Jolyon Hogarth-Scott

East Riding Council has adopted a formal policy for the use of generative AI. I wouldn't swear to it, but think this is a first for local government in the UK. Given the increasing use of the technology, and a sense that it could provide big gains in productivity, I should we'll see a lot more local authorities laying down clear rules for its deployment. While the policy lays out steps and safeguards that will be familiar to people in digital roles, it should provide useful guidance to those who are not familiar with debates on the safe and ethical use of digital tech. https://lnkd.in/eUkbQrGh #localgovernment #genai #generativeai

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If you're starting to think about Q3 planning, why not take a leaf out of The 12 Week Year? Here's how I'd start: https://lnkd.in/es8Ptnm2 #quarterlyplanning #goals #product

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EARLY RESULTS ARE IN 🥁 We’ve been internally testing the 🧞‍♂️ for around 10 days now, and although there has inevitably been the odd boarding flow improvement requested, and the odd bug that needed to be fixed along with UX request changes, the overriding response from all that have seen the Genie and played with it for the last week is…… That it’s by FAR the most innovative and ahead of its time payment application seen to date, 🤯 It’s what we expected the response to be to be honest, weve heard all of the accolades that we expected that we might hear on the release of this, “Game changer” “too good” “how have you created this so quick” “this is the best app I’ve seen period” and soooo many nice bits of feedback received to date. BUT I want to hear the pitfalls! - what’s wrong with it, what doesn’t it do you wish it did, how can we IMPROVE it. So - we will keep testing and gaining feedback until it’s absolutely on point ready for the big launch in January. 🚀 And whilst it’s always lovely to hear that the ideas that we had have rendered into software that will ultimately be of use to merchants and our partners, my mind has immeadiatly shifted to version 2 and the additional features that will bring on the next release. Now the fun part starts - the commercialisation of the product, working on our GTM strategy and distribution strategy to get this product far and wide! Interested in being part of that journey? 👇🏼 📧 [email protected]

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Our mission is to connect the dots. One outcome we aim to support is more joined-up government. #systemsthinking #joinedupgovernment #regenerate #climateaction

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❓ Is the UK Primed to Birth the Next Generation of Tech Decacorns, and if Yes, What's the Blueprint? Jody Ford, CEO of Trainline, drew attention to the UK's illustrious past in industries such as steel, oil, and banking, followed by successes in pharmaceuticals and consumer goods. However, he pointed out a glaring gap: the tech sector's underperformance compared to the US counterparts. Ford stressed the urgent need for the UK to foster an environment where tech companies get easy access to capital, a fair regulatory framework that companies can flourish, expand, and compete worldwide. But here's the exciting part: We have the potential to birth tech giants not only in traditional sectors but also in innovative areas like oral health. Take Presto Dental, for instance—a pioneering startup poised to revolutionize oral healthcare globally. Let's seize this opportunity to propel the UK's tech scene to new heights. Time to make it happen! #techEntrepreneurs #companybuilders #UKTechRevolution #Innovation #PrestoDental #Oralhealth #Dentaltech #preseed #funding

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Are you using old research technology? Spare a thought for the team at NASA, who needed to patch a bug in software that is nearly 50 years old ... from 15 billion miles away. Just one of the stories in this week's Research Tools Radar from Insight Platforms 👇 Link in Comments👇 Check out new listings for Make Opinion, Glaut, Odaptos, Collectif and TraQline; and product launches from Zappi, Dig Insights, Livepanel, Kantar and others. Subscribe to get the email every Wednesday. #marketresearch #innovation #ai #insights #technology

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This is huge for us! When we say dashboards, you think, "Murh, so what?" Brilliant Dashboards are different—everything you previously could output to a report is now available on the screen—18 different chart types and feedback text at 5 different levels based on the respondents' answers and scores —for individuals, teams, 360s, and organizations. Drill down and user filtering are two big features that we deliver on screen that static reports can't. Huge!

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I'm not just a startup founder... When my investors invested in Stitcht they were surprised by the detailed mapping of the Stitcht service that I'd done to understand how the whole business is delivered and centred it around the customer experience. Rarely do founders apply this level of thinking to their business. I did it because I come from the world of digital product design and delivery and have spent many years running teams to deliver apps, websites and platforms to clients as a Product Management expert. I had a lightbulb moment. Many startups can't afford these kinds of skills until they have bigger budgets and so I now offer short workshops to upskill founders on the tools, techniques and product mindset they can bring to their business. Thanks so much Vanessa Anderson for the shout out. Comment or DM me if you want to know more. #productmanagement #startupfounder #usercentreddesign

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What to do with existing products and services under the European Accessibility Act? Weekly, I have conversations with organisations that believe they've still got plenty of time to solve accessibility barriers because they've read that, for existing situations, there's an extended deadline until June 2030. It's always a shock when they learn that that's probably not the case! Yes, there's an extended deadline, BUT, that only applies if the product or services remains unchanged. So you get to 'freeze' your product for 5 years. Which company does that to a live service? Could you imagine not being able to update your website, change content, add features, fix bugs? Make a change, and suddenly the extended deadline no longer applies! Don't rely on extended deadlines, act now. The best time to have started your accessibility journey was yesterday, but the second-best is taking the first step today. #Accessibility #Toegankelijkheid #A11y #Europe #EuropeanAccessibilityAct #Compliance #RonnyTalksA11y

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Join the Product Leaders Community for Central Government, Local Government, Higher Education, Healthcare and Charities https://lnkd.in/ezBrV8Rd The largest network of its kind in the UK, we are a mix of over 100 product leaders supporting each other to do good. I started this community so we can share and help each other with common challenges and opportunities. We use a WhatsApp Community to run out network sharing insights on moving from programmes to product, Discovery, products vs services, platforms and loads more. We meetup once a month for a videocall curated around the most popular topic of the time. We're designed to be an inclusive and safe space to share with peers. Find out more and register at https://lnkd.in/ezBrV8Rd #productleader #network #community #communityofpractice #techforgood #civictech #nonprofit #charity #highereducation #government #localgovernment #healthcare

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📢 This is what happens when you give away your data – you lose control over how far it can go. Recent news reveals that Meta plans to use user data from Facebook in the UK and Ireland to train its AI algorithms. This move raises important questions about data privacy and how personal information is being used beyond its original purpose. 🤔 As users, we often share our data without fully understanding the consequences or how it may be leveraged in the future. With the rise of AI and the increasing demand for data, the line between innovation and privacy becomes more blurred. 🔍 It’s crucial to stay informed and take ownership of your data. What are your thoughts on how companies like Meta should handle our data? Is this the future we signed up for? #DataPrivacy #AI #UserRights #Meta #Facebook #AITraining #UserData https://lnkd.in/deUaqK8g

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Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield has made a bold assertion - that he (and other tech bros) could automate ‘huge chunks’ of government in 2-3 years. 🏢 Blomfield's perspective reveals several fundamental misunderstandings about the nature of public service delivery. 🎖️ He equates running a digital bank with managing complex public services. 🧬 He fails to grasp the complexity of public services. 🏘️ Public services deal with intricate human needs and societal challenges that often resist simple technical solutions. 🙏🏽 Unlike tech products, they must serve everyone, not just profitable market segments. 😬 They handle complex edge cases and vulnerable populations. ⚖️ They balance multiple competing public interests. 🗳️ They maintain democratic accountability and transparency. 👨🏽‍⚖️ They operate within strict legal and regulatory frameworks. ♿️ They provide universal access regardless of cost. Blomfield’s view demonstrates a classic Silicon Valley fallacy - he equates customer transactions with citizen rights and entitlements. He also mistakes market efficiency for public good and he implies technical solutions can replace the need for social outcomes. There’s a fundamental misunderstanding here too in relation to public value. 💷 Public services cannot simply optimise for efficiency or profit. They must consider broader social impacts and externalities. They require careful consideration of equity and fairness. They need robust democratic oversight and accountability and they have statutory obligations that cannot be automated away. Blomfield’s 2-3 year timeline reveals naïveté too. He underestimates the scale and complexity of how things get done in government. He overlooks the need for extensive public consultation. He ignores legal and regulatory requirements. He dismisses the importance of proper impact assessments. He underestimates the risks of system failure to vulnerable populations. 🚻 Public service delivery is complex and requires careful, equitable implementation. 💻 Technological solutionism and private sector bias are naive at best and sinister at worst. Let’s not champion simple solutions or keep repeating the trope that ‘private sector best’ - although nor should we become entrenched in the view that ‘private sector evil’ when it comes to public services. We need to accept both public and private sector have lots to gain from collaboration. Hassan Chaudhury HonFAPM Pilar Fernandez Hermida Philippe GERWILL Clive Flashman 💙 Lee Davies

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In other HUGE Monzo Bank news, they working with Google Cloud to create AND shape a data analytics hub that can help it grow with its customers 📈 ☁ 🏦 Monzo are multi-cloud and Google Cloud has been INTEGRAL in building its data analysis hub helping to provide them with data that can empower ALL of its teams to get the insights that can drive better business decisions. 🤖 🔎 As Monzo continue to grow, they are using ML to develop its NEW experimental customer demand forecasting system and has ALREADY completed early experiments for predicting outcomes related to customer experience and auto-complete search queries. To train its ML models, the bank analyzes data sets like its support help articles on BigQuery using Vertex AI as this way they can test, build, AND monitor ML models as it continues to refine and iterate on them. 👨‍💻 “We generate a lot of data on our back end and also on our front end, from our systems, services, and our customers using the app,” says Suhail Patel Senior Staff Engineer at Monzo. “We use that in a multitude of ways, for example, to provide better customer support by sharing insights with customers about how they’re spending their money.” “With BigQuery we can have all the data we need to effectively make business-critical decisions, and analyze the impact of complex incidents when something goes wrong. For us, this is like having a superpower,” “We empower all of our engineers and all of our technical staff with BigQuery data across the organization,” says Patel. “We leverage BigQuery’s scale and capabilities to run complex pipelines and data modeling to surface detailed customer and business insights.” “As Google Cloud team operates both within the UK and across other markets, their geographical reach is a key strategic advantage which aligns with our global ambition” Read more on the link below! 👇 Irina Sukhikh TS Anil AJ Coyne Fernando Fanton Matej Pfajfar Kirby Mosenthal David Brewerton #monzo #googlecloud #cloudbanking #dataanalytics #digitalbank #customerexperience #multicloud #bigquery #machinelearning

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Did you know that you can join the Innovate UK Immersive Tech Network for free and use our Community Hub to post anything you are looking for from the community? This includes collaborators for current & upcoming funding opportunities - https://lnkd.in/eZuipCGK Two week ago we hosted an online collaboration event for people looking for partners to apply with for the Mindset Funding competition (deadline Jan 15th): https://lnkd.in/eA76G7P2 Here is a summary of what some of those participants have posted on our Community Hub since then: - MIDA, University of the Arts London Screen School program, specializes in XR, AR, VR, and game development, focusing on health, inclusivity, and sustainability. They're keen to partner with researchers, universities, and XR companies to tackle mid-to-severe mental health challenges. Contact Susi Wilkinson or Kim Noce. Emails can be found in their Community Hub post. - The Combat Stress Centre researches trauma-linked mental health conditions (e.g., PTSD) and explores XR's potential for managing anxiety in public spaces and chronic pain. They offer expertise in clinical trials and access to clinical populations. For collaboration, contact Gavin M Campbell. - Access All Areas seeks a partner for a funding application to develop sensory-adaptable headphones for an immersive 360° theatre production with learning-disabled and autistic artists. Nick's contact details can be found in the Community Hub. The full posts with further details can be found on the Community Hub. I monitor the posts regularly and will continue to amplify anyone looking for funding partners here. *The image is ChatGPT's first interpretation of a community hub. What do you think? 😂 I'm a big fan of the rainbow motif. #innovation #collaboration #networking #immersivetech #XR #VR #AR #spatialcomputing #health #healthtech #mentalhealth #funding #NHS Innovate UK Innovate UK Business Connect

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Leaders, stop filling your schedule with tasks... ...fill it with moments to build trust, connect deeply, and align as a team! This is exactly what the Growth Collective Leadership team at Monzo Bank did. And I had the privilege of running a series of workshops with them. Together, we explored what it truly means to connect, understand, and align as leaders. These workshops gave the team the tools and space to: → Gain a deeper understanding of one another → Build trust as a foundation for collaboration → Align on shared goals and values Leadership isn’t just about strategy and constant outputting, it’s about ensuring everyone is rowing in the same direction. Thank you, Monzo Growth Collective, for your energy, openness, and commitment to becoming even stronger as a team. The pic below is the only one we captured as we were so engrossed in the workshops 😀 If you want to explore how this work can support your leadership team, send me a DM. AJ Coyne Steven Martin Cat Daniel Nima Zahedi David Brewerton Chloe Stephenson-Wright Georgia Scott Jamie Heuze Nathaniel Greywoode Viral Shah #Leadership #TeamGrowth #Trust #Connection #Transformation

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Following Paul Graham’s article on a better “founder mode” way to run companies, I jotted down some thoughts. Here’s the post: https://lnkd.in/e7BgDME5

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I’ve been working with Carwow on their first Gen AI feature since late November last year. I’m pleased to now share the fruits of that labour, Ask Mat (https://lnkd.in/eSNwheEW). It has been a wonderful (and fun!) project. We kicked off by prototyping - in close collaboration with two of the founders (James Hind, David Santoro) and a few key engineering leaders at Carwow. When we got something that felt like it had legs, we then moved into a more traditional design, build, and learn process. Once we saw it performing well enough internally, we shifted our focus to commercial launch planning. At the same time, we worked on building monitoring systems and planning the handover and upskilling of the Carwow team. Unlike an agency, I’ve been able to work closely with their own tech team and stack, creating something that is fully integrated into their internal systems and ready for them to take over and build on - Carwow being a Rails shop definitely helped move fast here. As it’s all built within their internal systems, a key success measure of the project is that it can be an example internally for others at Carwow to use as they consider new LLM features. I’ve worked closely with people across the tech org to provide support and training to the team so that they can understand and extend Ask Mat - with a brand and content library as strong as Carwow’s, there’s a lot to explore. There’s a lot that goes into planning, building and launching consumer-facing LLM products. Shockingly, I have a few more thoughts on this; watch this space. It’s been great to work with this ambitious company and help them bring this to life. If anyone’s interested in similar projects, please get in touch!

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When you are asked to support a project and you'd like a better understanding of what it entails ... or if you are interested in becoming a PM and want to know a bit more ... #projectmanagementintroduction #alwaysbelearning

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