Managing a successful transition Thursday, 13 February 14

Andrew Wiles Department for Transport Head of Digital Customer Communications [email protected] Managing a successful transition Thursday, 13 February 14

Managing a successful transition DfT and DSA in Nov 2012 DVLA, VOSA and DPTAC followed Highways Agency, MCA and the 3 AIBs on schedule for April 2014 transition HS2 to transition by July 2014 Thursday, 13 February 14

VCA is on hold until a decision about its future status continue to review and close other stand alone specialist sites and transition content to GOV.UK - resulting in reduced hosting and application support costs Managing a successful transition Thursday, 13 February 14

Managing a successful transition this is not about the process a successful transition begins early it does not finish with the move to GOV.UK will be looking more at what you can do better before during after Thursday, 13 February 14

Thursday, 13 February 14

Managing expectations It’s not a wholesale migration Engage with content owners early to manage expectations especially around content that may not transition Talk about improvements you could make for users and for better efficiency Communicate the what, why and when Thursday, 13 February 14

Managing a successful transition Content • make sure you know your content inside out • archive as much as possible – when in doubt, archive aggressively • know all your SMEs / content owners • keep accurate records – all before and after URLs – helps with redirects – helps to find content post transition Thursday, 13 February 14

Content Know what your user needs are Be prepared for constructive challenge of user needs - evidence based Keep accurate records Allow 8 weeks for the TNA snapshot Consider a publishing freeze just ahead of transition Thursday, 13 February 14

Managing a successful transition Communications is the key to a successful transition Sell the benefits Present face to face Encourage use of blogs Have prepared lines to take Engage with senior managers to communicate to their teams Thursday, 13 February 14

Support Needs senior management support and a ‘digital champion’ - agency and departmental Dedicated transition team/person Work with your communications teams your own networks and peers GDS and the transition managers Thursday, 13 February 14

Support Work with GDS – transition managers are there to help Know and understand the GOV.UK style guide When in doubt, check with GDS before making wholesale changes Refer back to user needs, especially the ‘acceptance criteria’, when drafting content Thursday, 13 February 14

Afterwards Don’t stop communicating Use facts and figures to show how GOV.UK improves the user experience –dashboards and Google Analytics Web teams may need to have more control over content published than before Be ready for some initial problems as people adjust Thursday, 13 February 14

Thank you Questions? Thursday, 13 February 14