Experience

Dynamo North East

• United Kingdom
• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Board Member

  • Jun 2018 - Present

  A board member and influencer on the Dynamo Board, a company driving the development of the North East Digital Economy. The Board has C-level representatives from digital companies across the North East. My role on the Board is to be the voice of Digital Government; sharing our strategies and developing meaningful partnerships across the public and private sector which will support us to drive the rapid deployment of world-class digital services. A board member and influencer on the Dynamo Board, a company driving the development of the North East Digital Economy. The Board has C-level representatives from digital companies across the North East. My role on the Board is to be the voice of Digital Government; sharing our strategies and developing meaningful partnerships across the public and private sector which will support us to drive the rapid deployment of world-class digital services.



DWP Digital

• United Kingdom
• Government Administration
• 700 & Above Employee

• Deputy Director - Product & UCD

  • Jun 2020 - Present

  Leading the Shared Channels Experience - Customer Experience deputy directorate, I set the strategy for the transformation of the DWP user experience for 20 million customers and our staff, and ensuring that we successfully pay out £200 billion per annum to vulnerable people. My areas of responsibility include: - Creating a clear strategy to move us towards a joined-up common customer experience and influencing stakeholders across DWP and wider Government to support this direction.- Developing a DWP Strategic Roadmap and leading our approach to prioritisation and value proposition.- Setting the direction for experimentation and experiential thinking, overseeing the design of new pan-DWP products which will pave the way for a radically simplified customer experience. - Aligning across government to join up and design services which provide a simple and consistent end to end experience for the customer. - Setting the navigation and signposting strategy, including all DWP content on Gov.UK.- Maturing a data-driven culture and leading the data strategy for customer experience, ensuring the voice of the customer is at the heart of product development. - Setting the standards for User Centred Design at scale and pace. - Driving the way we measure improved experience across DWP, including common OKRs.- Working within government spend controls and overseeing the development of robust business cases for investment.- Leading high performing multidisciplinary teams and over 350+ product, design and software specialists. - Implementing large commercial contracts to enable the delivery of our new products and services.My strategic focus is: - Customer Experience and Self Service Optimisation- Channel Strategy - Data Strategy & Customer Insights- Identity, Verification and Trust Strategy and Policy - Gov. UK Content Strategy - Personalisation & Segmentation

• Lead Product Manager

  • Apr 2019 - Jun 2020

  Based in Children and Families, I led a high profile product portfolio, responsible for paying out £1bn in child maintenance to over 1 million customers. This role was challenging and stretching. I led the rapid transformation from a project to product culture, and coached newly established product squads to achieve an ambitious fast paced delivery. Responsible for designing the end to end customer journey, setting the overall product vision and bringing together the service level roadmap, I was the voice of the customer. I brought together insights from across all channels and user research, to test hypothesis and guide the product strategy. Twitter recognised the data-driven product work in a blog and highlighted it as 'best in class'. Working with stakeholders, I pushed the boundaries, challenged and influenced, achieving policy changes and significant improvements to the online service, for the people we serve. I supported the marketing of all the products, and was the face of the product portfolio and communicated the difference we made. I delivered: o Child Maintenance Options – Gov.UK Content & Calculator o Apply for Child Maintenance – Discovery to Private Beta o Child Maintenance Portal – Re-platforming and live service runningo Cross-Government domestic abuse safety design patterno Dynamite Award, North East IT Awards - Best Use of Data (2020)

• Senior Product Manager

  • Jun 2018 - Apr 2019

  Leading a high profile £100bn product portfolio in DWP Digital for Retirement Services, with over 12 million customers. I had responsibility for the end to end customer journey, the overall product vision and establishing the service level roadmap - prioritising software architecture demands, product features, and ensuring that the needs of the business and end-user were met. I coached cross-functional agile teams in a fast paced environment, across the following portfolio: o Get your State Pension (GySP)– User to Agent Experience/ Straight through Processing & Live Service Running to 12 million customers o Check your State Pension – Live Service Running to 12 million customers o Seasonal Payments – Discovery to Private Betao Pension Credit – Discovery to Private Betao Retirement Services – Channel Optimisation Strategy I brought together customer insights to develop an omni-channel strategy which drove take up of the digital services from 50% to over 80%, and stabilised user satisfaction rates at 97%. The product portfolio delivered £10m efficiency savings in the first year of GYSP release.



Northumberland County Council

• United Kingdom
• Government Administration
• 700 & Above Employee

• Head Of Digital

  • Feb 2016 - Jun 2018

  Leading an award-winning Digital Team within Northumberland County Council, I was responsible for the product design and delivery of an ambitious digital programme to transform all products and services. I designed and led a £40m digital programme including: - Digital Infrastructure: ensuring people had access to stable secure internet by providing significant broadband improvements through a mix of technology including Fibre, Wireless and Satellite as part of a £30m rollout scheme. Working in partnership with BT Group and achieving over 95% coverage and the highest broadband take up rates in the UK. - Digital Change: ensuring that the council could maximise the opportunities of the infrastructure investment and push it's services to people digitally. I led a large scale internal digital change programme, designing user driven council services; working in partnership with Google and achieving over £30m budget savings and improving the quality of services delivered. - Digital Access: ensuring people had the skills to use the technology and access the new digital services, I led the delivery of digital skills and inclusion initiatives through a range of commercial partnerships across Northumberland. - Digital Growth: ensuring businesses could maximise their growth by using the new infrastructure and meet consumer market demand for digital services. I led the delivery of an award winning business support programme to enable over 10,000 SMEs to achieve growth.

• Digital Strategy Manager

  • Aug 2013 - Feb 2016

  I was responsible for writing the UKs first local authority Digital Strategy, supported by Martha Lane Fox and the Digital Inclusion North East pathfinder. Recognised by the House of Lords for its contribution to Digital Inclusion, the strategy 'Digital Northumberland', adopted a user driven approach, emerging from the multifaceted needs across the county, from young people to growing businesses. I secured over £40m of investment to support a holistic roadmap for change. Together this work achieved significant change, driving internal change and the era of online self service as well as supporting community cohesion and growth, and economic investment.



Advance Northumberland

• United Kingdom
• Real Estate
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Digital Lead Product Manager

  • Feb 2012 - Aug 2013

  Responsible for designing an ambitious £21m digital connectivity programme, known as iNorthumberland to achieve 95% superfast broadband connectivity throughout Northumberland. Leading commercial negotiations and contract delivery with BT for 90% coverage and developing an innovative connectivity strategy with alternative technology providers to connect a further 5% hard to reach premises. Leading the design of a complimentary programme of business support and community support to ensure the adoption of services, iNorthumberland had the highest take up rates of broadband in the UK.



Northumberland County Council

• United Kingdom
• Government Administration
• 700 & Above Employee

• Senior Product Owner

  • May 2005 - Feb 2012

  Responsible for the product development across a high profile portfolio, I supported the delivery of a number of thriving commercial tourism products. My key achievements included:• Product development and securing £1.85m of external funding to support the delivery of a £4.5m digital visitor infrastructure development programme at Vindolanda and the Roman Army Museum• Product development with the National Trust to securing a large investment package to enable the acquisition of Seaton Delaval Hall• Product development with English Heritage to support the development of a marketing and investment plan for Hadrian's Wall - Housesteads• Product development securing an investment package of £7m to develop Alnwick Garden.• Product development to support the development of a £30m Investment Plan for Kielder Water and Forest Park and enable the design of Kielder Observatory, Lakeside Way and Mountain Bike Trails. • Product development to secure £10m to enable the creation of Woodhorn Museum and Archive• Product development to support an Investment Plan for the cloisters and engagement programme at Hexham Abbey



Cisco

• United States
• Software Development
• 700 & Above Employee

• Account Manager, Graduate Academy

  • Aug 2004 - May 2005

  I was selected against intense competition to work in the Cisco European Graduate Academy. I was trained in Cisco Systems networking and all aspects of global corporate business, including sales, acquisition and strategic development. I thrived in the intense, competitive and challenging environment. My duties included:• Working with mentors in London and America on key accounts to develop public sector networks• Developing and delivering business development ‘pitches’ to the Senior Executive Team• Developing my knowledge of IP networking, including complex convergence networks capable of carrying data, voice and video products• Developing my knowledge of the benefits of a connected business; and how to communicate these clearly and effectively to Chief Executive Officers rather than IT Managers• Developing e-tools; these included Video on Demand to showcase new products to colleagues