Making the complex simple: Fin’s DDC programme story

Fin McLoughlin is project manager at Barnardos Virtual Family Hub. This is his story of using Deloitte Digital Connect programme support on a complex national project.

During the pandemic Barnardos learnt a lot about delivering its family support services online. Now families expect to have a choice of online and offline ways to engage with the service. Because of this Barnardos saw the DDC programme as a chance to get support with developing a blended (online/offline) offer for the future.

Mentoring the magic wand

Amazingly, Deloitte was able to offer 2 system architects to mentor Fin as he began the project. They met together 6 times, helping Fin in 3 ways.

1. Consistent support

Fin describes consistency as important in the support he received.

At the first session he and the mentors dove deep into the project’s context, exploring why it was needed and what Barnardos already knew.

At the second session they explored and challenged Finn’s existing problem statement for the project. They helped him refine it.

Then they met weekly, exploring a different need or theme each time, and offering insight from their experience. For example:

• Which channels are already used or could we use?
• What are the minimum requirements for this platform?

2. Expertise

“They were fantastically helpful.” — Fin

The mentors were experts in designing and implementing digital systems and their components and processes. Their system architecture experience was beyond what Fin had expected.

They helped Fin explore the project’s design challenge:

‘How might we use learning from digital delivery during Covid-19 to design a standardised, high quality, secure digital system that sustains family support delivery, while integrating with other Barnardos systems.’

3. Structured process

“It helped me find the right information to bring to decision makers.” — Fin

Fin’s mentors brought structure and rigour to the process of creating an options appraisal. Without their support Fin would have had to find other ways to learn:

• What is possible with current technology?
• How do I present the pros and cons of different types of solutions?
• What market products already exist that could be compared with what we need?
• How do I structure an options appraisal?
• How do I present this information to stakeholders in a way that helps them be involved in decision making?

Although this led to more work Fin was still able to proceed at the same speed he had hoped to, while knowing he’d done a better job.

Even better, Fin combined what he’d learnt about open working to share his progress and process with other Barnardos teams, as he was doing it. Communicating openly and early with them meant they shared parts of the journey. Fin believes this made the process richer and better for all.

Other resources still in the magic hat

Looking back Fin believes the programme had a big impact on his confidence.

He used peer mentoring sessions to help him reflect on his experiences and insights with others on the programme: “it made me realise there are others like me out there who can help me, and me them”.

He used other programme support too. He attended programme workshops and learnt:

• How to run a ‘Discovery’ phase at the start of a project
• User research best practice
• How to run a design phase during a project

“It’s given me access to other great resources that I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of. I want to learn more!” — Fin