One Big Thing Portal

Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, Cabinet Office

The Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit is part of the Cabinet Office. It provides support to the Prime Minister, driving delivery of priority projects. One Big Thing 2023 was a learning initiative for civil servants to improve their data skills, and for the Cabinet Office to evaluate data skills in the workforce.

My role

• Design, test and iterate designs of a new product that would move from idea to go-live within 8 weeks

• Work in close collaboration with developers allowing them to rapidly create production-ready coded prototypes for testing

• Achieve stakeholder buy-in for the product from core government departments to ensure it’s use across the civil service

The Process

With only 8 weeks to deliver a solution I worked closely with the delivery manager to clarify the scope and requirements, working with stakeholders to agree a MVP acceptable to all parties. Over the first few days I drafted low-fidelity prototypes and journey flows that I quickly updated as new information came to light. I focused on building a strong rapport with stakeholders across the civil service, sharing the prototypes and flows early and often, inviting challenge, and making sure they felt involved them in the process. This was essential when working to such a tight deadline, as late challenges or concerns would jeopardise delivery.

Working with limited resources, I was both designer and user researcher for the project. To mitigate against this, I involved the rest of the team in design decisions and research analysis. In particular, I worked very closely with the developer, ensuring they attended user testing sessions and working collaboratively to make changes to the product before testing again. With limited time to recruit participants, I prioritised sourcing users from the core government departments who would make up the bulk of users post-launch.

A week before the launch date a senior leader made the decision to implement a passwordless login for the portal. Without time to thoroughly user test this change, I needed to use a pattern which users were likely to be familiar with. With little use of the pattern across government, I adopted a pattern from the private sector which had been implemented on global services. With two days before launch, I tested the pattern with a small number of engaged stakeholders as well as peers in the government design community.

The Outcome

The product launched on time and with full support from all stakeholders across the civil service, including significant employers such as DWP and Home Office. In eight weeks we had managed to deliver all essential features requested by the business, and I had been able to test and iterate all except the passwordless login. Furthermore, using co-design and quick testing cycles throughout had allowed me to include additional functionality in the development process which worked to enhance the user experience. By the end of the initiative over 55% of civil servants had taken part in One Big Thing, using the portal to register their involvement and track their progress.