Digital learnings from across the pond
By Rose Langhout, Director of Enterprise IT Business Liaison and Operational Planning.
Earlier this year, I worked with Ontario’s Corporate Chief Information Officer, the Ontario Digital Service, and three Ontario government CIOs to host conversations with some of the people who led the digital transformation efforts in the United Kingdom.
The conversations — both in person and online — addressed some of the larger themes around the role of government IT in digital transformation, as well as how to use existing investment — infrastructure, process, staff, policy, etc. — to cut the time and cost of building digital solutions that reflect user needs.
I asked those three CIOs — Dafna Carr, Wynnann Rose, and Robin Thompson — to share a few of the biggest things they learned during those conversations, and I’ve collected their comments and shared them here. We hope that some of these lessons are useful as other governments begin their journeys of digital transformation, as well.
What we learned from the UK
A collection of notes from Dafna Carr, Wynnann Rose, and Robin Thompson.
Last month, we met with James Stewart, Tom Loosemore, Kit Collingwood and Emma Stace, in person and virtually, to learn more about the UK digital transformation and how it can be applied in Ontario, specifically in the IT organization. Here are a few things we learned:
- Start small. Don’t wait for a master strategy: do things that work, small and focused at first, to create quick and immediate successes.
- Make it all about the user. Don’t assume you know what your users want; instead, ask them questions through direct engagement or primary research.
- Be clear about your outcomes. Use plain language — not government jargon or tech lingo — to describe what you’re trying to achieve. Create clarity on how to measure success at every stage of the process.
- Work differently. Create dedicated integrated inter-disciplinary teams, united by mission and passion. Put people together in a neutral space that allows them to escape thinking about we/they, and make them responsible for solving a problem together. Diversity of views means that it’s really powerful within the team when there is agreement
- Adopt a prototyping mindset. Continue to prototype as you move through discovery (finding out what you’re trying to do), alpha (get something real with bare bones design and minimal functionality into people’s hands to test) and beta (deliver usable product) stages, and do it quickly.
- Go faster but not necessarily in a straight line. Be prepared to show users something in draft, and be prepared to throw it away if it doesn’t work for them. Don’t underestimate the value of the learning that comes from processes that don’t work out.
- Understand risk. Faster can be riskier, so make sure to de-risk where you can. Keep projects small. Seed new projects with leaders drawn from successful projects. Hold frequent and regular team reviews. Get early and frequent feedback. Have early and ongoing conversations about security. Remember to pilot test both core capabilities and interfaces. Work in the open with transparent governance.
While much of the context of the United Kingdom is different from Ontario, it was amazing to find many shared challenges and some very innovative (and tested) approaches to addressing them. It’s encouraging to hear that doing it better and doing it quicker can be done and that Ontario has a solid foundation for this exciting digital journey.
