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Matching user needs with tech capabilities

Dave Briggs

15 September 2021

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Housekeeping

Aiming for 45 mins
This will be recorded and shared online
Please mute unless talking
Hands up if you’d like to contribute or use chat
Slides etc will be shared at the end
If certificates are important to you, I can make you one

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Hi, I’m Dave 👋

�I’ve worked loads in digital roles across government, mostly.

I help local public services improve and innovate using digital and technology.

I share stuff at sensibletech.co.uk

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What we are talking about today

Matching user needs to tech capabilities.

sensibletech.co.uk/matching-user-needs-with-tech-capabilities/

A simple method to help figure out the best, easiest, cheapest way to meet user needs by choosing the right technology that suits your context.

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This will help you

by encouraging people to consider the user needs they are trying to meet before thinking about technology solutions (always tempting, but dangerous!)
by reinforcing the message about capability-based technology delivery, as opposed to always thinking in terms of single monolithic systems
both these things will help make better and cheaper services

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User needs

A way to document the outcome your users need from your service.

It is user centred, not organisation centred.

Ensuring they are met leads to services that are well used and save money.

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Defining user needs

As a…
I need to…
So that I can…

See sensibletech.co.uk/creating-good-simple-user-stories for more on this.

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Publishing
Booking
Reporting
Payments
Case management

Notifications
Signatures
Chat
Uploads
Document management

Technology capabilities

The essential building blocks of a digital service

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How far can we take them?

There is a dream that we could one day use such capabilities throughout our organisations.

However, this is a massive challenge. But we can certainly always look to re-use existing technology when considering how to meet user needs.

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Enough background!

Imagine a scene. You’ve just started work on a new project which involves choosing and implementing some new technology.

You’ve managed to convince the service not to buy the thing they really want to buy, at least not right away.

But what should you buy? If anything?

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Choose capabilities based on user needs

Rather than thinking in terms of needing a whole system, break down what you need into individual capabilities, and make sure they are based on user needs.

That way, you might find that you don’t need to buy anything, or that at the very least, you can re-use some elements.

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The method

This is really simple! You can workshop it with post its, or just use the table.

Write down your user needs
Convert them into a task
Describe the tech capability needed to complete the task
Note down ways you currently have to fill that capability

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The template

Here’s a link to the Google Doc version of the template – you can download it into Word if you like.

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Let’s run through some examples…

[slides end]