Digital and Agile Specialist

Category: User Centric Design

  • Getting work in the Digital Industry

    Getting work in the Digital Industry

    Why working in the public sector might be of interest to you! One of my favourite things about my role, well my career to be honest; is the opportunity to do Educational Outreach type activities. In the last few years especially I’ve been asked a few times to speak to Students (both Sixth form or…

  • 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…

  • Talking Digital Transformation

    It’s something that has come up a lot in conversations at the moment, what is Digital Transformation? What does Digital Transformation mean to me? I always joke that it’s my TED talk subject, if I had one; as such I thought why not write a blog about it? What is Digital Transformation? According to Wikipedia,…

  • And this is why we test with users…

    And this is why we test with users…

    A blog on the new National Careers ‘Discover your skills and careers’ Service As I sit here are ten past ten on a Wednesday night watching social media have a field day with the new National Careers service, I’m yet again reminded about the importance of the Digital Service Standard, especially Standard Number One –…

  • 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…

  • Having pride in our diversity and learning to be inclusive

    June is Pride Month when members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies come together in different ways to celebrate, remember and reflect. As such, now June is over, I wanted to reflect on the things I learnt this year. This June was a Pride Month like no over, because of COVID-19; lockdown meant that…

  • The people getting left behind

    The people getting left behind

    Why ‘in the era of remote working we need to stop thinking about ‘digital services’ as a separate thing, and just think about ‘services’. Last night when chatting to @RachelleMoose about whether digital is a privilege, which she’s blogged about here, it made me remember a conversation from a few weeks ago with @JanetHughes about…

  • What ever happened to “there are no stupid questions?”

    This week I had a great conversation with @ClareSudbery of MadeTech and @RachelleHunt of StrangeDigital about the importance of using plain english and creating an inclusive environment where people feel able to speak up and ask questions. Back when I started working in Digital as a Product Owner in 2011, and I did my agile…

  • Welcome to the Dark Side.

    Last week I started working for @BeDifrent, a business transformation agency working with both Public and Private sector clients to help them deliver #TechForGood. This is a massive change for me, I spent almost 15 years in the Public Sector, I always said I was a public servant for life, and in my heart I…

  • Having a vision

    I regularly talk to organisations about why having vision and mission statements are important. Over the years I’ve seen many good examples and some bad ones too, both inside and outside the public sector. They often seems to be overlooked when deciding to transform an organisation, instead companies tend to focus on their Target Operating Model or…