#Ian Ames.
I help multidisciplinary teams deliver services in a user centred way.
Profile
I have over 20 years experience delivering projects to a range of Government organisations including the Ministry of Justice, Cabinet Office, DEFRA, Dept for Culture Media and Sport, NHS Digital and TechUK.
I have experience of a number of agile practices such as Scrum, Kanban, Cynefin, Lean and DevOps. In recent years I have tended to specialise in the early phases of a service lifecycle. I enjoy working in small teams; being at the intersection of product, tech, and UX; and taking the seed of an idea and shaping it to achievable outcomes.
I have experience of leading co-located, distributed and fully remote teams. Clear communication and a shared understanding of goals is key, regardless of where your team is. I work hard to ensure teams are pulling in the same direction and are focused on the project outcomes.
I have spoken at meetups for Agile Southwest, Product Makers, Citizens Advice and Co-Op digital communities, and have presented at a number of conferences including Agile on the Beach. I was one of the founding members of DeliverCon, an unconference for delivery managers in the public sector, I have also helped facilitate the excellent Agile in the Ether and Product in the (A)ether meetups and conferences.
Projects
Benchmark system for flood hydrology discovery. 2023 - present
A discovery that had a very firm idea of the solution before understanding the problems to be solved. It required me to advocate for user centred practices and to frame discovery as due-diligence, providing assurance that a benchmark system is what is needed. Through a combination of research, service mapping and coaching; I was able to reframe the objectives to 3 much clearer problems to explore. Whilst a bespoke digital solution feels unfeasible on cost grounds, there are problems to be solved and an opportunity to test the service standard and ucd practices in a more relational setting.
Refer and Monitor accredited programmes. 2022 - 2023
Leading a multidisciplinary team through discovery to beta exploring how to improve referrals and data driven decision making to accredited programmes, behavioural programmes offered to prisoners in custody and on probation designed to address behavioural needs to help with reintegration into society.
I helped the team archive a ‘met’ in the alpha assessment for the first time, using my experience of previous assessments to guide the team to success. I have navigated internal MOJ processes to understand how to get things done, which processes are absolute ‘must haves’ to be done, and what can be challenged to help us move at pace.
I have been responsible for communicating to a large stakeholder group about project progress and supporting the product manager to ensure we’re clear about what our priorities are, what will get delivered, and importantly, what won’t get delivered immediately and why.
Patient Encounter History - 2021-22
Led the development of a product to enable clinicians from different parts of Urgent and Emergency Care to view information about patient encounters in other care settings in order to help diagnose complex cases, reassure patients, build rapport, and to identify worsening conditions. This was developed in a user centred way using Discovery to understand patient and clinical needs and Alpha to iteratively prototype and explore technical options.
GPintheCloud, 2020 - 21
Led the development of a product to enable GP Locums to access clinical systems for multiple surgeries from one device securely. The service was developed based on user feedback and enabled Locums to support GP surgeries from anywhere in the country, crucial during the coronavirus pandemic, but a solution to the challenge of GP distribution across the country.
Cyber Exchange, 2020
Project Lead for the delivery of Cyber-Exchange, a platform for UK Cyber Security businesses to connect, find funding opportunities and events. Sponsored by DCMS and Tech UK. Future Vetting Service, 2019 Project lead for the delivery of serverless future vetting website on AWS, with cross domain aspects on Docker Swarm, working closely with the NCSC and the Cabinet Office, leading a multi-disciplinary team of User Researchers , Designers , Developers , and Testers and supporting and coaching the teams Product Managers in Agile ways of working.
Protect Alpha, 2018
A citizen focused service to allow citizens to easily protect their property interests. Keep their information on the register up to date, and to raise awareness of what the Land Registry is and how we protect most people’s largest asset, their home. Find Property Information, 2016 - 17 A citizen focused service aimed at presenting basic land information for a number of user needs. Built on an entirely new infrastructure stack, including accounts, payment, audit, and address API’s. Migrated 24 million titles of land ownership data to a new database platform. Developed our emerging agile practices and increased our deployment frequency from once a month to on-demand, completing 76 production deploys in 2017.
Career
DEFRA
Contract Senior Delivery Manager, December 2023 to present
I am leading a delivery team in the flood digital programme. Doing a discovery into how to introduce more methods for flood hydrology into working practice. Advocating for user centred design practices in a team new to agile practices. Constructively challenging scope to ensure we consider the whole end to end service rather than a digital service. Mapping service journeys based on user research.
Ministry of Justice (via dxw)
Delivery Lead, December 2022 to present.
I am responsible for ensuring the team are working effectively together, ensuring we are communicating and working effectively across disciplines and leading on facilitating team events. I am also responsible for good communication to a large stakeholder group, managing budgets, and ensuring the team develops the service in a user centred way as per the Government Service Standard.
NHS Digital
Contract Product Manager, June 2022 to November 2022
Working with stakeholders and commissioners to understand strategy intent and goals. Understanding user needs to ensure our product meets them. Setting team priorities and ensuring value is delivered. Being the ‘voice of the product’ to the wider organisation.
Contract Delivery Manager, April 2021 - June 2022
Responsible for the delivery of designated products and services by one or more multi-disciplinary user-centred or software delivery teams.
Delt Shared Services
Innovation Specialist, September 2020 to April 2021.
Responsible for developing innovation at Delt, understanding our customers issues and challenges and exploring emerging technology and products to present and test solutions in a user centred and iterative way.
Surevine
Technical Team Lead, May 2019 to August 2020.
Responsible for developing a high performing remote team of software developers and testers, delivering customer projects and developing our working practices for efficient and effective agile software delivery.
HM Land Registry
Delivery Lead, 2014 - 2019.
I led a multidisciplinary team to develop the Find Property Information service. in a user-centric way using agile techniques based on the Government Service Design Manual. My team successfully passed the beta assessment of the Government Digital Service Standard. I advocated and acted as the voice of agile practice to the rest of the organisation.
New Services Manager, 2011 - 2014.
I acted as primary liaison between the development and operations departments to ensure a smooth transition of services to production. I was a Subject Matter Expert for cross functional requirements on projects. I developed a support process and change controls for services transitioning to production.
Education and Training
Certified Scrum Master. Scrum Alliance 2015. BSc (Hons) Marine Navigation. University of Plymouth, 1998 - 2001. ITIL Practitioner in:
- Foundation
- Service Design
- Service Transition
- Service Desk and Incident Management
- Service Level Management
I have previously been SC cleared. I have BPSS clearance
Contact Details
ian@discover-deliver.co.uk, 07944876831 https://ames.world, LinkedIn 75 Outland Road, Stoke, Plymouth, Pl2 3DA