Why bringing Product and Design together is such a good idea.
Within the Product Management community we often talk about the importance of the Vision and how critical a prioritised backlog is. Making sure we understand our users needs and making sure we deliver quality services that meet those users needs.
Recently Service Design as a principle has been more widely embraced, and within Governments Digital, Data and Technology Professional Capability framework Service Design is now recognised as a role within its own right.
Within DWP the User Centric Design community has always been strong, brining together the Service Designers, Content Designers, Interaction Designers, Front End Developers and User researchers. Passionate people who want to design make sure we are designing our services around user needs.
Within the last year we’ve recognised the benefit of expanding our Product community to include not only our Product Owners and Managers, but also our Business Analysts and Business Architects. Those passionate about developing visions and products based on user needs, making sure we understand our processes and the vision and strategy for moving forward.
But so much of what those communities do, so much of what they are passionate about is the same. We all want to solve problems for our users, be they claimants, other government departments or our own staff. We want to do the right things for the right reasons. We ask “Why” a lot.
So it made sense for us to bring the Design and Product communities together into one overarching ‘family’; to share what we’re doing, to talk about what we all do and why, to share ideas for how we move our services and products in DWP forward.
To celebrate bringing our communities together, I organised and ran a conference to talk about Product and Design; how we could best work together to develop DWP’s User Centric culture, and ensure User Needs were at the centre of everything DWP delivered.
I found the day itself really positive. Lara Sampson, our new Product Design Directory, kick-started a jam packed day full of energy and enthusiasm. It was great to talk to people I hadn’t really had chance to talk to before. To learn more about some job roles I might be less familiar with, and I look forward to our next event when we’ll have even more members of our Product Design community there to celebrate with us.
The day was also a poignant one on a personal level as we said goodbye to those leaving DWP to move on to pastures new. On a personal note I had to say goodbye and thank you to Ben Holliday who has for the last year been DWP’s Head if Design, my co-conspirator, confidant and beacon of sense and stability. I’m very sad to see Ben go, but delighted that he had this new exciting opportunity to explore. Just know that the Product Design community would not exist today without Ben, he helped make us what we are and we are all incredibly greatful!
But for now, onwards and upwards, there is anyways more to do, and I for one am excited to see what our Product Design communities can deliver working closer together than ever.
This blog was originally written for @DWPDigital