Service designer for complex organisations

Making difficult service decisions clearer.

I’m Iain. I work across research, operations, policy, data and technology to help teams understand a problem, choose a direction and put it into practice.

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Iain Porter — Available for work • Based in Glasgow • Remote work welcome

Experience in public sector, financial services, healthcare and scientific organisations.

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What that looks like in practice.

Three different settings: NHS Scotland, Registers of Scotland and CropLife International. In each, the useful work meant understanding what sat behind the initial brief.

01 / NHS Scotland

August 2020 - Present

Finding capacity in the way a service works.

Clinical teams were spending valuable time finding patients and gathering information. I mapped the service with them, modelled alternatives and designed the worklists, patient views and care-planning interactions that supported a new operating model.

The multidisciplinary pilot reported 55% less case-processing time and 92% greater capacity.

Explore the FLS case

The service, in three connected steps

Identify
Relevant fractures feed a structured list of potential patients.
Review
Clinical staff assess a patient with the information needed for the decision.
Plan care
Worklists, care plans and correspondence support the next action.

Explanatory reconstruction from my project account; not an original project artefact.

02 / Registers of Scotland

2016–2022

Where will an improvement make the most difference?

Many simpler cases

A small improvement can add up across a large volume of work.

Fewer complex cases

Larger gains may depend on scarce specialist knowledge.

Model the consequences before choosing where to concentrate effort.

A qualitative reconstruction of one RoS modelling question. No original figures are reproduced.

A customer question became a programme-wide investigation.

A proposed approach to land registration raised questions far beyond the interface. I investigated the customer, operational, legal, data and technology implications, then helped make the options and trade-offs clear.

The work supported executive decisions and led to a wider remit alongside business and enterprise architects.

Explore the RoS case

03 / CropLife International

2000 - Present

Specialist knowledge, made useful.

Over a long-running relationship, I’ve designed and built scientific databases, mobile applications and publishing tools, working with the people who create and maintain the knowledge.

Explore this body of work

“He took an undeveloped concept for a web-based database and guided our team through to implementation, accommodating numerous changes and complications.”

Laura TaglianiCropLife · on the Detection Methods database

“We have seen a steady improvement in hit rates, now being number one for key terms”

Alan McCafferyChairman · IRAC

Earlier enterprise work and independent software delivery underpin this combination of analysis, design and technical understanding.

RBS, ACCA, Barclays & more

A useful person to have in the room.

I get to know the people and the domain, test assumptions with evidence, and make ideas concrete enough for others to challenge and improve.

The aim is shared understanding that helps the work move forward.

More about working with me

“As well as delivering on projects, Iain always has an eye on the bigger picture - solving wider design issues and how our approach could be improved in both our internal team and for our end users.”

Heather HepburnRBS · colleague recommendation