_Lucy Hartley, Head of Service Strategy, Ownership and Performance, and Katie Dickerson, Senior Service Designer at TPXimpact agency, reflect on working together to map Defra group services._ In a previous blog post on transformation we spoke about testing a new approach to how we understand and map services. This will help us create a full picture of what our services are and how they all connect from our users’ perspective. Creating this full view of our services is a starting point that will, over time, allow us to: * identify opportunities to make our services more efficient and effective and ultimately, improve the experience of our users * robustly test a new model of senior service ownership, and enable decision making at a whole service level * make best use of shared technology, patterns and data to deliver greater impact and better value for money * better understand and measure how our services have an impact on Defra’s ambitious environmental outcomes ## How we created a service landscape map To create our first iteration of the service landscape, we worked with colleagues from our user-centred design capability partner TPXimpact to: * understand whole services and map them across Defra group * create a clear, effective narrative and visuals to help people understand and engage with the service landscape As there were some time constraints to this first phase of work, we decided to make best use of existing data and relationships. We spoke to service teams from organisations across Defra group and analysed existing materials like team Mural boards, service lists, SharePoint sites and strategy documents. Where documentation or data did not exist, we did desk-based research, including reviewing guidance content and services on GOV.UK, to map some services. Alongside this, we have been testing a narrative to explain the work and the opportunities and benefits of this transformation approach. We’ve been sharing our work through week notes and show and tells to ensure we’re working in the open. We’ve had valuable conversations about the purpose and potential benefits of understanding whole services, and how our colleagues’ work across Defra connects and aligns. ## Taking different approaches We mapped out our initial view of the service landscape. For each whole service, the map shows: * example services * example user behaviours and goals * types of users * organisations that are involved in delivering this whole service together The information is also available in a spreadsheet that includes: * which organisations and other government departments are involved in delivering the whole services * what high-level goals the whole services help users meet * what Defra outcomes and missions the whole services support This is for anyone who needs an alternative format or for transformation teams who need more detail behind the whole services. The map is supported by a high-level presentation and a discussion guide. This is to facilitate conversations about the service landscape across Defra, and how this view can help us to unlock true transformation and be able to meet our ambitious environmental outcomes. As mentioned in our last blog post we created a service taxonomy prototype to test whether having a common language around services would enable more productive conversations about transformation and service optimisation. We have iterated our taxonomy to align to the refreshed Government Digital Service (GDS) definition of services and whole services. We’re now working to understand groupings and services in terms of what users are trying to do and what Defra group is trying to have an impact on. For example, the whole service ‘Flooding’ includes products and services that help users avoid and manage the impacts of flooding. These services also help Defra improve the nation’s resilience to the impacts of flooding and build resilient communities and economies. ## Testing with users Our most important next step was to validate the work further with external users. We needed to test that the whole services we identified accurately reflect common user needs and their language. We also reviewed existing user research and data to see what applicable insights we already had. We showed different user groups, including members of the public, farmers and business users lists of ‘jobs-to-be-done’ that were relevant to them and asked them to group and name them. This helped us learn how they think about the tasks they do with Defra and how they describe them. We also asked people about how long they have been interacting with Defra and how often they use our services, so we could see how their relationship to Defra impacts their mental model. Following our research, we updated the whole services landscape map by: * changing the names of some whole services to reflect the language users use * merging some whole services * moving some sub-services into different areas based on user groupings We also identified some areas where we need to do more research due to inconsistencies in the ways that users grouped tasks. ## Next steps We will publish more updates as our journey continues. Thank you to everyone who took part in this work.

_Please be aware that this blog discusses bereavement and grief. There areresources at the end of this blog if you are affected by these topics and need support._ Have you ever carried a pain that no one else can see? I hadn’t until 12 months ago, when I experienced grief. As you read this blog post, it might still be National Grief Awareness Week. It might not be. It doesn’t matter because grief awareness shouldn’t be something just for one week. I want to write about why it matters to talk about grief at work, its impact and support you can find. I’ll also share my grief story in the hope that it gives you the confidence to share yours whenever it feels right for you. ## Why we need to talk about grief at work Grief isn’t polite enough to keep certain hours. It can (and will) pop up as an unwanted guest at any time during your working day. It also isn’t just something that happens because of a loved one’s death. It’s a result of any sort of life change. It affects so many more of us than you’d think: perhaps the illness of a loved one or the ending of a relationship. If we can talk about grief, then we can take a little bit of power back from it. When we do that, we help create compassionate workplaces. ## My grief story It started with 'anticipatory grief’. This is the feeling of loss when someone’s still with you. It happened to me when my nan was diagnosed with dementia. I was raised by my nan and lived with her until I was 11 years old. Years later, the tables turned and I became one of her primary carers along with my mum. I’ve heard dementia described as the “the long goodbye”, and it is, because it lasted just under ten years. In early October 2025, she sadly passed away. I barely had two weeks to process my nan’s passing, before my dad then unexpectedly passed away. Losing a parent was one of my biggest fears, but I naively thought it’d never happen. This caused me to experience 'cumulative grief’, where you don’t have time to process one loss before another happens. My doctor advised me to take some extended time off. If you asked me to describe cumulative grief, it’s like an agonising swim up to the water’s surface when something awful from the deep pulls you back down again... repeatedly. ## The impact of grief It’s a hugely challenging period which affects your concentration, energy and mental health. I realised that no matter what I did, I was going to find it hard. You put pressure on yourself to 'carry on'. There’s a person you think you know before grief, and a person you discover after grief. You start to panic and worry that you’ll never see that pre-grief person ever again. However, there can be a positive aspect to experiencing your grief in the open. It can encourage growth and emotional intelligence not only in yourself but others around you. They play a huge role in creating that space for support. ## How we can support each other Returning to work can feel overwhelming. For me, I’d lost 2 of my biggest life cheerleaders. I felt like I was no longer Superman, just Clark Kent. However, I recently found the journal that my grief counsellor encouraged me to keep during this time. A line stood out loud and clear: > I’ve made it through my first week back at work and I’m ok. Looking back, there were 3 things that helped me the most: 1. **Having structured support** : my line manager and I immediately accessed Defra’s Occupational Health Service and Employee Assistance Programme, and we updated my Employee Passport. We still update it as a living document. 2. **People checking in with me with simple messages** : everyone I knew had reached out regularly to see how things were and let me know that they were thinking of me. This made an incredible difference, so I’d urge others reading this to feel confident enough to check in on those that are grieving. 3. **People demonstrating patience and empathy** : ultimately this was the main thing, to know that people understood (and very often had lived experience of) grief and wouldn’t judge. In fact, I learned that it was me that was my only critic. ## Where you can find support It depends where you work, but you might be able to access: * **support like counselling through your Employee Assistance programme** : this was invaluable to me as I navigated through my changed world. * **mental health first aiders and HR wellbeing contacts** : it was incredibly comforting having regular support. * **(if you’re a civil servant) staff networks like the cross-government Grief Cafe** : the biggest surprise was that I wasn’t alone. People bravely shared their own grief stories. Volunteers run this network and people attend in their own time. There are also helpful external resources like: * Cruse Bereavement Support * Sue Ryder grief support services * NHS mental health services * Good Grief Trust * Mind ## Sharing your grief stories This year’s theme for National Grief Awareness Week is ‘Growing with Grief’, focusing on finding hope and renewal after loss. The theme of renewal is literal for me, as I now plant my spring bulbs on my loved ones’ anniversaries in October. By openly acknowledging grief’s existence, breaking down the stigma and supporting each other then we might be able to normalise grief and feel more empowered. Grief isn’t a weakness. It’s a real part of being human. It’s changed me for the better.

_This is the second blog in a series on_ _Product Managing the design of sustainable services_ _written by Lucy Stewart and Katie Marcus, product managers working in air quality improvement at Defra._ Digital services have environmental impact. Every search query, data download, and server request uses energy and generates emissions. As product managers working on air quality improvement, we wanted to understand and reduce the environmental impact of our own service: Get Air Quality Data. This is in line with Defra digital sustainability strategy 2025-2030, which sets out the group vision to minimise the environmental, economic and social impact of its ICT operations. This service enables users to access air pollution data and information. While our work helps monitor and improve air quality, we recognised that delivering and maintaining the service itself has environmental consequences. We ran a workshop to map these impacts and identify where we could make improvements. _Figure 1: The sustainable services journey mapping tool used in the workshop. By clarifying the journey stages together, the tool helps teams query where energy is needed to run the service and supports teams to identify where there are opportunities to reduce the carbon outputs. A template for the tool is provided at the end of this blog post._ ## **What we did** We brought together members of our cross-functional team including designers, lead statisticians, developers and programme managers, to examine our service’s environmental ‘inputs’ (the resources used to design, deliver and run the service) and ‘outputs’ (waste, emissions and pollution generated from these actions). Using a journey mapping tool we identified where these inputs and outputs occur across the service lifecycle. We then modelled out the impact of these inputs and outputs from carbon emissions to biodiversity loss, exploitation and inequality and integrated optimisations into our product roadmaps and working practices. ## **What we learned** The service is a non-transactional digital service, but allows users to download large volumes of data, which makes hosting, processing and storing data the main contributors to energy use. Together we learned: * **Data duplication is energy-intensive** - each query accesses and processes the entire database * **User experience** - we can optimise the user journey to encourage smaller, targeted downloads matched to actual needs rather than defaulting to large datasets. We can even encourage users to download at certain times of day for more efficient processing * **Our working practices matter** - how we work can and should be optimised to reduce impact alongside the service itself, and this is well within our control * **Collaboration** - the need to work collaboratively with suppliers and business partners to influence ‘upstream’. We recognised that the further ‘up the chain’ you can go, the bigger impact we could have at reducing carbon emissions. ## **Next steps** As a team we’re currently lacking defined metrics and a consolidated methodology for calculating our ultimate environmental impact. However, this workshop demonstrated the value of bringing service teams together around sustainability questions. The conversation was lively and focussed our team’s creativity to look at the design and development of the service in new ways. As product managers, we’re empowered to integrate sustainability concerns into roadmaps, KPIs and working practices. To put the workshop findings into action, we used a framework of 10 initiatives from Jisc's ‘Driving digital sustainability’ workshop. This workshop helped us assess which initiatives we can implement quickly and easily, versus those which require additional support or collaboration, longer term. Quick wins: * Reduce download bandwidth and computational resource by improving data storage, helping users to only download the data that they need, labelling large file sizes, and limiting the sending of non-essential alerts. * Design user journeys as a text-based experience by default to reduce page load, offering explicit choices to access richer content like interactive maps or videos when needed. This aligns closely to GOV.UK design principles of accessibility and simplicity. * Plan for longevity: use standard tools, patterns and components to plan for ease of iteration and future maintainability. The GOV.UK Design System and Component Library give us a strong start here. * Collect and report on usage analytics in live services to assess the impact of each step in the user journey and identify areas for further optimisation. Longer term goals: * Establish consistent standards and KPIs for all services across the Environmental Quality delivery group and a shared methodology for calculating our carbon impact. Aligning sustainability goals with programme-wide strategy ensures environmental impact is considered early and built in from the start. * Reduce infrastructure waste through test and development optimisation. Small improvements in day-to-day decisions and practices can deliver significant savings at scale. While we already have sustainability criteria in place as part of the procurement process, we will continue to positively influence our development suppliers to measure and improve their practices. * Tackle legacy systems - running concurrent live services consumes resources and increases emissions, costs, and complexity. We are currently maintaining the existing UK Air website while developing new services. We hope to mitigate this through 2026 by taking a minimal viable product (MVP) approach and challenging requests for additional functionality and content that do not support our decommissioning goals. ## **In summary** We have a simple strategy of reducing the environmental impact of our service's inputs and outputs by delivering our services more lightly and efficiently, reducing waste across our entire pipeline, from planning and design to build and go-live. We will need to leverage all members of our cross-functional teams to realise this, as well as working with stakeholders and partners to maximise potential impact. Even without the perfect processes and measurement tools in place, we believe that any progress is valuable, and hope these practices become the default for all Defra delivery teams. We will share more as we learn and put initiatives into action. In the meantime, if you would like to access the Sustainable journey mapping tool to try with your own service, email lucy.stewart1@defra.gov.uk or katherine.marcus@defra.gov.uk

_Lauren Stewart, Lead Content Designer, Farming_ , _on behalf of the content design community and wellbeing working group_. The Defra content design community wants to be a welcoming, inclusive, and fun place to work. A community that knows and supports each other works better together. In 2024, we ran a team stress risk assessment. It showed that people felt isolated and wanted more opportunities to connect. We’ve always prided ourselves on having a strong and supportive community - something that comes up regularly in staff surveys and exit interviews. So, we set to work on how to improve this. ## Creating a wellbeing working group The content leadership team discussed options and had the idea to set up a working group focused on improving social and wellbeing outcomes for the community. There’s been lots of change over the past year, and this felt like something positive and within our control. We did some research with different disciplines across digital who had done something similar, to explore what worked well and any lessons learned. We asked for volunteers from across the community to join the group, which would contribute to their community objective. Our community is large and based across England and Wales, so we wanted the group to be representative of regions. We looked at both virtual and in-person events and optimising existing meet-ups. Once we had our first group of volunteers, we set out our principles, objectives, and ways of working. We created a dedicated Slack channel and held regular Teams meetings to plan inclusive activities. We also committed to collecting feedback and researching what kinds of events would best support wellbeing. ## Optimising in-person events At each away day, we included a "get to know your colleagues" session. At our first event, we ran a short ‘similarities’ icebreaker, where small teams raced to find things that had in common, to promote sharing and connection. This was followed by speed networking after lunch. There was a real sense of connection and fun, and feedback from the day showed a real enthusiasm and gratitude for the opportunity to get to know colleagues more face to face, and calling for similar sessions in the future. We gathered anonymous feedback, as we do with all away days. The response was overwhelmingly positive and clearly met the objectives we set. People enjoyed getting to know each other in an informal way and this helped to feel a part of the community. We iterated activities after analysing the feedback and introduced activities with a content twist. We ran a teambuilding event where participants were split into small groups and given a series of creative and competitive challenges to complete. We designed each activity to encourage collaboration and quick thinking while  strengthening teamwork and building our sense of community. ## Supporting virtual connection With colleagues based across the UK and a mix of office and home working, we knew virtual events were just as important. While some regular, ongoing sessions had low attendance, we found that seasonal or themed events worked better as it was easier for people to make time for them. These had higher engagement and more positive feedback, so we shifted our approach to more tailored events. ## Six months in... time for a retro After six months, we held a retro facilitated by one of our user researchers. We revisited our goals and reviewed feedback. We’d achieved our aim of helping people get to know each other and building a kind, caring community. Many people said they’d made genuine friendships and felt a stronger sense of belonging. The People Survey results also show more people in the community want to stay in the organisation, and fewer want to leave quickly. * In 2023, 3% said they wanted to leave as soon as possible. In 2024, this dropped to 0%. * In 2023, 23% said they wanted to stay for at least 3 years. In 2024, this rose to 41%. ## Next steps Looking ahead, we decided to focus the next six months on health and wellbeing - something that had emerged as a theme in recent feedback. At our next away day, we introduced short wellbeing activities like guided meditation and stretch breaks. We also launched a wellbeing challenge, encouraging people to share photos of things that made them smile. As the darker months approach, we’re now focusing on winter wellbeing and how to stay well through the season. We’ll continue to listen, learn, and adapt to the community’s needs - because we believe that when people feel supported and connected, they do their best work.

_Lee Croucher and Giorgio Peacock are Product Managers in the Farming and Countryside Programme at Defra. In this blog post they talk about a recent project exploring sustainable AI development and its potential to reduce the impact our digital services have on the world around us._ As the opportunity and excitement around AI grows, so do the concerns around its environmental and ethical costs. At Defra, we recently set out to test a bold hypothesis: can AI deliver a _net positive_ impact – environmentally, socially, and economically, while also solving a real-world problem? We ran a short proof of concept to see if this could be done. The result was a compelling case for AI that works _with_ the planet, not against it. ## The brief The AI Lab was aimed at exploring sustainable AI development within government. The Defra team comprised Rhiannon Long (Senior Content Designer), Giorgio Peacock (Product Manager) and Lee Croucher (Lead Product Manager), working alongside a team of data scientists and sustainability experts at Transform UK. We started by looking for a real use case with the potential to make a big impact for our users. We found it in the farming funding experience. Farmers across England rely on Defra schemes to support more sustainable and profitable agriculture. But finding the right funding, understanding eligibility and navigating regulations is far from simple. Complex GOV.UK content, limited information around compatibility between schemes and a lack of personalised support often push farmers to incur costs by using land agents or to have long phone calls with our contact centre. This increases costs, causes delays and contributes to unnecessary carbon emissions. It also creates a high barrier to entry, with many farmers potentially missing out on funding they could be receiving. We wanted to prove AI could not only address this challenge, but do so _sustainably_ by reducing total environmental impact while also improving social and economic outcomes for farmers and Defra. ## **Taking a lean approach, while leveraging the latest AI technology** We wanted to demonstrate what can be achieved in a short space of time – just 4 weeks. Our goal wasn’t to build a polished product, but to test assumptions and build a working concept we could put in front of users as quickly as possible. Here’s how we approached it: * **Lean development:** We gathered existing research and datasets and kept our process as lightweight as possible. This allowed us to get a good understanding of the problem space without spending weeks on new user research. * **Rapid iteration:** We went through 2 iterations of our tool, quickly building, testing and learning to incorporate feedback from users and subject matter experts. * **Latest in AI tech:** We used the latest Google Gemini and OpenAI large language models (LLMs), graph and vector databases and semantic search to match farmers with relevant funding opportunities. * **Designing for sustainability:** We used the brand new GDS AI guidelines to drive our decision making on model choice, training and infrastructure set-up to keep data transfer and resource consumption to a minimum. ## **The Action Finder tool** We built a prompt-based AI tool, designed to help farmers find relevant funding for them. The funding options it suggested were based on: * the unique characteristics of the farmer’s land * the farmer’s aspirations for how they wanted to use their land * the farmer’s sustainability goals In their own words, users enter a prompt describing their farm. For example: > _“I’m a small farm growing mainly horticulture crops. I have 2 acres of orchards and I’m looking to reduce how much water and pesticides I’m using. Is there any funding for this?”_ The user can also provide information about what funding they’re already getting. Once the user submits their prompt, they get: * **A** **concise summary** of relevant actions tailored to their query, with some initial information to identify the actions that might be interesting for them. * **A table of funding options** with more detailed information around things like requirements and exclusions, to help them understand what they may want to explore further. * **Hyperlinks to GOV.UK** for each action so they can read the full official guidance. * **A compatibility matrix** , showing which actions can be combined and which are incompatible. ## **Potential environmental, social and economic benefits of scaling the tool** A key part of the project was carrying out a net positive analysis. This looked at the potential outcomes that could be achieved if we were to release this tool to users. We gathered as much data as possible to compare the impact of the current user journey versus the expected journey using the action finder. The total cost and carbon emissions of the current state were estimated, looking at measures like contact centre calls, website searches and farm visits by land agents. This was then compared with the approximate cost and environmental impact of our AI tool at scale. It’s important to note we had to rely quite heavily on various assumptions and industry benchmarks to reach an estimation. The data made available by tech companies around their AI tools is still very limited. We were also working with limited data around the actual cost of the current customer journey. Assuming 20,000 farmers were to self-serve using the tool:​ * We could avoid 20,000 complex journeys with a potential saving of over £900,000. * We could see potential carbon savings of over 300,000 kgCo2e, or 1,300 short haul flights​. Although this is a limited analysis based on the data available to us, it gives us a good indication of the order of magnitude of impact that could be possible through using this technology. ## **What we learned** This experiment was a valuable learning experience, both in terms of technology and sustainability, as well as demonstrating what can delivered in a short space of time within government when technology teams are empowered and given autonomy to innovate in an agile way. We successfully proved the concept and received positive feedback. The right level of information was provided, and the accuracy and relevancy of the results were high. The feedback around the speed at which the user can get the information needed was also positive. We also identified some key areas for improvement, for example the reading level of the content is slightly higher than what we typically use on GOV.UK and the tool sometimes presents actions without showing you’d need to apply for a base action for it to be applicable. The LLMs used were quite experimental, meaning it would provide slightly different options when you input the same query twice. ## **A net positive future for AI** When we set out on this project, it was important we understood the cost to the planet of using AI tools to solve the problems we’re facing in government. We started to see how, if applied to the right problem, with deliberate and careful design and a focus on sustainability, AI tools can be built with environmental and social implications in mind. We still think there’s a way to go. Companies delivering AI technology need to be open and transparent about the environmental impacts of their tech. It’s only with this data that we can make properly informed decisions about when AI is the best solution for our needs. The Defra x Transform AI lab has been a great experience, and we’re excited about what’s ahead. Stay tuned for future updates by subscribing to the Defra digital blog as we continue our sustainable AI journey.

_Ned Gartside, Sustainable Design Lead, shares how Defra is testing an approach to assess and record how well digital services are managing their environmental and social impacts._ ## Defra’s strategic goals for sustainability 2025 is a big year for digital sustainability, with more and more people getting interested in how building greener services can save money and support the growing UK sustainable technology sector. We’ve seen this momentum building in my own Digital Sustainability team in Defra – for example in the expansion of our Government Digital Sustainability Alliance (GDSA) advisory group, and in the increasing collaboration we’re leading across government on this issue with things like the Government Buying Standards (GBS). With so much happening and such an urgent issue there’s always a risk of unmanaged or duplicated effort, so within Defra we’ve been working on a new Digital Sustainability Strategy. This sets out our key objectives, which focus on decarbonization, circularity, water and material use, boosting social value, supply chain transparency and resilience to climate change. But we know strategies don’t mean anything unless they drive practical changes and outcomes, so we’re delighted Defra (with the sponsorship of our Director of Digital Delivery) is testing a way to ensure our digital services are as sustainable, efficient and circular as possible. ## What are we doing with Defra digital projects? Our approach is based on creating a digital sustainability standard which Defra group digital services need to meet at their service assessments (where they also need to demonstrate compliance with the overall Government Digital Service (GDS) Service Standard). At present, these assessments cover things like usability, accessibility, privacy, security and reliability, so introducing sustainability puts it on a level with these established project priorities. ## Our approach We’re designing a process to support both service teams and those who will be assessing them. As well as the digital sustainability standard, the key parts of this process are: * a ‘digital sustainability risk evaluation’, which all projects must complete early in their development – this helps teams identify the likely sustainability risks and benefits of their service and suggests related actions * a ‘digital sustainability statement’, in which service teams record the sustainability actions they’ve taken or plan to take – this statement is updated as the service passes through the agile lifecycle, and is reviewed ahead of service assessments to focus discussion on the key areas of risk and opportunities for improvement * a guide for service assessors, with suggested questions to ask at service assessments and criteria for choosing the ‘red, amber, green’ rating for compliance with the standard We know sustainability is a new topic for most service teams, and it can be difficult for them to identify relevant sustainability actions, especially if these aren’t readily findable. For this reason, we’ve worked with experts across government and partners in the GDSA to develop the Greener Service Principles – a single repository of meaningful actions to deliver efficient, sustainable services. ## Testing and learning We’ve begun testing and gathering feedback on this process and the products above with services in Defra group at different stages of the agile lifecycle. In early 2026, we intend to integrate the digital sustainability standard into Defra service assessments as a non-binding element. From later in the spring of 2026, the plan is for the digital sustainability standard to become fully part of Defra service assessments as a 15th point. ## Wider application We’re really excited to pilot this approach within Defra group. As the lead department for sustainable IT across government, we work closely with GDS to embed digital sustainability into their cross-government guidance and strategies. We’re already working with GDS on some updates to the mandatory Service Standard and Service Manual, building on the best practice advice in our Greener Service Principles. From early 2026 we’ll be working with other departments to see how we could make the above approach repeatable across government more widely. We’ll also work with GDS on how to best reflect this within their products and guidance. The input of our cross-government steering group and GDSA will be vital in all this work, and we’re looking forward to finding out more and sharing updates on our progress. * * * _Check out our  LinkedIn page for all the latest news, stories and job openings. While you're there, why not give us a follow._

_James Corbett is a Product Manager for Delivering Sustainable Futures at Defra and Helen McMullan is a Lead Product Manager for Regulatory Services at Defra. In this blog they reflect on how formalising a product community has unleashed the power of shared ownership, collective growth, and fostered sense of belonging_ ## **From “not my thing” to “when’s the next one?”** To be honest when we first heard about 'building a community' for our product team, we weren’t convinced. We were a pretty disparate bunch, scattered across different projects, and day-to-day interactions were few and far between. As it is everywhere in digital teams, everyone was very busy and we weren’t sure how a few extra meetings would change that. It’s not that we were against the concept in principle, but we had both been involved in variations of these groups before and almost universally over time the energy has wavered, attendance has waned, and the community has ultimately fizzled out. But our new Head of Product had come in with a different vision. This wasn’t going to be another top-down initiative, it was going to be ours. This was going to happen, and our engagement would be the lifeblood of the community moving forward. ## **Sharing the load and shaping who we are** One of the best decisions at our first away day in Bristol was to share the weight of running the community. We agreed to set up a rolling leadership approach where different team members take turns steering activities and different members of the team would lead sessions in a community council. This meant that no one person carried the responsibility, and everyone could bring their own style, experience, and ideas to the table. In for a penny in for a pound, we both put our hands up and volunteered to go first as the two community leaders. We’re glad that we did! As the community grew, we realised it was the perfect place to define our collective vision for product across Defra Digital Data Technology and Security (DDTS). Product management had often felt like a bit of an afterthought. Product managers were being placed into programmes and projects where there was little or no understanding of the role we play and the value we could bring. During early community sessions, we talked about what we stood for, what we wanted to achieve, and even designed 'mission patches' to celebrate our identity. Framing the first few away days and sessions around what product is, the challenges we faced and what we wanted it to be proved a powerful and fun way to connect. We also carried out a team skills audit. Importantly this was not as a performance check, but as a way of identifying where we could grow together. It helped us focus on what we were good at and the skills we wanted to strengthen collectively, rather than leaving personal development as a purely individual responsibility. It was also a great process to hold communally as it served to demystify who might be the best person to turn to in the team when we inevitably get stuck on a topic during the day to day! ## **Bringing in new ideas and new people** We were a small gang at the start, but we were determined to make a big noise, so it was important to consider how we were going to extend our reach far beyond the dozen or so people in the room. We started by opening our doors to guest speakers from across DDTS, departments and even beyond government; giving us fresh perspectives and sparking ideas we wouldn’t have necessarily thought of ourselves. As the team has grown it has helped us understand perspectives from across the delivery function, and stay current on key topics across the industry more broadly. We have also grown the network by adding extra community sessions for product professionals in non-DDTS roles, and are currently linking with our network of suppliers to provide additional input and thought leadership in our cross Defra product and supplier group. It’s made our reach, our proposition, and our conversations, so much richer. ## **The results? Stronger ties, stronger team** Looking back, the change is huge. In a little over a year since we all arrived for that first meeting in Bristol, the community has strengthened relationships between colleagues, built a support network we can lean on, and created a space where we feel genuinely connected. It’s given a sense of belonging to something more tangible to members, whilst providing a great foundation to those that have joined it in a period of growth. New starters know that we’re here, where to turn for support, and perhaps more importantly they can see that they’re part of a team. Despite our initial concerns that this wouldn’t work, we can now happily say it’s been invaluable. We’ve gone from being worried about taking time out of our weeks to actively checking the calendar in anticipation of the next session!

_Edd Parry, Director of Group Infrastructure and Operations in Defra Digital Data Technology and Security, reflects on our journey to reimagine how we procure IT services, focusing on sustainability and improving the end user experience._ In March this year, we announced that our IT Service Desk, and the rest of our end user IT services would be moving to a single supplier, Atos. These include elements of support, such as Tech Bars in our offices, and our Virtual Tech Bars, as well as the provision of laptops, phones and Assistive Technology. What’s so interesting about that, you might be thinking? It’s just a routine procurement exercise; we do these things all the time, right? Those are fair challenges, I admit! Over the summer we moved to the new contract. Our 4 primary objectives to elevate those services are to: 1. Keep essential end user services running 2. Continuously improve the user experience 3. Deliver class-leading sustainability 4. Reduce costs, without compromising quality ## Why we are doing this Defra’s existing contracts for these services were coming to an end this year. We managed these through separate contracts; however, our ambition was to combine those into one contract with a single supplier, creating a smoother service and improving the digital and service experience for our users. We are applying commercial strategies to set new standards in sustainable contracting. This includes supporting circular economy benefits and extending the life of hardware devices through refurbishment while remaining focused on performance and a great user experience. We’ve placed huge emphasis on not just understanding the practical experience of using end user IT services, but the ability to proactively drive improvements. Users will see fewer hand-offs between teams when they need support, a greater focus on their perception of the experience, and we’re introducing commercially incentivised experience level agreements to drive continual improvement. ## Putting sustainability at the centre of everything we do Arguably, the biggest and most exciting change we are introducing is how we manage devices in a more sustainable way. We are transitioning to a model where device refreshes are based solely on performance degradation. Refreshing a device based on its performance will ensure that the laptop is always up to speed and high performing. It will also help us achieve our sustainability targets and demonstrate that across government, we take our responsibilities for reducing carbon emissions and e-waste seriously. Something that we are very proud of is Atos’s partnership with Circular Computing, who will be refurbishing laptops when they are at end of life, instead of throwing them away. This allows us to establish a ‘refurbished by default’ approach to device refresh. Devices will look, and most importantly perform, as good as new. We want our people to be proud of the device they use every day. Proud because it performs well, because it’s well looked-after, and looks good, and because by using it, they are doing their bit for the planet. Our laptop refurbishment programme with Circular Computing has made us the first UK government department to implement these practices, setting the standard for others. To put this into perspective - across the EU, 160,000 laptops are thrown away every day. While 80% could be recycled, only 20% are. Each refurbished laptop we use saves approximately 316 kg of carbon reduction, compared to manufacturing a new one. We're proud to be leading positive change in this area. ## And there’s more... Another feature of our new contract will be the integration of our Service Desk into Microsoft Teams to make it easier to speak to agents and resolve issues.  There will be increased use and capability of Smart Lockers, reducing our carbon footprint, and we will introduce even more Tech Bars. Over time, we also plan to introduce more flexibility in the devices and services we provide. We want to ensure colleagues have the right tool for their job role and reduce the need to carry multiple devices. This will reduce costs, reduce security risks and provide them with the technology they need. ## Going beyond end user IT services Our ambition doesn’t stop there. This imaginative approach to procurement of IT services goes beyond what I’ve already mentioned. In recent months we’ve successfully migrated all colleagues with a mobile device to digital SIM cards (eSIMs). This is an innovative approach which has already reduced plastic waste, while delivering a better service with improved connections. Our Application Maintenance and Support contract with Accenture, which also began this year, will enable Defra to migrate and enhance over 300 legacy applications, further reducing costs and increasing efficiency. We’re also in the process of replacing our current managed print service. We want to reduce the amount of printing done in Defra through our digital service transformation initiative, but where printing is unavoidable, we are adopting a cross government standard called GovPrint. This will enable Defra group staff to print from any government department building that has transitioned to the GovPrint solution. And we’re improving our network provision too, with the re-procurement of our network connectivity contract, transitioning from the current, inflexible fixed network to a more efficient optimised network environment which supports the government strategy of ‘Cloud First’ and ‘Wi-Fi by default’. So, there is a lot to be proud about and excited for as we work to achieve our ambition to reimagine the way we think about and deliver IT services to our Defra colleagues as sustainably and cost-effectively as we can.

_Sam Brett is a Project Manager in APHA’s transformation programme, Delivering Sustainable Futures. In this blog, he reflects on his experience of improving how customers contact the organisation when they need help or advice._ At the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), one of the goals of our digital transformation programme is to improve the experience our customers have when using our services. **Understanding the problem** During discovery, our customer experience project focused on understanding the problems customers face when trying to interact with APHA. In short, our services were too complex, and customers were contacting us because things weren’t working as expected. We found that over 65% of customer contact with APHA relates to failure demand. This means things like customers struggling to find or understand guidance or being unsure about which contact method to use when they need help. **Testing what works** We tested several ideas to tackle the problem. For example: * Would improving our guidance reduce contact? * Would reducing the number of ways people can contact us help? What we found was that no single fix would solve the whole problem. To really improve the customer experience, we needed better data and insight into why customers were reaching out to us in the first place. **Too many contact options, not enough insight** Currently, APHA receives most customer contact through 2 main channels: phone and email. Our ‘Contact APHA’ page on GOV.UK lists 36 external email addresses, and more than 65% of our contact comes in through those inboxes. Phone calls are managed by our contact management system, but emails are handled via shared Outlook mailboxes. This means: * we have very limited visibility of why customers are contacting us * we’re missing valuable insight that could help us improve services and encourage digital take-up **Choosing the right tools** We’re a small team and have adapted quickly throughout the project phases. Our aim was to find technology that could: * give us structured data to help resolve issues first time * reduce the reliance on email as a main contact route * provide insight and performance data to the business Our business case also set a clear goal: deliver value quickly to support our customers and internal teams. **Build or buy?** We considered 3 options: 1. Build a bespoke contact form. 2. Change contact management providers. 3. Use existing tools already available within Defra The best option for both our users and the business was to use Defra’s form builder (Defra Forms) to create a contact form and extend our current contact management system to handle the workflow. **Using commercial “off-the-shelf” products to meet user needs** We carried out internal research with APHA colleagues to identify the biggest pain points and worked with senior leaders to define a clear vision for customer contact. Rather than build a new service, we’re bringing together existing tools already available on the Defra estate and configuring them to meet user needs. This fits well with the Government Digital Services (GDS) guidance on using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products and services. It’s a different way of delivering, but one that’s still aligned with the GDS Service Standard. In our next phase, we’ll measure performance and impact to make sure the solution is delivering value. **What’s next** We received a ‘Green’ rating for our GDS alpha service assessment in August 2025, recognising the great work the delivery team has done. During the assessment, we shared the research, design, and iterations behind the contact form. We also showed how we’ve configured APHA’s contact management system to better meet user needs. The assessment panel was especially pleased with our clear approach to solving the problems we identified. They also highlighted our thoughtful use of existing technology to deliver value quickly. Following this, we’re preparing to run a pilot with the APHA Pet Travel customer service team. This will involve: * replacing their external mailbox with a structured contact form * routing all contact through our contact management system We’re excited to see how this improves the customer journey and provides better insight for the business.

_Jenny Taylor, Delivery Group Lead within Digital, Data, Technology and Security (DDTS) at Defra, Zoe Wilkins, Delivery Manager and Chris Leo, Head of User-centred Design Assurance, share how they are making the most of artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate delivery in their area._ We are proud to be part of a group that’s driving digital innovation to support environmental outcomes by exploring how AI tools and practices can help us move faster, without compromising on quality. One of our most recent ventures is a discovery phase within a programme that demands cross-department collaboration bringing policy, legislation, operations, and digital services together in a truly multidisciplinary way. ## How AI is supercharging our discovery phase The digital team are currently in the discovery phase. We've been on an exciting journey as part of a pilot to explore how AI can enable our work. It's been a fascinating six weeks, and we want to share some of our key lessons learned, both the highs and the hurdles, so other teams can benefit from our experience. From the very beginning, we had a strong foundation and clear objectives that included specific AI deliverables, which helped us stay focused. The support from Defra's AI Capability and Enablement (AI CE) team was invaluable. They gave us a solid starting point with sessions on AI ways of working, the AI SDLC and approved tools, and a fantastic prompt masterclass. A real game-changer was having our user centred design lead, Paul, embedded with the AI CE team for a month before our project officially started. This gave us a head start and really jump-started the team's enthusiasm for AI. ## Our first foray into AI In the early weeks, we discovered some incredible uses for AI. #### Deep research assistant AI tools have been amazing at helping us rapidly search public government information to understand complex topics and create initial process flows. This meant we never went to a stakeholder meeting with a blank page, making the most of their valuable time. Our tech lead, Ali, was able to pull out key stats and information in a matter of hours, a task that would have taken days without AI. #### Drafting user research materials For our user-centred design work, AI was a huge help. It let us quickly generate draft user profiles and discussion guides based on prior research, which we are now validating with real users. This saved us a significant amount of time. ## The reality check While AI has been a powerful accelerator, we quickly learned that it's not a silver bullet. It is not suitable (yet) for tasks like stakeholder mapping, planning, or managing risks and issues (RAIDs). It's a great assistant, but it can't replace critical thinking and expertise. We also found that not all AI tools are created equal. While we have access to MS365 CoPilot Chat, we've found that other tools sometimes produce better outputs. Additionally, tools like Google and OpenAI have limitations on the amount of data they can analyse, making them useful for analysing smaller datasets (around 50 records) but not for large-scale analysis. The classification of documents also had an impact on the tools we used–for most tools only documents classified up to ‘Official’ could be analysed. When using M365 CoPilot Chat, which is accessed through our Defra laptops, we could analyse documents up to and including ‘official-sensitive’. ## Our secret What really made the difference was our team's way of working. We created a shared prompt library and encouraged everyone to share their learnings. This collaborative approach meant that a great prompt created by our user-centred design guru could be tweaked and reused by our product manager. We also kept a running tally of our AI learnings in a Mural board, capturing prompts, outputs, time saved, and challenges. We shared these insights weekly with the AI enablement team. In our show and tells, we’ve been transparent with our stakeholders, highlighting which items were accelerated by AI and what challenges we faced. This transparency led to stakeholders asking for their own AI tips, so we started including them in our show and tells too! ## A note of caution Our biggest challenge came from MS Teams transcriptions. We learned the hard way that they're not always accurate. This is why we've made it a rule: always manually check transcriptions for errors before using them with any AI tool. We also make sure we check any AI outputs for accuracy too. ## What we’ve learned We have been working closely with colleagues in user centred design assurance throughout delivery to ensure we are applying agile methods effectively, and exploring how to integrate AI responsibly. Here are some of the most important lessons we’ve learned. #### Pace AI-enabled teams can only move as quickly as the delivery processes that support them. In our case, the established user research recruitment processes had to adapt to handle new AI-specific artefacts, such as updated consent forms for participants whose data would be processed by AI. This highlights the importance of aligning supporting processes with new ways of working if the benefits of AI are to be realised at pace. #### Traceability We are building clear traceability to show how an AI reaches its conclusions to manage the risk of automation complacency, where automated outputs are accepted without questioning how they were generated. #### Efficiency One emerging observation is that the work is surfacing opportunities to make some of the wider organisational processes more efficient. These learnings could be as valuable as the technology itself in improving delivery outcomes. #### Measurement Ultimately, the success of this AI-assisted approach will be measured not by speed but by whether the findings genuinely reflect the user’s reality. Every insight must be linked back to what a user actually said, ensuring we are amplifying the user’s voice rather than producing an output that only appears accurate. ## The big takeaway Our experience has shown us that AI is an incredible tool for accelerating specific parts of the discovery process, especially research and understanding of the problem space and policy intent. The key is to see it as a powerful assistant, not a replacement for human judgment. By combining the right tools with a collaborative mindset and a strong human-in-the-loop approach, we've been able to make our discovery phase more efficient and effective.

_David Thomas, Delivery Group Lead for Environmental Quality, reflects on his experience developing new ways of working across digital delivery._ Recently Defra’s digital delivery department changed the way it delivered new services from a single large portfolio to a set of 11 delivery groups. More than just dividing the portfolio into smaller chunks, this change aimed to radically change our approach to delivery. As part of this change, I was asked to create a new governance model. This means a new model for how we decide what work we’ll do and how we’ll do it, as well as a set of processes for assuring the work had been done to an appropriate standard. ## Applying agile working to transformation I’m a bit of a governance geek, and could talk governance structures all day long, but digital transformation is more interesting to most people. Digital transformation is the process of changing an organisation to have digital services at its core. This isn't just a change which impacts people working in IT, but one that affects the whole organisation and the way people work. The change to working in delivery groups and the new governance model are a small part of a much larger transformation taking part across Defra. Digital transformations often fail in organisations. One of the reasons for this is the approach that is taken to transformation. Digital organisations need to be agile, meaning they can make lots of rapid changes in response to new information. Digital transformation programmes often run at a slower pace. They try to design a correct final operating model and move to that model in a few big steps. I was keen to approach this piece of transformation work in the same way that I would approach a digital project. I wanted to quickly come up with a draft governance model, test it out with a group of people and then iterate it. As soon as we had a model that was good enough, I wanted to roll it out. Once it was rolled out, I could carry on iterating on it based on how it worked in practice. ## How we approached developing a new governance model Digital projects are built by multidisciplinary teams. This means they have different people with different skillsets. The same is important for transformation work. Designers can help convey the model in an easy-to-understand way. User researchers could gather feedback on it. Subject matter experts from different areas of digital, data, technology and security also helped ensure that the model represented the full lifecycle of digital delivery. In the end we had a team of seven people working part time on this project, with a few more supporting. The approach we took was to develop a draft of the model, present it at a show and tell, and then iterate on that draft. We ended up doing this five times, before we had something we were happy to progress with. The show and tells were at times quite emotive. Change is tricky, and not everyone is bought in to new ways of working. An advantage of the approach we took is that we weren’t trying to say we had all the answers but could take on feedback and adapt the model. It also meant that the show and tells were filled with people who were for new ways of working and some who were more hesitant. ## Communicating with people Having an instant messaging channel for discussing the governance changes was very effective. Our show and tells were well attended, but only one person out of the 50 people on there could speak at once. Having another channel for people to discuss the changes meant people could digest the model at their own pace and ask us questions or discuss the changes amongst themselves. The user researchers on the team did a great job of approaching the stakeholders most affected by the governance model and gathering their feedback and requirements. These were done in one-to-one sessions outside of the wider show and tell. This meant the people who were most affected could give more direct feedback. Our interaction and content designers created multiple ways of viewing the model. This was a largely text-based description of the governance model, with different visuals to support. ## The challenges we faced Transparency is hard. Despite our best efforts to engage as many people as possible in our work, we were always finding new people who were surprised that it was happening, and they hadn’t been consulted. It was also tricky to remain focused on governance. The changes we were making to governance were part of a wider change, and people understandably wanted to talk about all of that. But we could only change governance processes so wanted to remain focussed. Getting the changes signed off has also been tricky. The work was completed several months ago, but we’re still negotiating sign of for it. The model has influenced the development of delivery groups so hasn’t been wasted work, but the speed of its roll out has been slowed by not being officially signed off. This emphasises the need for agile governance around digital transformation. ## What's next The final draft of the governance model has been published and is visible for everyone to see. Parts of that governance model are already being used by delivery groups, and an important part of the work is to roll this out more widely. As delivery groups mature and the model gets used, it will be important to keep it up to date. And as a delivery group lead, I’m looking forward to not only implementing it, but learning and adapting as I do so.

_Lucy Stewart is a Product Manager for air quality at Defra. In this blog she reflects on her experience of designing sustainable services, and identifies where product managers can influence how and where we consider environmental impact as we deliver digital products._ ## Building new air quality services Since April, I’ve been working as part of Defra’s air quality team. We’re decommissioning UK Air and designing and developing services that are more accessible and which meet user needs. This is important work born out of the tragic death of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. Our ‘Check air quality’ service offers information and guidance to citizens on the quality of ambient (outside) air in locations relevant to them. Our ‘Get air pollution data’ service enables professionals working in an air quality role to view and download information relating to air pollution. ## Air quality, climate change and digital delivery As the world warms, the quality of our air is further compromised. High temperatures, especially during heat waves, can contribute to increased ground-level ozone and particulate matter. In powering our services, we create emissions and we worsen the quality of our air. While it’s fortunate to be working on a service with direct implications to climate change, it makes the mission of designing a sustainable service no easier or straightforward. Defra is the lead department for digital sustainability and I’ve been working closely with representatives from the Government Digital Sustainability Alliance (GDSA) who work to bring together the UK government, its Information and Communications Technology (ICT), digital supply chain, academics and third sector organisations together to drive progress on the UK governments digital estate. During my time at Defra, I’ve assessed which of the Greener Service Principles are most relevant depending on the stage of delivery. I’ve seen brilliant examples of AI being used to support farmers to find the right funding, understand eligibility, and navigate regulations all while reducing the total environmental impact of the service. I’ve also learned more about the ‘minimise compute' philosophy which aims to aggressively mitigate carbon emissions by treating compute as a privilege, not a right and I’ve been privy to attempts to incorporate sustainability into the service standard. Hosting and processing are areas in the delivery of digital services with a large environmental impact that teams should seek to reduce. But doing this can feel hard and disempowering as it is largely left up to the companies we commission to store, process and expose data to allow users to use it in the way they need. These entities often obfuscate metrics and collaborating openly remains challenging. Good examples from the likes of GOV.UK (e.g. One Login: Advancing digital sustainability in government case study) highlight the collective effort and time taken to baseline sustainability metrics but demonstrates the huge gains from using a baseline to pinpoint areas of service optimisation that can really drive digital sustainability gains as well as improve efficiency and save money. ## How to design sustainable services while gathering metrics for measurement While it’s useful to gather metrics and influence ‘slow burn’ opportunities where possible, what other aspects of design can be used to deliver sustainable services in government departments? ### **Contracts** Accountability for how we operate and what we consume is a key component of sustainability. Understanding what stage your service is at in its contract can help make delivery more sustainable. At Defra, social value and sustainability metrics are included in the evaluation of new suppliers. Suppliers need to demonstrate how they will reduce carbon in their design and delivery and also adapt their delivery to address emerging climate risks. Suppliers are required to ensure their responses were tailored to the service in question and it’s brilliant that adaptation is a metric at all! Our team have designed contracts to broaden the applicant pool and enable a diverse range of bidders, which I believe will have a positive impact on sustainability reporting. ### **Budgets** Considering sustainability is a long term, ever weaving exploration, we should prioritise work to embed it. With a new budget cycle in mind, we worked to ensure sustainability was a written line in that budget. The number isn’t huge, and at the moment it's ambiguous as to what it will be spent doing, but it’s there, protected and allocated. Convincing budget holders to keep sustainability as a line even when under financial pressure felt like a big win. ### **Relationships** There are a lot of impassioned and empowered people looking at sustainability across government and within digital delivery teams. The mission is to find them and work with them. Ask them where there are opportunities to influence design for a more positive environmental impact. At Defra we have a wonderful digital sustainability team who conduct sustainability assessments of services. It’s necessary for all of us to learn from others who have way more technical expertise and experience navigating the entrails of government. ### **Effort** People gather when you're consistent in showing up. If you're going to make sustainability your mini mission, keep placing time in diaries to talk about it. This isn’t about coming with answers but about asking questions. Importantly these meetings allow me to talk to the team about sustainability and encourage them to come along on the journey. If it’s a product manager's role to take a direction and bring a concept to life, we need to inspire people to care and consider sustainability in their role and work.

_Jason Stockwell, Research Operations, reflects on the work done to develop a user research manual for Defra and the importance of consistency across user research._ When designing digital services, we need to test them to make sure they meet user needs. Where these services are incredibly complex, with a lot of dependencies and assumptions, a lot can get lost. In Defra, we have a dedicated research operations team to take these user research practices and scale them to have greater impact across the organisation. Research operations is becoming increasingly fundamental to the way digital delivery functions in government. There is a need for a department to standardise the way research is approached to support user researchers to do their job well, understand the intricacies of the department, and hit research deadlines This need highlights a real problem. Inconsistency. There’s inconsistency across user research in how we recruit participants. In how we handle consent. In how we store data. In how we talk about research. When these things vary wildly between teams or projects, it doesn’t just slow us down, it risks undermining the quality and credibility of our work. Operationally, inconsistent approaches can lead to: * confusing or repetitive experiences for research participants, especially those involved in multiple rounds of research * difficulty comparing insights across teams or time periods, making it harder to build a shared understanding on user needs * uneven quality of research, which risks weakening the evidence we use to make decisions * barriers to collaboration, as teams spend time aligning on methods rather than focusing on the problem at hand ## What do we mean by consistency? Consistency doesn’t mean uniformity or rigidity. It means having a shared understanding about the way to do things. Research operations isn’t the flashiest part of user research, but it’s the foundation everything else rests on. Without clear processes, guidance and tools, even the best researchers can struggle. That’s where the manual comes in. It helps us: * recruit participants more easily * find and reuse existing research * handle consent and data protection properly * access clear, up-to-date guidance * use the right tools and templates These aren’t just nice-to-haves. They’re benchmarks laid out for what good research ops looks like. And we’re getting there. ## Why we needed a manual The user research manual was born out of a shared need. Across Defra, researchers were asking the same questions, facing the same challenges, and often turning to user research leads or the research operations teams for guidance. We needed a place to bring that knowledge together, not as a rulebook, but as a living, evolving guide. This user research manual is a: * starting point for anyone doing user research at Defra * toolkit for one-off pieces of work or recurring questions * host for ethical practices and shared standards * community-owned resource, shaped by the people who use it It doesn’t replace conversations or critical thinking. It’s not 'the only way' of doing all user research. It’s a way to bring us closer together in how we work. ## More than a manual This isn’t just about processes. It’s about culture. About making user research more accessible, more inclusive and more consistent across Defra. It’s about showing that we take our craft seriously and that we’re building something that supports everyone. The user research manual isn’t a finished product, and it’s not meant to be. As our practices evolve, as new challenges emerge and as we learn from each other, the manual should reflect that. Keeping it alive means: * reviewing and updating guidance to stay relevant * welcoming contributions from across the community * spotting gaps and surfacing new needs as they arise * treating it as a shared responsibility, not a static resource * maintaining a culture of thoughtful, ethical and consistent research ## The value of a team To keep the manual useful and trustworthy, we need people who can steward it. The research operations team aren’t there to control or restrict, they’re there to protect the integrity of the resource, ensure quality and help guide its evolution. Having a team responsible for this content helps give: * clarity and structure to contributions, helping avoid duplication or confusion * a critical eye to ensure updates align with ethical standards and best practice * continuity, especially as teams change or new researchers join Having gatekeepers means the manual stays coherent, credible and genuinely helpful. It’s a way to balance openness with accountability. ## Where we go from here We’ve reached a milestone. The user research manual is here, it’s live and we have started using it. But this isn’t the end. It’s a foundation we’ll build on in Defra as a user research community.

_Suzy Robinson, Head of Delivery Management (interim), shares her experiences at Civil Service Live 2025 and what she's learned from attending Civil Service Live over the past few years._ Civil Service Live (CSL) is a great way to learn more about how government works, what other departments are focussing on, and network with colleagues across the board. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s joined the Civil Service recently, and anyone who wants to raise their head from their day-to-day work to collaborate with change makers across government. ## Session highlights from previous years Over the last few years, I’ve attended CSL in London, Newport, Cardiff and Manchester – including in 2023 when I attended as a presenter – co-facilitating a design sprint workshop with Department for Education. At previous events I’ve focused on learning about the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine. I’ve attended everything from Dame Melinda Simmons sharing her experience of being the ambassador to Kyiv during Russia’s invasion, to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government talk about Homes for Ukraine, to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport teams who made sure Eurovision 2023 would honour the winners of the 2022 contest and still go ahead. Other popular talks at Civil Service Live in the last few years included the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Queen’s funeral and lying-in-state queue tracker, and the King’s Coronation. It’s fascinating to see how these events come together to incorporate thousands of years of history. ## A focus on artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) was the hottest topic this year. I attended ‘The Ultimate Hack: get ready for a new era of digital government’ and the AI workshop from the Government Legal Service, where colleagues discussed how their departments are implementing AI. I shared how Defra group is using AI to identify lesions in cattle hooves, and flora and fauna in the seabed. HMRC has implemented chat bots because the helplines are so busy. Some GPs are using ambient voice transcription during patient appointments. A platform called Minute is being trialled in local authorities to create minutes and transcripts. Another platform called Parlex is being used to predict parliamentary responses to a given policy. A common theme throughout these digital conversations was 'digital first but not digital only' and 'humans in the loop'. We need to learn how to work with emerging technology but never forget that our users are real people. ## Leadership to enhance security My biggest takeaway from this year's event was the importance of security. I know what the protocols are, but it’s hard to feel passionate about adhering to them. Attending this year’s packed talk from Cabinet Office's Government Security Group showed me how hard our colleagues are working to keep us safe—not only the more than half a million Civil Servants in the UK, but our friends and families too. I care and understand much more than I used to, and I’m going to put my learnings into place. So much of security is about people—human error, trust between colleagues, dissatisfaction at work. As a line manager, I can take steps to cultivate psychological safety so my direct reports can come to me if they’ve made a mistake, or spot a security breach, and know that I will take the right actions. I can role model and reward good security behaviours. I can intervene to make things better if colleagues aren’t happy in their roles. It can be hard to make time for Civil Service Live, but we all deserve a day away from our desks, soaking up some of the best and brightest ideas in our industry.

_Lucy Hartley, Head of Service Strategy, Ownership and Performance, and Lisa Jeffery, Design Manager, reflect on the work being done to build a shared understanding of services within Defra Group._ Services are how Defra group achieves most of its outcomes but understanding what we mean by a ‘service’ can be hard. People can have different definitions for services, products, capabilities or components. Parts of a service can mean different things to different people. That’s why we’re developing a list of definitions in a ‘service taxonomy model’ to build shared understanding. In this blog post, we’ll discuss what we want to achieve, how we’re working together to develop a model and what we’ve learned so far. ## The problem we're trying to solve The service taxonomy is a model. It will never be a perfect picture of a complex reality but it’s still useful. To start with, we want to use the model to help us develop a shared language. A common understanding of how services enable us to achieve outcomes while meeting user needs. We want to grow awareness of the different parts of a service to support colleagues. We also want to show the difference between products and services and how they work together because colleagues told us this would be helpful. It matters because transforming services is a team sport. We can be more effective and efficient when we’re all working and communicating well together. The model is in support of the Defra Group digital and data transformation strategy and senior service ownership and service mapping work that we’ve shared plans about. It is also in support of a blueprint for modern digital government, which talks of the need to join up public sector services. Plus, it uses the new cross-government definition of service from the Service Manual. The model shows high-level groupings, not all the details within each layer. Different professions such as architecture or design may have their own ways of mapping. This is not intended to replace those, it’s just a way of working together to create a shared understanding or view. In future, we hope to use the model not only to build shared understanding but also shared commonality and reusability in services. ## How we're developing a model The service taxonomy model was first shared internally in September 2024. Since then, we’ve collected feedback from colleagues. This led us to make changes by working together with those who will use the model. We’re now sharing a second version. Of course, it’s still not perfect but it is helping to move us forward on our service transformation journey. We are learning how the model helps us to have better conversations across organisational boundaries and between different professions. We are also learning how the model comes alive though real-world use. In future we will make more changes because the model should always evolve to meet our needs. We’re grateful to have spoken with public sector colleagues about this work. Thanks especially to Tero Väänänen, head of design at NHS England, who spoke to us about how they define services, products and platforms in health and care. Thanks also to Laura Yarrow, head of design at the Government Digital Service, for early support. So far, there’s been good feedback, including on the image of the model, designed by colleague Monica Tuffs, which has the shape of a house. We will continue to gather feedback as we start applying the model to Defra group services, as service designers are doing now. Chris Brooker, principal service designer, said: > “Having a taxonomy is very helpful but how the taxonomy is used and understood matters. We have used the taxonomy to frame interviews with over 40 delivery teams in the Environment Agency. Using the taxonomy definitions, we could see that categorising and scaling capabilities is complicated. There are business, technical and scientific capabilities, and most of what we have are public facing digital products. We have fewer services. > > There will always be complexity and multiple possible definitions but using this taxonomy structure to organise everything we do and gain a common understanding helps us to know where to focus to help users achieve outcomes and meet policy intent.” ## What next? We are working on more examples to show how different people can use the model. We can use it to help map whole services, to show relationships, enabling products or services or duplication. The model is a foundational piece of work that we will build on together. It complements the mapping of whole services that is taking place across Defra Group. Together, we hope this will enable senior service owners to understand the landscape, know their remit and measure success better. We’re keen to connect with more people, to learn from others and to share what we are learning as we progress.

_Helen Eden, Programme Delivery Manager for Flood at Defra, celebrates the success of our Flood Digital Team, who have been recognised for their innovative work in delivering crucial flood risk information to help protect communities across the UK and plan for the future._ Defra’s Flood Digital Team helped to deliver the Environment Agency's new National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA2), which recently won the Digital Excellence Award at the Flood & Coast 2025 Awards. ## Award-winning innovation This achievement recognises the team's dedication to transforming how flood risk information is delivered to both the public and planning professionals. It celebrates the collaborative efforts of our teams who’ve worked tirelessly to integrate complex flood risk data into user-friendly digital services including: * Check your long term flood risk * Flood map for planning ## Improving access to data This ambitious upgrade to essential services means the Environment Agency can easily share both current flood risk information and projected flood risk data for the next 30 years. The previous national flood risk assessment data provided limited information without climate change projections. Updates were difficult to implement, creating backlogs and inconsistencies between national and local modelling. The new NaFRA2 represents a substantial leap forward, offering: * greater accuracy and precision in flood risk mapping * consistent information across local and national levels * an expanded range of flood risk information * regular updates through a more flexible and efficient system * climate change projections showing potential risks over the next 3 decades ## Services designed for users Both service teams worked closely with their target audiences throughout the development process, testing innovative ways to present complex information about climate change and flood depth. This collaborative approach ensured the final services would meet user needs effectively. The 2 upgraded services cater to distinct audiences with specific needs. The ‘Check your long term flood risk’ service is designed for non-technical, public users. It helps them understand flood risk in their area from 4 potential sources – rivers and the sea, surface water, groundwater and reservoirs. The upgraded service provides probabilistic data with yearly flood risk ratings that help people understand their actual level of risk. The ‘Flood map for planning’ service helps planning professionals assess whether developments require a flood risk assessment during the planning process. The upgraded service includes more detailed flood zones based on improved national modelling, surface water data, and crucially, information showing how climate change might impact future flood risk. ## Protecting people and property across the UK These digital innovations directly support ministerial commitments and the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy objectives. By providing better access to high-quality flood risk information, we're helping communities, businesses and planning authorities make informed decisions to enhance resilience against flooding. The teams' work exemplifies how digital services can translate complex environmental data into accessible, actionable information to help protect people and property across the UK. * * * _Check out our  LinkedIn page for all the latest news, stories and job openings. While you're there, why not give us a follow._

_Tim Howard, Deputy Director for Major Projects, Cross-Cutting Technical Services, reflects on his experience of integrating generative AI into software development workflows._ It was great the see Government Digital Service recently launch the AI Playbook for the UK Government, further demonstrating the public sector’s appetite to harness the power of AI technologies safely, effectively and responsibly. At Defra, I’ve been grappling with the impact on software delivery. Is artificial intelligence (AI) going to revolutionise software development, fundamentally changing how we write, test and deploy code? I wanted to explore how generative AI (GenAI) can enhance the software development lifecycle. While GenAI presents immense potential for accelerating coding, reducing manual effort and improving efficiency, it also introduces new challenges that must be managed carefully. Given the rapid evolution of AI capabilities, establishing a structured framework that ensures GenAI is used responsibly and effectively is crucial. This blog post reflects on our experience with integrating GenAI into software development workflows and the need for a new paradigm in software engineering. ## The genesis of the AI software development lifecycle (SDLC) playbook To support this shift, Steven Dickinson, one of Defra’s superb principal developers, assembled a team – tremendous gratitude to Ryan Sikorsky, Todd Anderson, Ben Wilkes and Adam Fletcher – to build an application so we could learn first-hand how to integrate GenAI into software development workflows effectively. This hands-on approach allows us to understand AI-driven development's practical benefits and challenges, ensuring our methodologies remain grounded in real-world applications. Traditional software development methodologies have been built around static requirements and predictable change cycles. However, AI-driven development introduces a dynamic and iterative process that requires ongoing monitoring, adaptation and refinement. To support this shift and share our learnings, we developed the AI SDLC playbook, a guiding framework that: * establishes best practices for incorporating AI into software development * provides structured workflows for AI-powered coding and automation * aligns AI-driven development with ethical and governance standards As AI capabilities advance rapidly, we must rethink conventional software engineering practices. Without careful oversight, we risk deploying hard-to-maintain code that neglects the well-established best practices developed over time to ensure the delivery of quality enterprise software. Without a structured approach, we risk deploying AI-generated code that is inefficient, biased, or misaligned with best practices. ## Leveraging generative AI in software development We learned that to benefit from these tools truly, you have to know what you are doing when it comes to writing code. Senior developers with years of software development exposure are where these tools provide the most productivity benefits. While GenAI can generate code snippets and offer suggestions, understanding their correctness, efficiency and security requires deep expertise. GenAI represents a significant transformation in our approach to coding. Unlike traditional AI, which focuses on prediction and automation, GenAI can generate code, suggest optimisations and even debug programs. The capabilities of agentic integrated development environments (IDEs) are changing daily, and we are seeing the proliferation of these tools and ideas in supporting platforms. However, adopting GenAI requires a measured approach. Some of the key applications of GenAI in software development include: * automated code generation – AI-powered tools like Cursor and Windsurf assist developers by generating code snippets and suggesting optimisations, improving productivity * code review and debugging – AI-enhanced tools can analyse code for vulnerabilities, errors and inefficiencies, accelerating the debugging process * test automation – AI can generate test cases, identify edge cases and improve software quality by automating unit and integration testing * documentation and code explanation – AI can help generate documentation, summarise code functionality and make software more accessible for developers However, these advancements come with challenges, such as: * ensuring code quality – AI-generated code must be rigorously reviewed to maintain security, efficiency and readability * bias and ethical considerations – AI models are trained on existing codebases, which may contain biases or outdated practices * maintaining human oversight – while GenAI can assist in coding, final decision-making must remain with human developers to ensure correctness and adherence to best practices ## Future directions As GenAI becomes more integrated into software development, we must adapt our methodologies and governance frameworks. Key focus areas for the future include: * defining AI-assisted development standards – establishing guidelines for AI-generated code quality, security and best practices * enhancing AI governance – ensuring AI-powered coding tools align with organisational policies and ethical considerations * encouraging responsible AI adoption – educating developers on the strengths and limitations of AI-assisted coding to avoid over-reliance on automation ## Conclusion GenAI is reshaping software development, introducing new efficiencies while requiring careful governance. While the benefits of AI-assisted coding are significant, a responsible and structured approach is essential to ensure quality, security and ethical use. As we move forward in this new paradigm, adopting AI to enhance, rather than replace, human expertise will be key. By thoughtfully integrating GenAI into software development workflows, we can unlock new levels of innovation and productivity while maintaining the highest standards of reliability and governance. We are creating and sharing what we have learned under the Defra AI SDLC Playbook. Let’s embrace this new paradigm with responsibility. **_Tim Howard is Deputy Director for Major Projects, Cross-Cutting Technical Services at Defra.Follow Tim on LinkedIn._**

_Deputy Director for Digital Delivery Richard Baines reflects on designing environments for digital delivery. Moving away from hierarchical culture and change frameworks, he outlines Defra's emerging 'outcome delivery groups' model and how it's being rolled out across the group._ If you ask any digital delivery leader in government what the biggest challenges they face are, there’s a good chance you will end up in a conversation about: * scaling agile delivery * how to set teams up for success * how to ensure everyone is aligned on the outcomes we want to achieve ## Creating a delivery environment Since the introduction of the Service Manual and Agile delivery, the practice of digital service delivery in government has quite rightly moved away from a hierarchical culture and frameworks for governing change that excessively centralise control and design up-front. Governance principles like ‘don’t slow down delivery’ and ‘decisions when they’re needed, at the right level’ have put working services in the hands of citizens faster than ever before, and reduced the risk of time and money being spent developing the wrong things. For delivery teams, the Service Manual and Service Standard give a deep understanding of how to thrive in this environment. However, once you step outside of a team and lead multiple teams – as I first did many years ago – you may become responsible for creating and growing this sort of delivery environment. There is a bewildering array of methodologies aimed at middle and senior managers looking for a template to design their organisation in a way that achieves the same sort of user-centred, iterative delivery outcomes we expect from a small empowered Agile team. Some of us in Digital jokingly call this the “agile industrial complex”. It's full of supposedly turn-key frameworks that _may_ move the organisation towards the right direction, but more often than not in my view, still present hierarchical structures of control. They borrow words from Agile methodologies, but are quite contrary to the principles articulated in the Service Manual. ## 'Do it with the right people' At Defra, when designing our environment for Digital Delivery, we’ve thought a lot about the governance principle 'do it with the right people'. This reminds us to: * make sure the people in your team have all the skills they need * give them the environment, workspace and tools to collaborate, organise and deliver * have a flat organisation structure so everyone in your team can contribute to the team’s success ## Outcome delivery groups We call our environment 'outcome delivery groups' and I’m fortunate to be leading the first, which we’ve piloted with the Animal and Plant Health Agency. As part of the design, we aim to ensure the delivery roadmap is developed in collaboration between digital, operational and policy staff. It's really important to emphasise that digital delivery should never exist in a vacuum inside the organisation. We need close working partnerships between the user researchers deeply listening to the needs of our citizens, and the subject matter experts who understand the impact our policies and services have. The product managers and service designers working on the roadmap and the future digital service vision must work with the policy professionals who deeply understand the needs of ministers and, in our case, the responsibility we have to enhance biosecurity and protect the food supply and welfare of animals and plants across the United Kingdom. There are many reasons for this joined up approach, some of which are outlined in the blueprint for modern digital government (see 'join up public sector services'). However, put simply, it helps our teams to quickly build the right thing, and build the thing right. ## How decisions get made So you might be wondering at this point, how do decisions get made in the outcome delivery group? In the UK government’s governance principles, it states: > “Governance should be simple and supportive. It should trust individuals and give decision-making authority to teams so they can focus on delivering.” The move to product and service centric ownership for us has led to a positive shift towards role based decision making at the right level. As delivery group lead I use our governance forums to coach and support delivery teams in achieving their outcomes. The ceremonies in our delivery group emphasise show and tells, which leads to us understanding delivery a lot better than if we made decisions based on committees receiving lengthy options papers to appraise. There is a noticeable shift in skillset required for this kind of role, moving away from reliance on project and programme methodologies and putting more emphasis on experience in Government Digital and Data practices. So my background in product management and working within delivery teams in the past helps a lot here. There is still the need to support teams with commercial, financial, political and strategic issues – they are present as ever. However, in this modern age, there is an opportunity here for us at Defra to redefine the role of a ‘deputy director for digital delivery’. We can really embody the principles that come from the service manual and role model excellent servant-leadership ourselves. ## Implementing outcome delivery across Defra Looking to what’s next for us in Defra, we are now looking to implement this outcome delivery group approach across the entire group. I’m really enjoying leading this change with my colleagues. I hope you enjoy this and future blog posts we’ll release soon to give more insight into how we’re doing this at scale. **_Richard Baines is Deputy Director of Digital Delivery at Defra. FollowRichard on LinkedIn._**