Digital and Agile Specialist

Category: Product Management

  • 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…

  • Measuring cost vs. measuring value?

    Discussing the differences between Product Management in the Private and Public sector. There has always been a perceived difference in how Product Managers in the public and private sector work, what their priorities are and their key focuses. Historically at its most simplistic the view has been that within the Public sector the Product Manager…

  • Producing Code or Fixing Problems?

    The role of Developers in user centric design. I’ve been working with Developers of different flavours for almost a decade now, and in that time I’ve worked with some amazing Devs, and some frustrating ones; the same as any role it depends on the person. I’ve also encountered a lot of stereotypes about Developers, primarily…

  • What is the value in a Head of Product?

    Our numbers are growing, but what is the role, and what value does it add? When I first took up the role of ‘Head of Product Management’ back in October 2016, I was one of the first in Government to have the title, and within a few months there was a very small band of…

  • Bringing Product and Design together to build a user centric culture

    Why bringing Product and Design together is such a good idea. Within the Product Management community we often talk about the importance of the Vision and how critical a prioritised backlog is. Making sure we understand our users needs and making sure we deliver quality services that meet those users needs. Recently Service Design as…

  • What does a Product Owner own anyway?

    Recently Ross Ferguson wrote a great blog about why GDS chose Product Manager rather than Product Owner as the role title of its Product people. Ross is right when he says that Product Management is the profession, and more widely understood by the wider industry, so why do we in DWP not use that term…

  • The strength of Product People in Government

    For those that don’t know me I’m Zoe, proud mum, avid geek and currently the Head of Product at the Department for Works and Pensions. At the start of this year, we in the DWP worked with the Goverment Digital Service to host the first ever cross-government Product Management conference. Why? Because we wanted to bring together all the Product Managers and Owners…