September 2025

Funding product teams, not projects

Over the last year Defra has started making the transition from focussing on projects to focussing on teams. The results of this have been great. More stability has meant work gets done more quickly, meaning we can deliver more great…

Blogging and working in the open

“There’s lots of ways of working in the open, blogging is just one of them.” An archived PDF of this page can be downloaded if the original is inaccessible.

How we use OKRs on GOV.UK

“Objectives and key results (OKRs) is a simple tool to create measurable goals for agile teams. It provides a framework for defining objectives, how teams will achieve those outcomes, and tracking their progress. It’s a light-touch way of setting goals…

What makes someone a good digital leader?

“…people from across the Government Digital Service reflect on the role that digital leaders can have in transformation and the qualities a good digital leader should have.” An archived PDF of this page can be downloaded if the original is…

Internet-era ways of working

“Our definition of digital says: “Applying the culture, processes, business models & technologies of the internet-era to respond to people’s raised expectations.” Once they’ve heard that, the next thing people always ask us is: “OK. But how? How do I…

Making government as a platform real

“If you want a natively digital nation, or a state, or a city, or whatever, my message today is you actually need to be bold enough to create some new institutions; institutions that are of the internet, not on the…

Citizens Portals Y / N?

““I really wish I had one place where I can see all my transactions with the council”, said nobody, ever. In all the workshops, co-design sessions and user interviews FutureGov has done over the last eight years no one could…

What, exactly, is a Product Manager?

“In his book Inspired, Marty Cagan describes the job of the product manager as “to discover a product that is valuable, usable and feasible”. Similarly, I’ve always defined product management as the intersection between business, technology, and user experience.” An…

15 Principles of Good Service Design

“The 15 universal principles for designing services that work for users. Use them to design, assess or monitor the quality of any service.” An archived PDF of this page can be downloaded if the original is inaccessible.

Where do service designers fit within an organisation?

“Many services (as end users would know them) transcend teams, directorates, organisations or departments. It’s not obvious where service designers should sit, since we want them to be working on services which by nature don’t always fit current organisation structures.”…

The Government IT Self-Harm Playbook

“No matter how well intentioned, when it comes to IT government has an awful habit of messing things up.” An archived PDF of this page can be downloaded if the original is inaccessible.