The challenge
The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced the Industrial Clusters Mission in 2018, setting out the ambition to create a net zero carbon industrial cluster by 2040. An Industrial cluster is a regional grouping of industrial businesses and local authorities.
There are numerous barriers to information sharing which prevent industry from taking action to decarbonise. BEIS wanted to understand whether a digital solution has the potential to support industry to engage with the Industrial Clusters Mission and reduce information sharing barriers.
Discovery phase
Arup’s UK digital teams worked with BEIS on an eight week Discovery phase using the Government Digital Service (GDS) Agile Project Management framework, to understand the barriers and unmet needs surrounding information sharing and industrial decarbonisation.
During the GDS Discovery phase, the team gathers user needs as well as business
needs and technical constraints through primary and secondary research
needs and technical constraints through primary and secondary research
︎︎︎Research planning
︎︎︎User interviews ︎︎︎Workshop design and facilitation ︎︎︎Insight synthesis
︎︎︎User interviews ︎︎︎Workshop design and facilitation ︎︎︎Insight synthesis
My role
As part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers, product managers and energy domain experts at Arup, I helped design and deliver the four phased approach comprising of framing, user research, synthesis and conceptualisation.
The user research phase involved
engagement with a diverse group of stakeholders within and outside government, including cluster-based organisations and centralised bodies. A user needs workshop was also conducted with BEIS and cluster members, which focused on exploring cluster-to-cluster communication and the co-creation of concepts.
The synthesis phase analysed the findings gathered in the workshop and stakeholder interviews. These were used to create a series of cluster profiles and network maps.
User needs workshop with BEIS and representatives of industrial clusters
Impact
The user research brought multiple insights about the industrial clusters that increased BEIS’ knowledge of the area.
The proposed digital services came with a series of recommendations, including a strategy that focused on user needs, end-to-end user journeys, motivations and goals. Alongside user stories, we outlined the benefits and constraints for each of the concepts. A timeline and digital team were also proposed for BEIS to take the concepts forward to the Alpha phase.