Blog posts

This article first appeared on the Public Digital blog. I was lucky to be able to attend the Code for America summit in Washington DC a couple of weeks ago. It was great to be able to gather with people in person after all this time, and reconnect with the community. The event felt diverse and exciting. That’s so important because after the past few years, everyone needs some fresh energy and to reconnect with a bigger vision. ...

I presented our paper on Fixing digital funding in government in a webinar for the Institute of Citizen Centric Services in Canada. I drew out parallels in other fields, but particularly focused on the transition that many digital teams are making from insurgents to establishment, with funding reform as the biggest bureaucratic hurdle.

This article first appeared on the Public Digital blog. It was co-written with Emily Middleton. This month James and Emily were at COP26 at Open UK’s Open Tech for Sustainability event. Here they write about five of their takeaways from the conference, and what’s next. Emily and James at COP26 We believe the climate crisis and inequality are the greatest challenges of our time. As a purpose-driven organisation, Public Digital needs to understand how our work – and the digital transformation agendas of our clients – can help and hinder addressing these challenges. ...

Emma Gawen and I joined FWD50’s Alistair Croll for a discussion of our report on creating conditions for success with open source in government. We touched on striking a balance between open and proprietary solutions; the leadership approaches needed for open source to thrive, and debunking some of the myths of “free” software. You can watch the session on the FWD50 website.

This article first appeared on the Public Digital blog. Governments organise themselves in the way they organise their money. The flow of cash defines accountability, behaviour, the shape of teams and the measures that matter. Yet a common feature of successful digital teams and services is that either by luck or design, they did not follow the institution’s typical funding processes. We don’t think that’s a coincidence. Digital funding for digital outcomes To successfully design, build and sustain great digital services you need to fund them properly. Too little process to manage funding, and you won’t focus on the right priorities and you’ll duplicate effort. Too much, and you’ll suffocate innovation and condemn your existing services to gradual decline and growing risk. ...

As part of the extended FWD50 programme, Emma Gawen and I ran an in depth look at how to de-risk an organization’s digital transformation. We looked at things like: Questions for non-technologists to ask about your tech Why you should start small, and scale what works Understand when to work with in house teams, suppliers or both Know what questions to ask of your digital transformation work to ensure it’s on track and meeting needs You can watch the session via Access FWD50 ...

Open source software is a powerful lever for change. It gives teams greater flexibility on how they solve problems and develop services based on users’ needs. To really achieve change using open source requires a wider set of changes. In this paper, co-authored with Emma Gawen, Emily Middleton, Anna Hirschfeld, and Angie Kenny we lay out a case for how open source in government can: — enable greater digital sovereignty by helping governments to move away from contracts where they are locked-in to specific vendors for decades at a time — support the development of local or regional digital economies — create competition thereby bringing down prices — grant governments greater flexibility and control over how their services are delivered. ...

Originally published on Policy Options For the past few decades, governments around the world have been investing in digital initiatives. They’ve been applying internet-era operating principles to government promises to reshape our institutions and make them better able to deal with uncertain futures. But too often the hook for digital initiatives has been pursuing the shiny new app rather than the fit-for-purpose institution. The past few months mark a change. Extraordinary teams around the world have delivered vital new services rapidly, in a highly uncertain environment. We’ve seen the power of those teams, but also the friction that makes their work hard. We’ve seen the need for agile, adaptable government writ large. ...

This article first appeared on the Public Digital blog. A lot has been written about applying a service management lens to running modern services. The importance of building skills and funding teams rather than projects is pretty well understood. It’s less common that we talk about the provision of corporate applications, particularly those which are off-the-shelf commodities – things like providing Office365 or Slack or Zoom to your organisation. It’s the things everyone’s been doing a lot more of during the pandemic. ...

Reflections on digital government during COVID and what that might mean for our collective future, for the Institute of Citizen Centric Servies in Canada. I presented a set of stories of incredible achievement, usually against the odds and against the norms of the systems those teams were working in. Digital teams work. Reset operating models around them. Legacy systems are brittle. And not just technology. Reform funding and incentives to unlock them. Data infrastructure is missing. Build the right service models so everyone wins. The things that have worked this year started as risky bets. Get comfortable placing informed bets. Sustained leadership engagement and clear focus remove friction. New governance and new leadership skills are still vital. These were in part drawn from some strategy work Dave Rogers and I had been doing for a Canadian client. ...