How to develop digital services the right way | The Knowledge Academy

In an increasingly digital-defined world, it has become more important than ever for project managers to understand the digital landscape and develop digital services to meet the needs of their customers and users.

The UK government has seen great success in creating and implementing design guidance for building digital services. The cornerstone of these standards is a set of core principles that all digital projects must meet. By ensuring their projects follow these principles, they have become a world leader in digital services, setting an example for governments in countries including the USA, Canada and New Zealand.

Now, businesses are increasingly looking to make use of their own guidelines for navigating and managing the digital landscape.

A key defining component of these guidelines is their plainness; rather than using technical language or going into specific details, they demystify the idea of ‘digital’ by using terms that everyone can understand. By following them, digital project teams increase their chances of a successful outcome.

Inspired by governmental efforts, our project management experts have come up with 12 core DSPs (Digital Service Principles) which we believe businesses can use to transform their approach to digital services.

Devlop digital services by researching and understanding your users

Researching the needs of your users right from the beginning ensures that your product is fit for purpose. Continuous research and feedback post-launch will improve responsiveness and effectiveness.

Create a multidisciplinary team

Diversity in your team will encourage a range of viewpoints, providing insights you may not have spotted otherwise.

Make use of agile methods

Agile qualifications are commonly used in digital service development because of its flexibility towards change. The benefits of using agile guidelines include allowing you to continually incorporate user feedback from the beginning.

Iterate and evaluate frequently

This goes hand in hand with the previous point. Frequent evaluations and updates ensure the product continually meets user needs.

Be aware of security and privacy protocols

Security and privacy are huge considerations for users. It is important to understand these threats and consider them in your design, as any doubts about safety may detract from the user experience, or even put users off using your service entirely.

Establish service code as being open source

Using open source code means your developers and even your users can help you to improve your service and fix errors. More eyes on your code means more chance to spot bugs.

Utilise open standards and common platforms

Open standards and common platforms bring with them brand recognition, helping your service be noticed and adding to your company or organisation’s reputation. It will also be easier to make your service compatible with other technologies.

Test the end-to-end experience of the service holistically

Testing the service end to end ensures problems can be detected at any stage and that your service caters for all its potential and target users.

Plan for service disruptions

No digital service can be 100% up all the time. Planning for downtime will ensure both you and your users are not caught out in the event of an outage.

Ensure that users succeed the first time

Your service should be so simple to use that users know how to find what they’re looking for quickly and without difficulty.

Make the user experience consistent across your brand

Ensuring all your services offer a consistent look and feel will help you to establish your brand and mean users will know what to expect when using any of your products.

Encourage everyone to make use of the digital service

You’ve created your service to improve on previous systems, so encourage your customers to switch to it by explaining the benefits it offers.

Collect performance data

Monitoring analytics and user statistics helps you evaluate how successful the service really is and whether it’s meeting the needs and expectations of users.

Test the service with the most senior member of staff responsible

The highest person in your organisation is accountable for the work you produce; they also have a holistic view of it. They should test the service during all stages of development in which you have a usable prototype.

What’s next?

So that’s the 12 principles summarised. But how do you implement them? That’s where our new course, Certified Digital Services Project Manager comes in. Designed especially for project managers involved in digital service development, our Certified Digital Services Project Manager course will show you how to deliver cost-effective projects throughout the entire life cycle by putting customers first, allowing you to follow government standards for non-governmental projects.

Inspired by core UK government guidelines, the course emphasises responding to user feedback in order to deliver satisfying user experiences, as well as defining a digital services lifecycle which will allow you to incorporate this feedback into the design process. It's available in the UK now, with more countries to follow.