Category: Delivery
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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!…
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Assessing Innovation
(co-written with Matt Knight) Some background, for context Just over a month ago I got approached to ask if I could provide some advice on assessments to support phase two of the GovTech Catalyst (GTC) scheme. For those who aren’t aware of the GovTech Catalyst Scheme, there’s a blog here that explains how the scheme…
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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…
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Is it time for Flexible Working to actually become flexible?
Does the Public Sector need to embrace Hybrid working or risk loosing its workforce? The majority of job adverts within the Public Sector (and beyond) feature the phrase – “We offer flexible working” as a benefit. However, this flexible working is limited on how flexible it can be; generally its telling you they don’t mind…
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Service Owner vs. Programme Manager vs. Product Lead
What’s the difference? Does the name matter? Over a year ago, following an interesting chat with David Roberts at NHSBSA, I got to thinking about the role of the Service Owner; and why the role wasn’t working in the way we intended back in the dawn of the Service Manual. This in turn (as most…
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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…
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Touchdown
So this week is my first week in Kainos. I’ve landed. Hurrah! I’m never generally one for week notes, as I can never manage to remember to write a blog a week, or even remember everything I’ve done in a week to blog about it; but I thought given it’s my first week in a…
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Delivering Value for yourself and others
Just short of two years ago I accepted the role of Director of Delivery at Difrent, a big move for me as I’d only worked in the Public Sector, but a good opportunity to see how things worked on the other side of the commercial table; and a great opportunity to work with some fantastic…
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Partnership
The good and the bad. At Difrent we always talk about our desire to deliver in partnership with out clients. To move beyond the pure supplier and client relationship to enable proper collaboration. One of my main frustrations when I was ‘client side’ was the amount of suppliers we’d work with who said they would…
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Digital Transformation is still new
We’re punishing those who are less experienced, and we need to stop. In the last few weeks I’ve had multiple conversations with clients (both existing and new) who are preparing for or have recently not passed their Digital Service standard assessments who are really struggling to understand what is needed from them in order to…