Tell us about yourself, your journey into tech and what did you do before joining the Home Office?
I got into tech as most people do – by accident! Before joining the Home Office, I had several roles working in small agencies and startups across the Health, Education and Marketing sectors. I first ventured into Project Management at a digital agency before moving into a more technical position, working as a Junior Developer before realising that Product Management was the perfect mix of everything I’d enjoyed in my previous roles.
How long have you been in the Home Office?
I have been working at the Home Office for the past 6 months, having applied for my role as a Product Manager online via the CS Jobs portal. It has been a big learning curve in terms of figuring out how the Civil Service works. My team (Voice & Video within Enterprise Services) almost feels like a small startup within a larger organisation. I’ve been surprised at how much influence you can have as a new starter at my level. I’ve been involved in discussions around product strategy and team-wide process improvements.
What attracted you to pursue a career at the Home Office?
I’ve always wanted to use tech for good and I’m particularly interested in how tech can automate and improve processes. Both reasons drew me to the Home Office as there’s a real push to leverage tech to modernise products and services. I work on Voice and Video products within Enterprise Services, which provides tech for the entire Home Office. It’s been very satisfying meeting with teams on the frontline who are using the tech we’ve provided to keep us all safe! It hits home that the work I’m doing has a serious real-world impact.
What does your day-to-day work involve and why does it matter to you?
Day-to-day, there are various tasks I might be doing, which is why I love Product Management. I have autonomy over my workload, and it’s my responsibility to prioritise what I need to do to deliver our objectives. A key focus for PMs is on user needs, so typical tasks might include gathering insights and requirements from users, analysing data to identify trends and opportunities to improve our products, trialling new technology, putting business cases together for new tech or meeting with engineers and stakeholders. Ultimately, if our users are happy then I’m happy!
What do you enjoy about your role as a Product Manager?
I love how varied the work is. I get to engage in a variety of tasks and use a range of skills across technology, design, data, user research and stakeholder management. I also get to communicate with people of all levels across the business to discuss their user needs, technical and design requirements and how the product and processes will align. It’s great when you realise the wider context of how the tech you’re providing is supporting them – voice and video impacts everything!
Tell us about the support available to you at the Home Office.
There are loads of benefits and plenty of opportunities to grow. There is a huge Product community which you can reach out to and learn from, alongside collaborative working groups such as Women in Tech. There is also an abundance of training opportunities, events, courses and apprenticeships available to develop your skills. It is a very supportive environment which takes mental wellbeing seriously.
