Digital and Agile Specialist

Tag: Leadership

  • 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!…

  • Cost vs. Quality

    Cost vs. Quality

    A debate as old as time, and a loop that goes around and around; or so it seems in the Public Sector commercial space. Every few years, often every couple of spend control cycles, the debate of cost vs. quality rears its head again; with Commercial weighting flip flopping between Quality as the most important…

  • ‘The question is who… are you?’

    ‘The question is who… are you?’

    Why being a Leader doesn’t mean not being yourself. Chatting to a friend over the weekend, she mentioned her work had been encouraging her to go for more leadership type roles in the last year; but she hadn’t done it so far as she was worried she could never ‘fit in’ or be seen as…

  • 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…

  • So, what is a Service Owner?

    Before I discuss what (in my view) a Service Owner is, a brief history lesson into the role might be useful. The role of the ‘Service Manager‘ was seen as critically important to the success of a product, and they were defined as a G6 (Manager) who had responsibility for the end to end service…

  • What even is agile anyway?

    So you’re a leader in your organisation and Agile is ‘the thing’ that everyone is talking about. Your organisation has possible trialed one or two Agile projects within the Digital or Tech department, but they haven’t really delivered like you thought they would, and you think you can ‘do more’ with it, but honestly, what…

  • What I’ve learnt this year

    This year has been a year of big change for me; I started a new job, left the public sector, moved cities, moved in with my partner, bought a new house, and most importantly, we got a dog. As a Pagan, I celebrate Yule and the Winter Solstice; At the Winter Solstice we reach the…

  • Building a case based on assumptions

    Why you shouldn’t start with the business case. I’ve been working within Digital transformation for almost ten years now, working on some of the largest projects and programmes within the public sector. From front line services to backend systems, from simple forms to complex benefit processing applications. One thing that has been a feature of every…

  • Being a visible leader with an invisible disability.

    Hi, I’m Zoe and I’m a NeuroDiverse Senior Civil Servant. Last week I attended Civil Service Live, it was an interesting day, with sessions on everything from AI and keeping abreast of new technologies, to Transformation to resilience and personal wellbeing. The session that stood out most for me was the “Making Government an event greater…

  • What does good Leadership look like to me?

    Over the last 6 months or so I’ve been percolating on what good leadership looks like, at least to me, and how I can make sure I am acting like the good leader I would want to see. There’s been lots of good thought pieces and conversations happening about good leadership over the last year…