Digital Innovation Team
Organisations across our client sectors struggle to innovate at pace and address rapidly changing technological demands while maintaining a user-centered approach.
— Internal organisation research outcome 2021
Opportunity validation
Research identified the need to leverage startup-like agility within a corporate structure to solve complex client problems through innovative digital solutions.
Key Issues Identified:
Slow adoption of cutting-edge technologies in large enterprises.
Difficulty in validating solutions through real-user engagement.
A need for scalable solutions that integrate hybrid cloud, AI, and advanced technologies.
A digital innovation team was established to address these issues, ensuring each solution was grounded in user needs and validated through iterative testing.
Complementary offerings are designed to work together seamlessly, providing tailored solutions for unique and complex challenges.
A flexible approach
Dave played a crucial role in shaping milkFloat’s approach, blending agility with corporate resources. The process involved:
User-Centered Research: Engaged with SMEs, stakeholders, and end-users to gather insights and identify pain points. Real-user engagement was prioritised at every stage.
Workshop Facilitation: Led co-creation workshops with clients to align on goals and identify key opportunities.
Rapid Prototyping: Transformed insights into tangible prototypes, testing and refining through iterative usability testing.
Solution Validation: Employed cutting-edge tools and methodologies, such as generative AI and hybrid cloud, to ensure solutions addressed user and business needs effectively.
Mentorship and Knowledge Sharing: Acted as a design leader, mentoring the team in accessibility, user-centred design (UCD), and usability testing practices.
Key skills
Workshop
Facilitation
Concept
ideation
User
Experience
User
Testing
Client
Playback
Impact delivered
Dave led the digital innovation team, developing its complimentary offerings while scaling the team to deliver 30+ client innovation deliveries.
Notable Achievements:
Introduced best practice user research, rapid design techniques and Alpha/Beta/Live delivery to legacy industries.
Spearheaded the development of hybrid cloud solutions and AI-driven innovations that resonated with user needs and business objectives.
Delivered high-level client satisfaction and increased client engagement through co-creation techniques validated through usability testing and architecture de-risking.
Digital innovation team won a prestigious BAE Systems Chairman’s Award for digital transformation.
Lessons Learnt
Adaptability is Key:
Operating at the intersection of corporate and startup cultures requires flexibility. Adapting processes to maintain agility while leveraging enterprise resources was a constant learning curve.
User Involvement Drives Success:
Validating concepts with real users early and often significantly improved solution effectiveness and client satisfaction.
Innovation Requires Collaboration:
Working closely with clients, SMEs, and cross-functional teams was critical to delivering novel, but sustainable solutions.
Design Leadership is Transformational:
Mentoring and empowering the client team in UCD and accessibility ensured that user-centered practices were embedded in every engagement, driving operationally ready deliverables.