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How to upskill a team
You may need to build individual capability to get the most out of your multidisciplinary team.
Capability is the combination of skills, knowledge and attributes needed for a role.
In a multidisciplinary team you need people in specific roles to build a service. Ideally, the core team will stay the same through the service design and delivery process. Other roles may change depending on which stage of the process you’re in.
Find strengths and weaknesses
When you set up your multidisciplinary team, you’ll need to assess:
- what capabilities your team members already have
- where they may need to upskill.
You can use the Australian Public Service Commission’s digital learning standards to help decide which capabilities you need to build in your team. Once you are familiar with these, you can recognise existing and transferable skills.
Upskill
For example, you may have a team member who is working as a content designer. They also have some experience in user research. You can find out if that team member:
- is willing to build on their user research skills
- can upskill on the job
- needs training, mentoring or coaching.
Build on previous experience
Your team members may have come from other roles. They may have existing capabilities they can use in their new roles. Spend time with your team to find out what these capabilities are.
Consider the use of the Australian Public Service Commission’s APS Career Pathfinder Tool to explore digital career options across government.
For example, you may discover that a team member has written policy in plain English in a previous role. They can transfer this capability without needing to upskill.
Ways to upskill
By now you should have a clearer idea of where your team needs to upskill. There are a number of ways you can upskill your team.
On-the-job learning
People prefer to learn digital by doing digital. Team members can learn on the job from other people in your team or agency. Arrange for them to shadow those with existing capabilities so they can learn new skills.
You can also use secondments or temporary transfers to and from other agencies. This is a great way to:
- fill temporary gaps in your team
- upskill your own team members.
You can also bring in a specialist contractor on a short-term basis with the capabilities the team needs to work on your service. Make it clear that they will need to upskill team members as part of their work. Ensure they are aware of this from the start, so you get the right person for the job. This way, the capabilities stay in your agency.
You can also encourage your team members to join a cross-government community of practice on the Digital Profession.
Coaching and mentoring
Coaching and mentoring provide opportunities to learn and develop. Be clear on which one of these you need for your team.
Coaching is usually done with a peer of similar experience. A coach:
- helps work out goals and a plan to achieve them
- helps to identify obstacles
- works with people to solve problems
- checks in regularly until the goals are achieved.
Peer-to-peer coaching
Brainstorming ideas and working on solutions with a colleague is a form of peer-to-peer coaching. Mentoring is done by someone with greater expertise and knowledge in an area of learning. A mentor:
- upskills the other person by passing on knowledge
- knows how to ask the right questions
- empowers the mentee to achieve their objectives
- helps develop the mentee for current or future roles.
Find out what coaching or mentoring opportunities your own agency offers or explore opportunities outside your agency. You can then decide on the best option for your team. Your decision may also depend on costs and business objectives.
Training
Decide what training your team needs and consider how it will be delivered. This training can be:
- delivered in-house at your agency
- procured through a training provider
- completed through an existing course
- on the job learning.
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The stages do not need to be performed in order. For example, a service in Beta might go back to the Discovery if the team learn they’re working on the wrong problem.
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Communicate the benefits
To change the way you work, you need support and budget from decision makers. You can get this by communicating the benefits of the service design and delivery process.
Align with best practice
Governments around the world, including the UK and the US, follow similar processes to add value to their services and citizens.
Deliver the right thing
Service design and delivery builds end-to-end services to help users get from point A to point B in the way that suits them best. This means services will be more inclusive to everyone, including those with diverse needs.
Deliver quickly
Releasing in regular intervals rather than all at once allows users to test and give feedback on what needs work. This means you can prioritise resources to the user need. When releases become routine for a team rather than major milestones, they’ll make better use of their time working towards what matters.
Provide visibility
Working in an agile way gives you lots of opportunity to communicate your progress and findings through artefacts. Regular showcases provide visibility of the work and help you quickly discover if something is not meeting user needs.
Be adaptable
Learning about your users early helps you to make better decisions about how to meet their needs with the resources available.
Manage risk
When you follow the service design and delivery process, you’ll test assumptions early on. This helps you identify and prioritise risks based on data. You'll break risks into small, manageable pieces and release updates often.
Make a business case
Make sure you understand your organisation's goals. You may need to make a business case that shows how using the process will help you meet those goals.
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Get support
Be clear from the start what support you need from other people. This might include the authority to recruit the right roles and capability for the team.
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For example, the process will help you build quicker, which reduces the cost of running a team.
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Learn how to own the whole user experience
Now you understand the benefits of the service design and delivery process, find out what it means to own the whole user experience
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Get in touch
For further information, please visit Digital Profession
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Remember that a team member can cover several roles from different disciplines. For example, your content designer may also do user research.
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Service manager
The service manager is responsible for the whole user experience. They are available to the team, but not with them all the time. They are sometimes called the senior responsible officer or experience owner.
Service managers:
- are a senior executive who can unblock obstacles
- are an experienced leader with a strong understanding of their service and its users
- champion the service at the most senior levels of the Australian Public Service
- ensure the service is delivered on time and budget, and meets user needs
- help make sure internal processes focus on achieving results
- create actionable insights to guide work.
Product manager
The product manager leads the strategic direction and delivery of the service or product. Sometimes called a product owner.
Product managers:
- work with the user researcher and service designer to understand the current service
- work with the team to set the vision for improving the service
- work with the user researcher, service designer and delivery manager to make sure the service meets user needs
- own and manage the product backlog
- prioritise user stories
- accept user stories when they’re delivered
- manage stakeholder engagement
- manage approvals and budget
- develop the right team culture
- are available to answer questions from the team.
Delivery manager
The delivery manager supports multidisciplinary teams to deliver simple, clear and fast services. Sometimes called a scrum master.
Delivery managers:
- help the team work in an agile way
- build a user-centred service
- reduce risk by regularly releasing and improving parts of the service
- iterate frequently to meet user needs
- monitor team delivery
- help remove blockers to progress
- work with the product manager to plan how to deliver the service and products
- run daily stand up and weekly team meetings
- make sure the product backlog is up to date
- manage the budget with the product manager.
User researcher
The user researcher helps the team develop a deep understanding of users and their needs.
User researchers:
- build an understanding of the users and their behaviour
- work with the product manager and designers to prioritise work to meet user needs
- run research sessions with users
- analyse and share findings
- provide insights on how users interact with the service or product.
Content strategist
The content strategist creates a plan to deliver content that meets user and agency needs.
Content strategists:
- develop a content strategy that guides the creation of clear and well-structured content for the product or service
- focus on the planning, structure, process, creation, delivery, governance and archiving of content
- align content with business goals and user needs
- audit content
- help create information architecture
- develops and implement measures of success.
Learn more at the Digital Transformation Agency’s Content Strategy Guide.
Content designer
The content designer makes sure all content meets user needs. This includes the text, visuals and interactive content.
Content designers:
- work with subject matter experts to write clear text in plain language
- review content to make sure it’s accurate and written in line with the Content Guide
- structure content to reflect how users read online and on different devices
- make sure content is accessible and inclusive
- make sure content is searchable and findable
- use research and data to make sure content meets user needs
- communicate the principles of content design to your team and agency.
Service designer
The service designer identifies how a service can meet user needs.
Service designers:
- design the end-to-end service, from legislation or policy to service delivery
- make decisions based on user research
- design a service that meets user and agency needs
- make sure the service meets web standards for all users, channels and touchpoints
- create a blueprint or map of the proposed service
- make sure the main parts of the service are built in from the start
- help the team to develop and iterate the service or product
- make sure the service and product are consistent for users.
Interaction designer
The interaction designer creates the user interface for the service. Interaction designers:
- design the interface to work across devices and browsers
- make sure the interface meets web standards, including accessibility
- make sure users have a consistent experience across the service
- build the user interface with responsive design methods using common design patterns
- share with the design community to improve future designs
- prototype and test services or products, or work with developers to make prototypes.
Technology lead
The technology lead finds the best technology solutions to deliver a service. They are sometimes called a lead engineer.
Technology leads:
- develop and implement the tech strategy for the product or service
- consider what is technically and financially viable
- make sure the technology works with your agency’s enterprise architecture
- guide and carry out the implementation of technology
- are aware of current and emerging technologies
- make decisions about technology that reduce service support and maintenance costs.
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Service design and delivery process
The service design and delivery process guides teams to deliver simple and seamless services.
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