A Benefits Realisation Series, By Greg Howitt, Delivery and Strategy Director, BetterGov
Part 4: User Centered Design, More Than A Hot Topic, A True Benefits Enable
Throughout the public sector transformation community, we frequently hear terms such as User Centred Design (UCD), Government Digital Service (GDS), and Digital Scotland Service Standards (DSSS). Most of us would agree they represent the right approach and are essential components of successful digital delivery.
My teams specialise in both GDS and DSSS, and we are passionate about creating services that genuinely work for the people who use them. Great user research, combined with strong accessibility and inclusion practices, will almost always lead to better processes and better outcomes.
However, when we consider benefits realisation, I believe we sometimes need to look beyond the process itself.
Experience teaches us that achieving sustainable benefits is not only about understanding users. It is also about understanding organisations, people, commercial realities and, crucially, asking the right questions from the outset.
Too often, I see user journeys and service blueprints based heavily on how organisations work today, rather than how they need to work tomorrow. Equally, we sometimes spend so much time analysing user groups that we lose sight of the original purpose behind the transformation.
Of course, accessibility, inclusion, governance and assurance remain critical. They are non-negotiable. But there is a danger that we become so focused on demonstrating that we have completed every activity that we forget to ask whether those activities are moving us closer to the outcomes we originally set out to achieve.
In some programmes, assurance can inadvertently overtake ambition.
What began as a transformation programme can become a process of satisfying gateways, audits and reviews. While these are important safeguards, the real question should always be
Are we creating a better service that delivers measurable benefits?
At times, we need to pause and reflect.
- Are we introducing unnecessary budgetary risk through over analysis?
- Are we creating a culture that values activity over outcomes?
- Are we genuinely building a better solution?
- Do we have the right people in the room?
- Have we revisited the original vision and strategy?
- Have we checked that our Green Book business case remains aligned to what we are delivering?
These are not easy questions, but they are important ones.
Sometimes, enough is enough.
There comes a point where confidence in the vision, strategy and evidence gathered should allow us to move forward with greater pace. We need the courage to transition from discovery into design, and from design into building and testing real solutions through Alpha.
This leads me to another challenge I often observe.
How many programmes have seen Alpha phases extend significantly beyond their original intent?
Rather than testing capabilities, validating assumptions and demonstrating value, we can sometimes end up testing components that we already know will work. Complexity increases, costs rise, and delivery timelines extend. Ultimately, the burden falls on the public purse.
A successful Alpha should reduce uncertainty and support informed decision making. It should not become an endless cycle of analysis.
If we truly understand the vision, strategy and business case, then we should be designing solutions that directly support the strategic benefits we seek to achieve.
When we combine this with meaningful user engagement and embed GDS and DSSS principles throughout delivery, we create solutions that are not only compliant and accessible, but also capable of delivering lasting value.
I am not suggesting that this is easy.
What I am suggesting is that experience teaches us the importance of occasionally stopping, taking a breath and challenging our own assumptions.
One of the biggest questions we can ask in any transformation programme is simply
Why?
We often spend our time focusing on the what, how, when and where. Yet it is the why that challenges and validates every other question.
When we understand why we are doing something, we create better alignment, better processes and ultimately better outcomes.
I will finish with a lesson from a highly respected global transformation leader I worked with many years ago. During our one-to-one sessions, he would always ask me
“Have you done the seven whys?”
The principle was simple. The first answer to “why” is rarely the real answer. By continually asking why, we dig beneath assumptions, challenge conventional thinking and uncover the root causes that truly matter.
That lesson has stayed with me throughout my career.
If we stop at the first answer, we risk solving the wrong problem. If we continue asking why, we stand a much greater chance of realising the benefits we originally set out to achieve.
In the next article, I will explore the practical tools, frameworks and techniques that organisations can use to identify, track, measure and sustain benefits throughout the transformation lifecycle, ensuring that value remains long after programmes have formally ended.
