Digital leadership presentation

Some of the lessons I've learned during my time as head of digital and a service manager

Transcript

1. Digital leadership Talk to service managers, June 2015 Kit Collingwood-Richardson, @kitterati
2. Background Nearly 3 years as head of digital and a service manager, creating a digital start-up.
3. Background • Grew OPG digital team from 2 to 45(ish) • Built 2 external digital services • Passed 3 service standard assessments • Built an open-source case management system • Put all hosting in the cloud • Standardised technology stack • Challenged security principles • Wrote a digital strategy • Turned procurement on its head • Built a recruitment strategy and pipeline
4. Our principles The user is king (or queen) Do things small - it makes them deliverable Build to share Publish everything (unless it would compromise security) Embrace failure Be agile
5. What I’ve learned Lessons from the bleeding edge
6. Procurement
7. Procurement When you say ‘procurement’, most people think you mean ‘buying things’.
8. Procurement Government needs to stop buying things. Instead, we should build, commission or rent them.
9. Procurement If we buy anything at all, it should be small, interoperable and flexible to our needs. The only thing we bought last year is online product management software licences. We can move our data out at any time.
10. Procurement Every time government signs a long, monolithic IT contract, we fail the taxpayer and our users. It generally means we don’t own or control what’s built. This is expensive and leads to a poor user experience.
11. Procurement If you’re spending more than £2m on any contract, you should question yourself heavily. Any bigger than that and you should remove a zero and see what you can do for that. Do things small - it makes them deliverable.
12. The team
13. The team Team before product If you don’t get a small, solid team in before product development starts, you’ ll have problems.
14. The team Service managers are government’s real digital leaders. We’ll only make a true digital government with bold, visionary service managers.
15. The team Bringing product owners in from your business improves user awareness and business trust. Find those superstars and coach them.
16. The team Make conscious decisions about how to fill the other team roles.
17. The team Then ruthlessly protect the team from external influence. This includes your PMO asking for what you’re planning to deliver over the next year. Clue: you shouldn’t know. Clue 2: most gantt charts are fairytales.
18. The team Increasing your organisation’s digital capability isn’t about hiring developers. Without a whole-agency approach, you’ll be slow to deliver.
19. Digital maturity
20. Digital maturity As a digital agency gets more experienced, its thinking should mature.
21. Digital maturity From project thinking…. Defined start and end date Often has a PMO who drive reporting Led by a project manager - primary concerns are time and budget
22. Digital maturity ….through product thinking….. Something you make Has defined scope Has a defined end user Led by a product manager - primary concerns are users and shippable code
23. Digital maturity …..to service thinking Something you do Is a long-term investment, not a ‘thing’ Has a defined end user Led by a service manager - primary concerns are team and service quality Encompasses all channels
24. In summary
25. In summary • Be aware of the leader you are • Protect your team • Evolve beyond project thinking • Stop buying stuff • Do it small and deliver big
26. keep in touch @kitterati