27901 - Business Product Owner

The postholder will be expected to work flexibly and spend at least three days per week in Southern House, Croydon.

This appointment will be made on a fixed term appointment, due to the time limited nature of the Crime Programme. For existing civil servants, whilst the role itself is time limited, you will retain permanent civil servant status and successful appointment on promotion will secure this grade on a substantive basis.

It is an extremely exciting time here at HM Courts and Tribunals Service. We are currently undertaking a first-of-its-kind Change Programme aimed at delivering pioneering judicial services that better serve the public, and with over £1 Billion of funding this is the most ambitious programme of its kind anywhere in the world.

The Programme includes modernising the court estate, utilising the latest technology to digitise services where appropriate, speeding up and streamlining working practices, refurbishing buildings to reduce maintenance costs and provide much improved services for service users, especially vulnerable witnesses and victims.

The Programme is ambitious and we need resilient, resourceful and adaptable people to make it happen. This is an opportunity to gain fantastic experience in a major transformation programme, develop a range of effective business skills and play a key role in how justice is delivered in this country.

Can you deliver in a fast-paced environment that is changing constantly? Does developing pioneering new services focussed on the end-user excite you? If so, please read on and apply today.

Crime Programme

The Crime Programme is a key part of the HMCTS Change Programme and is delivering key aspects of the Crown Prosecution Service’s CJS Strategy & Action Plan (who are delivering the Programme in partnership). It is a business transformation programme which will enable the criminal justice system, and the individual agencies working within it, to fundamentally change the way they work, to be more efficient and effective and deliver a better service for society and taxpayers.

For the first time, criminal case information will be kept together in one place, instead of being re-entered and replicated on numerous different systems. Parties will be able to access and update the same data set based on their security profile and associated access rights. The initial focus is on processes and systems in HMCTS and CPS, and the interfaces with the legal defence community, Police, NOMS and other prosecuting authorities with respect to cases heard in the Magistrates’ and Crown Courts in England and Wales.

Overview

The postholder will act as a link between the Crime Programme Service Owners and the digital development teams. They will give guidance on proposed business change and ensure that the digital services are developed to support the Crime Service Model. As a strategic leader the postholder will provide clear direction and focus, visibly drawing out and championing the changes which deliver greater efficiencies. Strong communication and influencing skills will be essential as the role will involve working closely with stakeholders, staff, managers and members of the judiciary, to help design and implement new business processes whilst also helping them to understand and come to terms with the impact of the changes.

Key Responsibilities

The postholder will be responsible for the delivery, ongoing success and continuous improvement of one or more digital products and/or services. The main responsibilities of the role are:-

Operations

• To ensure that the digital services are developed to support the Crime Service Model to maximise the benefits achievable from radical process re-design;
• To work collaboratively with the Service Managers, Business Change Team and other Business Product Owners in developing and implementing new business processes;
• To ensure that user needs are understood and are driven in line with the Service Model and end-to-end process description, and utilise the continuous development skills embedded in both HMCTS and CPS and managing any tension between user need and national standardisation and simplification requirements;
• With the Service Managers, to prioritise requirements according to business value and choose which to be addressed through each development ‘sprint’ i.e. 2 week cycle;
• To attend planning meetings prior to each ‘sprint’ start and approve the ‘sprint’ work package;
• To work with the Team Leader/Delivery Manager or equivalent to ensure that the technical team understand the business requirements and that appropriate time and resources are allocated to each sprint;
• To lead all ‘show and tells’, providing feedback and/or approval of the work done;
• To agree and secure business resources for User Acceptance Testing;
• To recommend when the product can be released to the business;
• To liaise with the other Business Product Owners to ensure compatibility of approach and clear interfaces between developments;
• To ensure lessons learned are captured and pass on knowledge to subsequent product owners;
• To gather user requirements based on a communicable understanding of diverse audience groups;
• To underpin the delivery and iteration of digital services through effective analysis of qualitative and quantitative user data.

Leadership

• To demonstrate visible leadership and build commitment of all stakeholders (staff, managers and members of the judiciary) to the introduction of new business processes;
• To identify and manage a business reference group to ensure support and challenge through the development process and that the product meets the needs of all user groups;
• To lead one or more multi-disciplinary delivery teams to deliver excellent new products and/or iterations to existing products to meet user needs;
• To keep continually abreast of changes to user habits, preferences and behaviours across various digital platforms and their implications for successful delivery of government digital services.

Stakeholder Engagement

• To work with CPS stakeholders, HMCTS staff, managers and members of the judiciary to re-define the day to day workings of criminal court processes;
• To engage with the business to identify user requirements including linking with any user research;
• To ensure that all the needs of the key stakeholders are reflected;
• To define and get user buy in for product definition and delivery approach.

Accountability

• Accountable to the Crime Programme Lead Business Product Owner

Other Duties

The post holder is required to work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties reasonably requested by line management which are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of this post.

Experience

Essential Criteria

• Experience of working within the Criminal Justice System.

Desirable Criteria

• Recent Crown Court or Magistrates’ Court work experience
• Hands-on Experience of at least one of the major business process re-design approaches e.g. Lean, Value Stream

Mapping;

• Proven track record of strong stakeholder management.
• Able to link strategic and operational priorities and change event design so that the events enable people to understand the change and what they need to do;
• Some experience or understanding of agile methodologies or of working in an agile environment

Relevant MoJ Competencies

You will be required to provide evidence of the following key competencies at Level 4

Seeing the Big Picture

• Anticipate economic, social, political, environmental and technological developments to keep activity relevant and targeted;
• Identify implications of Departmental and political priorities and strategy on own area to ensure plans and activities reflect these;
• Create policies, plans and service provision to meet citizens’ diverse needs based on an up-to-date knowledge of needs, issues and relevant good practice;
• Ensures relevant issues relating to their activity/policy area are effectively fed into strategy and big picture considerations;
• Adopt a Government-wide perspective to ensure alignment of activity and policy;
• Bring together views and perspectives of stakeholders to gain a wider picture of the landscape surrounding activities and policies.

Changing and Improving

• Understand and identify the role of technology in public service delivery and policy implementation;
• Effectively capture, utilise and share customer insight and views from a diverse range of stakeholders to ensure better policy and delivery;
• Spot warning signs of things going wrong and provide a decisive response to significant delivery challenges;
• Provide constructive challenge to senior management on change proposals which will affect own business area;
• Consider the cumulative impact on own business area of implementing change (culture, structure, service and morale).

Making Effective Decisions

• Push decision making to the right level within their teams, not allow unnecessary bureaucracy and structure to suppress innovation and delivery;
• Weigh up data from various sources, recognising when to bring in experts/researchers to add to available information;
• Analyse and evaluate pros and cons and identify risks in order to make decisions that take account of the wider context, including diversity and sustainability;
• Draw together and present reasonable conclusions from a wide range of incomplete and complex evidence and data – able to act or decide even when details are not clear;
• Identify the main issues in complex problems, clarify understanding or stakeholder expectations, to seek best option;
• Make difficult decisions by pragmatically weighing the complexities involved against the need to act.

Leading and Communicating

• Be visible to staff and stakeholders and regularly undertake activities to engage and build trust with people involved in area of work;
• Clarify strategies and plans, giving clear sense of direction and purpose for self and team;
• Stand by, promote or defend own and team’s actions and decisions where needed;
• Confidently engage with stakeholders and colleagues at all levels to generate commitment to goals;
• Lead by example, role modelling ethics, integrity, impartiality and the elimination of bias by building diverse teams and promoting a working environment that supports the Civil Service values and code;
• Be open and inviting of the views of others and respond despite pressure to ignore, revert or concede.

Collaborating and Partnering

• Actively build and maintain a network of colleagues and contacts to achieve progress on objectives and shared interests;
• Demonstrate genuine care for staff and others – build strong interpersonal relationships;
• Encourage contributions and involvement from a broad and diverse range of staff by being visible and accessible;
• Effectively manage team dynamics when working across Departmental and other boundaries;
• Actively involve partners to deliver a business outcome through collaboration that achieves better results for citizens;
• Seek constructive outcomes in discussions, challenge assumptions but remain willing to compromise when it is beneficial to progress.

Delivering at Pace

• Get the best out of people by giving enthusiastic and encouraging messages about priorities, objectives and expectations;
• Clarify business priorities, roles and responsibilities and secure individual and team ownership;
• Adopt clear processes and standards for managing performance at all levels;
• Act as a role model in supporting and energising teams to build confidence in their ability to deliver outcomes;
• Maintain effective performance in difficult and challenging circumstances, encouraging others to do the same;
• Review, challenge and adjust performance levels to ensure quality outcomes are delivered on time, rewarding success.