Digital and Agile Specialist

Category: User Centric Design

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • When is Digital not Digital?

    When it’s not about user needs or human centric design, but instead about fixing technological infrastructure. When it’s not about transforming the service but keeping the lights on systems. When it’s not about asking “why?”, because you already know the solution you want. As Tom Loosemore said, Digital is applying the culture, practices, processes &…

  • #GovermentIsOpen

    Why we need to bring user centric design into our Communications in the public Sector. Having been involved in the hiring of many Content and Interaction Designers in the last few years, we’ve always preferred candidates from within the Public Sector, because they tend to have the same specialisms as we in the Digital Data…