Digital to Data; 20 years and counting!

The Synthetic humanoid from the Star Trek TV series known as "Data"

Hello, I’m Poss, and I’m a COO working in a technology-driven organisation. Welcome to my blog.

If you’ve read anything of mine before, you’ll know I like to focus on niche topics; networking, onboarding and employee ownership that sort of thing. But for my first post of 2025, I wanted to step back and reflect on something broader. 

In over 20 years in the industry, I’ve watched technology change everything—from public services to user experiences. But one thing has remained constant: technology is only as powerful as the data it’s built on. As I’ve moved from the public sector to design agencies and now into climate data, I’ve learnt that true transformation doesn’t just come from digitising old processes or service design, it comes from using data to unlock new possibilities.

The digital transformation of public services 

My career began in the UK public sector in the early 2000s. I saw technology improve access to services as the internet grew (lol, that makes me sound old!) and made government more accessible to its citizens. But here’s the catch: technology often ended up masking deeper, underlying flaws. People didn’t just want a shinier version of the same old service, they wanted their public services to be as user-friendly and intuitive as the BBC, Facebook, and eBay.

By the 2010s, the UK public sector was undergoing a revolution, driven by the Government Digital Service (GDS). Everything shifted to focus on user needs, not the traditional priorities of policy. Sure, this led to the odd dust-up, but it also triggered a genuine digital transformation. Services were now built around how users interacted with the internet, and crucially, the public sector now had the modern tools to do its job. More than that, we developed a culture of product development that ran through the veins of government teams.

In 2017, I handed in my Whitehall security pass and moved to a boutique design agency. In hindsight this was quite a sobering moment. I went from managing a £100m+ annual portfolio with 800 staff to worrying about a six-month runway and a team of 25. But at dxw, our size was our advantage. We could be laser-focused on the user experience. We weren’t just building functional services, we were creating experiences that people could genuinely connect with. It was about making tech feel human, accessible, and intuitive.

The gap between design and impact

But the one thing missing from agency life, and even from GDS itself, was the ability to work with the actual data. Sure, we were brilliant at digital transformation, building beautifully designed, user-centred services for the public. But we weren’t directly shaping the policies behind them. Once again, the technology we built was masking a bigger issue: a lack of investment in the data infrastructure that supported these services.

Embedding data transformation 

And that brings me to 2025 and my current role at Climate Policy Radar. This is where things get truly exciting, and it feels like a natural evolution for me. We’re not just collecting data; we’re using machine learning to help users quickly and accurately find climate policies based on keywords, topics, countries, and other criteria. We’re generating insights that can make a real, positive impact on the climate crisis. 

This is what I call “data transformation,” and it’s distinct from the more familiar “digital transformation.” In a world where almost every product has AI embedded in it, it’s no longer enough to just digitise processes or design better services. It’s about embedding data expertise / capabilities into your organisation to harness the raw power of data to generate better outcomes; for users, businesses, and the planet.

From navigating public sector digital transformation to diving deep into the world of user-centred design, I’ve seen first-hand how technology can be a powerful tool. But it’s only truly transformative when it’s backed by solid data, the right capabilities and a clear understanding of the user’s needs. 

Thanks for reading (I really appreciate it) and I hope some of this resonates with you. Let me know if you’ve got any thoughts or questions. 

First written 27 January 2025