Following our Spotlight interview with Gavin Elliot, today we spoke to Mark Duncan, Chief Digital Officer, about his wide-ranging role at Scrumconnect and the unique challenges he faces.
I spent around 16 years at the same software company in the private sector, where I worked as a Product Manager for some of the UK's leading accounts and payroll business software. When I left in 2015, I decided to become a contractor to broaden my experience across various industries and domains. For the first three years, I worked as a Product Manager on contracts in both the public and private sectors, including roles at HMRC, banks, automotive manufacturers, and a CX platform provider. In 2018, I joined Scrumconnect as a Product Manager for a digital service at DWP in the Retirement, Bereavement, and Care directorate. Over the next six years, I supported Scrumconnect by managing accounts, writing bids, engaging in business development, and tackling various tasks beyond Product Management.
I love working in the public sector for two reasons:
1) I firmly believe that the UK's public services are excellent and should be invested in, protected, and improved through technology to be more accessible and user-friendly. It's a privilege to contribute, even in a small way, to the work we do. This includes supporting financial benefits through DWP, health services free at the point of need, and a criminal justice system that is both old and respected worldwide.
2) User-centred design is crucial to me. It’s a powerful tool for transforming public digital services, and I enjoy being part of this process due to its potential to make life easier for users and citizens. Scrumconnect allows me to contribute to delivering UCD services through the amazing people we work with, and I'm incredibly proud of what we achieve.
Oh my goodness! My job title is Chief Digital Officer, but the typical CDO job description only covers a small part of what I actually do. I think it's because Scrumconnect is an SME, so leadership tends to get involved in all sorts of things that fall outside the usual scope of their roles.
Most of the time, I’m juggling between writing bids for new work, meeting prospective clients and leaders in government digital departments, growing and building relationships with existing clients and partners, writing statements of work, monthly reports, commercial forecasts, and handling admin for our DWP accounts. Plus, there are always plenty of other random things that pop up along the way
We work on many projects with tricky challenges, but no two are ever the same. It’s also very subjective—what one person finds challenging, another might not, depending on factors like skill, experience, and comfort zone. For example, I struggle with sales and find it exhausting, whereas others excel at it and find it energising.
On an individual level, as long as you try your hardest, that’s good enough, regardless of the outcome. In collective situations where Scrumconnect has to deliver on contractual commitments, we’re excellent at pulling together. The sum of our parts always allows us to find a way through.
One of our standout stories is the Pension Credit service at DWP. In just over two months, the team launched a live MVP to capture digital claims, adhering to GDS guidelines and passing DWP’s technical design assurance. This was a completely new channel—previously, all claims were processed via paper or phone. During COVID, this became a major issue as DWP agents didn’t have the equipment to work from home, leading to a significant backlog of claims. Our digital service achieved a 50% channel shift within the first few weeks, allowing agents to clear their backlog. It was impressive to accomplish so much in such a short time. We also won a UK IT Award for this work, which was an incredible recognition of the effort and success of the project.
The company culture is about:
Hard work: I see people everyday doing their best and working hard regardless of the scale of their achievements or ability. I celebrate that and give kudos to those that work hard, especially in situations where it doesn’t always get recognised.
Professionalism and experience: There’s a considerable amount of experience and professionalism among the people at Scrumconnect which is amazing and critical to the value and services we tell our clients and prospective clients about. It’s probably the most important part of what we do.
Help and support: I really love the willingness of my colleagues to help and support wherever they can. I can’t think of an occasion since I joined that there hasn't been someone who has offered to help when there’s been a problem to solve or challenge to overcome. It’s really impressive.
I learnt to sail yachts a few years ago; it’s an amazing experience that I love doing as often as I can. I like gardening and collecting houseplants. I often end up with poorly house plants and manage to nurture them back to health. My wife complains we live in a forest.
Work life balance is easy to lose sight of. I don’t really have any tips or insights other than to say you’ve got to do whatever you can to look after yourself and not get too involved in work to the detriment to personal relationships, time with children and family and time for yourself to do things that bring you peace and calm. I’m lucky to live by the sea so I often go swimming in the summer and long walks on the beaches with my dog - these things help me unwind.
I want to be part of helping to mature and grow Scrumconnect. As a very successful small/medium sized company we’ve still got a lot to do to become an effective and efficient company which I feel are critical to enabling growth and scale over the next few years.
I don’t see the digital public sector undergoing major changes in the next few years, but I do hope for greater interconnectivity between departments, especially in data. Services and solutions could be significantly enhanced by more seamless movement between government areas like 'tax and benefits' or 'crime and public security'.
AI is obviously the hottest topic at the moment, but I think it still has yet to prove its value beyond writing CVs and homework. We also need clearer definitions of the various branches of AI, as the entire domain has largely been labelled under one term. This isn’t helpful when technologists want to have meaningful discussions about the implications or when educating non-technologists about what it means for them. It all feels too broad-brush at the moment. So, overall, I believe there’s still a long way to go in discussing, defining, and analysing AI and its place in our future.
I’m a qualified yacht skipper, and have done a lot of sailing in cruising yachts (30+ feet long) around the UK.
I’ve always liked the idiom “suspend your disbelief” which means that sometimes you should believe that something is true even if it seems impossible. I try to be a person who is fair, calm and listens openly, so to me it's a phrase that seems appropriate to having an open and non-judgemental mind towards people and situations, despite your unconscious biases and personal beliefs.
I’d advise new joiners to suspend their disbelief more and try to work openly and honestly. To believe in other people and themselves, because no matter how impossible things seem there’s always a solution to a problem or a new idea waiting to emerge.
On 5th November, leaders from across the tech industry gathered in London for the Women and Diversity in Tech and Channel Festival, where they explored key challenges and opportunities for creating a more inclusive and sustainable tech sector.
At Scrumconnect, we specialise in navigating challenges by leveraging Agile methodologies that foster resilience, adaptability, and strategic growth. We partner with clients to not only meet these challenges head-on but to turn them into opportunities for growth.
November marks National Career Development Month, a time dedicated to highlighting the significance of career growth and encouraging both employers and employees to invest in their professional and personal advancement. At Scrumconnect, we take career development seriously, providing our employees with opportunities for mentorship and upskilling opportunities.
Scrumconnect is pleased to announce its successful award of G-Cloud 14 Lot 4 Framework Contract.
We are committed to continuously providing the best in tech with our people, practices and technology through our certifications.
Scrumconnect is committed to disability rights.
This enhanced government-endorsed standard demonstrates that we have implemented the essential plus security requirements for protecting your data, and that of your client’s, against unskilled internet-based cyber attackers.
We are a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Cloud Compute 2 framework, a testament to our commitment to providing high-quality services to the UK public sector.
An integrated management system, designed for ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2015, operates across our business. These are regularly reviewed in order to ensure the continuous improvement to meet the needs of our customers and stakeholders.