos a few weeks ago, I’ve had a number of conversations internally and with clients about the relationship between Delivery and Product; and why I as a Product Person moved over to Delivery. My answer to that question was that, having spent over 10 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Why SME’s are important, but shouldn’t be the Product Manager

    Along time ago in a land far away; well four years ago and sat in a very cold office in trafalgar square; Ross Ferguson , Alex Kean , Scot Colfer and I plus a few others sat discussing the DDaT capability framework for Product Management. The discussions we had at the time focused on “how […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]