Journey To Digital Maturity
A journey to digital maturity looks very similar across all types of school, & strategy plays an important role across the whole process, however there are many challenges faced at each step. Each challenge presents a potential opportunity for DfE intervention or support.
Basic diagram of the components that will make up the minimal viable product
MVP
Focus on the Digital Strategy service specifically - most likely Audit & Objectives timescales, or a “thin slice” of all the Digital Strategy components including Evidence and Vision. The intention is it is worked into a central hub at a later date.
Basic diagram of the components that will make up the minimal viable product
User Research
According to our target users, DfE support for digital strategy should:
- encourage current ways of sharing knowledge around schools
- show how it’s being done rather than just say it needs to be done
- be the impartial voice with positive and “school-appropriate” language
- improve small things quickly
- make direct support easily available
Other key findings:
- There is work to do to bridge the gap between tech and curriculum by aligning the specialists in those areas and bring them together in an holistic fashion during planning.
- Schools want to be empowered to do things themselves, but with a supporting ‘Arm around the shoulder’; this has resulted in a high appetite for a digital solution, but with offline reinforcement to call upon.
- The level of digital maturity and mindset in the school has an impact on how a digital service will be adopted.
How might we deliver a service that supports schools create a good digital strategy, and that users find valuable?
- by the end of Alpha we want to understand what is the best way to support schools along the stages described in the previous slide
- any proposed intervention needs to take into account our users main blockers (time, resources, money)
- this support may be a mix of digital and non-digital interventions
- if there is a need for a digital service, the Alpha should identify what is deliverable to show early value to users (there is a preference in DfE if possible, to deliver something within this financial year).
What are the outcomes for Alpha?
- confirmation (or otherwise) with potential users of the service that the steps of the end to end digital strategy process are correct
- a high level set of interventions that DfE stakeholders agree are best suited to deliver different stages of the end to end process
- we will close the digital team if none of the identified interventions are digital
- for any digital interventions, an MVP has been identified that offers value to users, meets DfE requirements regarding timescales and can be built on in the future to iterate towards a product vision
- the Product Manager has defined the Product Vision for the next 3 - 5 years to iterate the service towards the end to end service