How long have you worked for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)?
Four and a half years as staff and one year before that as a supplier.
Can you briefly describe your job role?
I am the Lead Service Designer and head up a team of user-centred design and strategic architecture professionals. The best way to describe service design is to think about getting your passport or driving license. Those digital services are well-designed by people like us except that our services tend to be maritime-related. We also look after innovation and digital strategy which would include what services should be digitised and how we can use technology to improve both our services and how we work generally.
What led you to join the MCA? What was your career trajectory up to your current role?
I was working for a consultancy doing a series of discoveries for MCA, and they were my favourite client (by far!). When the chance came to build a team internally, I couldn’t’ resist. Back then, MCA had a strained relationship with Government Digital Service, so I came in to improve our user-centred design capability and repair the relationship by proving to them we could adhere to the Service Standard. It was my first time as a line manager, and today I feel that it is beyond line management and into practice management.
Before that, I’ve been a photographer, editor, project manager, content manager and account manager. I did a late master’s degree in User Experience Design and would be a perpetual part-time student if I could!
What does a typical workday look like for you?
It could be running a workshop. We recently did one on geospatial innovation with people in interesting roles around the organisation. It could be sitting in on research sessions with customers like seafarers or vessel owners, peer assessing services in other government departments, working with data and communications teams on our internal governance for GOV.UK citizen development tools, evaluating tenders of suppliers to build digital services, updating the Digital Strategy Group on an initiative, or a variety of team working activities. Our strategic architecture function is developing, and we are doing a lot of internal practice building as the former business analysts move into business architecture.
What do you enjoy the most about your role?
I love the variety in my role and the way I can be involved with so many different people across MCA. I also enjoy the responsibility. If we can’t clear a service assessment with the Cabinet Office, that is on me, no matter who is working on a service. I have enjoyed getting people ready for those and seeing a service thrive. My team has learnt these digital assurance skills now, which allows me to step back a bit and focus more on strategy work. I’m very proud of them. They, along with the adjacent technical architect team, are the happiest team at MCA. It would be impossible not to enjoy working with a group like that!
What do you feel makes the MCA stand out as an organisation / employer?
The MCA invests in our training and development. I’ve been to a variety of conferences and have had training in service design, business analysis, business architecture, coaching, and digital leadership. I also have time to be a cross-government assessor. Last summer, I ran an experimental games design meets policy design workshop at Civil Service Life in Cardiff. I used to be a long-term internal contractor in the US having to fund all my own training with just five days annual leave a year (yes, five). I still pinch myself that now if I see something beneficial, I can generally go. Maybe I’ll see you at DigiGov!