MHCLG Digital has launched early-career opportunities for 5 Associate Delivery Managers and 5 Junior Developers to join our teams in Manchester.
Pippa, Senior Delivery Manager, moved into delivery management last summer after 10 years working in communications. She shares what she has learnt over the last year, from the valuable transferable skills she brought to the role to what it means to be a delivery manager.
How my comms career showed me the impact of digital services
While many of us would rather forget COVID-19, it played a pivotal role in my career and without me realising, started me on the path of digital delivery.
After an enjoyable 3 years creating communications campaigns for government, charity and private sector at an education consultancy, I moved into local government as a communications manager.
Six weeks later, the pandemic hit.
I went from a children and young people campaign to delivering urgent public health messaging to residents and businesses. Alongside policy and operational colleagues, I produced a conveyor belt of campaigns, covering everything from social distancing guidance to vaccine uptake and business grants.
Many of those campaigns communicated new or rapidly evolving digital services supporting residents and businesses remotely. Looking back, that was probably my first exposure to digital delivery. Forget my carefully crafted social media posts and newsletters, there were teams building services at pace, improving processes and solving emerging problems for users.
Two years later, I joined the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's (MHCLG's) Local Digital team, supporting local authorities with digital transformation and cyber resilience. After fumbling my way through a fog of agile terminology, I found my rhythm engaging councils with funded programmes, working alongside brilliant product, delivery and user-centred design colleagues.
In 2024, I moved to head up communications in the Funding Service. I was struck by how effectively multidisciplinary teams worked together to design and build MHCLG’s digital funding service, solving problems, navigating competing priorities and continually improving the experience for users.
Making the move to delivery management
I’d been considering a role outside communications for a while but was nervous about stepping outside my comfort zone and unsure where I could best apply my skills.
When a delivery gap emerged on a discovery project focusing on understanding user needs across the funding landscape, my line manager and Deputy Director encouraged me to give it a go. It was a great opportunity to try something new within the familiarity of the Funding Service and the department.
Colleagues across my team and the wider directorate were incredibly generous with their time, helping me understand what delivery management involved beyond the job description, answering my endless questions, and reassuring me whenever imposter syndrome crept in.
Six months of hands-on experience later, I knew this was exactly what I wanted to do. When a Senior Delivery Manager role came up in my team, I jumped at the opportunity and that started a new chapter of my career!
The skills that transferred surprisingly well
I was worried that moving profession meant starting from scratch, so it was reassuring to find delivery management relied on some skills that I had already developed while working in comms.
Stakeholder management
Over the last 10 years, I’ve worked with a diverse range of stakeholders including senior political and government figures, community leaders and industry experts. A standout moment during COVID-19 was coordinating funeral guidance with input from public health officials, religious leaders and cabinet members!
Just like communications, delivery management involves listening to different perspectives, understanding what matters to people and finding common ground. The quicker you can get people aligned on what you’re trying to achieve, the easier it is down the line.
Bringing people together
One of my favourite aspects of any role is bringing people together. In delivery management you get plenty of opportunities to do this through stand ups, workshops, retrospectives and other team activities.
In comms, my role was often about connecting people to tell richer stories. In delivery management, it’s about creating spaces for people with different expertise, perspectives and experiences to solve problems together. Plus, I love hearing about people’s hobbies, pets, and sometimes niche interests outside work!
Translating complexity
Something that’s not changed much is translating complexity. In comms, I turned complex policy language into something residents or local authorities could understand and use. I do the same thing now, just with delivery challenges, technical concepts or user needs. The subject matter might be different, but the aim is the same: help people understand what is happening, why it matters and what needs to happen next.
The skills I’m still learning
While I’ve transferred some skills relatively easily, others have required a bit more of an adjustment.
Knowing when to step in and when to step back
One of the things I’ve found most difficult is recognising that I don’t need to solve every problem myself. Often the sole comms professional in a busy team, I was responsible for owning a piece of work and seeing it through from start to finish.
In delivery management, the role is less about doing the work yourself and more about creating the conditions for your team to succeed. I’m still learning when to offer direction and where to step back, but I’ve found giving a team space to work through a problem leads to much better ideas than whatever I’d come up with; a humbling but important lesson!
Delivery management tools and techniques
A steep learning curve has been getting to grips with the seemingly endless range of tools, techniques and frameworks in delivery management. Just when I get my head around one, another seems to appear!
Through working with my mentor Jon (who recently published this brilliant blog post about our Principles of Delivery) and line manager, I’ve learned that you don’t need to use every tool available.
There are well-established tools and techniques in the department and wider government delivery community to help you get started. Part of being a delivery manager is learning when to use them and building a broad and flexible toolkit that you can adapt to your team, the problem and context. I’m still very much building mine and have found shadowing other delivery managers, through MHCLG’s delivery community of practice, really helpful in seeing how different approaches work in practice.
My advice: take the leap!
I’m not much of a risk taker, but stepping out of my comfort zone into delivery management has been one of the most rewarding decisions I’ve made.
Being able to learn by doing, with support and encouragement from my team and directorate, made it so much easier to take the leap.
While I’m learning something new every day, it’s reassuring to discover that many of the skills I built working in comms are just as valuable in a different context.
My advice to anyone considering a move into delivery, or another profession entirely: give it a go, you might be more prepared than you think!
If you're at the start of your career and interested in delivery management, make sure to check out our Associate Delivery Managers opportunities in Manchester. Applications are open until 11 October.
Leave a comment