When we talk about incredible digital transformations in Interface Magazine, it’s really only a snapshot of an organisation. In reality, this kind of digital transformation is an ongoing process with no end. When we spoke to Jacqs Harper and Dave Ankers from Nuffield Health in 2022, they had a few things in mind to keep them busy as the charity’s big change evolved.
However, as this transformation evolved, an explosion of change happened in so many directions. Far more than the organisation’s technology team intended. Harper (who leads Technology at Nuffield Health), Ankers (IT Strategy & Delivery Director), and Mark Howard (Head of Technology Engineering) have followed up over 18 months after the initial interview to really dig into all the exciting things that have changed since then, and expand on all of Nuffield Health’s ambitious plans.
Changing horizons of a digital tranformation
The last time we spoke with Nuffield’s technology experts, the story was based around experiences, business agility, and foundational change. Since then, a major change for Nuffield Health has been moving to a product-led operating model.
“We wanted to be closer to our business stakeholders,” explains Harper regarding the change during its ongoing digital transformation. “We also wanted to understand the outcomes they wanted to drive. This allows us to be more productive, in the sense that we pivot from just completing tasks that people send to us, and more towards finding solutions to business problems and influencing outcomes. This helps us deliver more value to the charity.”
Agile working
A year into the shift to a product-led operating model, Nuffield Health is seeing fantastic results. The most exciting of these are in the delivery space. Year on year, comparing the same time period, the organisation has quadrupled its tech deliveries in 2024 versus 2023. A big reason for this is the move to more agile working.
“Agile working means you’re chunking down your projects into smaller deliverables,” explains Harper. “That increases the volume quite a bit and means you’re seeing that iterative delivery of value. Another reason for that 400% improvement is that our squad structure means there are fewer handoffs than with our old model, which improves speed to market. Additionally, a wider leadership team that meets regularly and is focused on removing impediments to delivery really helps.”
