Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

If you are unfamiliar with Government Digital and Data, you can find out about the different roles, responsibilities and skills required using the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework.

Managed by the Government Digital Service (GDS), this framework details the 48 different roles within the digital and data profession, plus 3 senior civil service (SCS) ‘Chief’-level roles. It is regularly updated to reflect the dynamic and exciting landscape of Government Digital and Data.

As a government user researcher, you’ll often collaborate with people in a variety of roles across different teams. Effective collaboration starts with understanding each other’s roles and responsibilities.

You can use the framework to learn what the different digital and data roles do in government and understand what skills are needed at each role level. If you are already working as a government user researcher (or in another digital and data role), you can also use it to assess your current skill set, identify areas for development, and understand your progression.

The framework is also valuable for line managers and team leaders in government, helping them identify skill gaps in their teams, spot opportunities for development, guide meaningful development conversations and forecast their organisation workforce needs.

Each role level in this framework includes a list of required skills. Each skill is assigned one of 4 skill levels, reflecting the required proficiency: awareness, working, practitioner or expert.

As you progress in your career as a government user researcher, you will gain more knowledge about how different roles and skills are all equally essential to good service design.

As there are 48 roles within the digital and data profession, it is a bit beyond the scope of this course to go into detail for all of them! You should be aware that the best way to understand exactly what different people do in their day-to-day role is to talk to them and attend team activities like sprint planning sessions and retrospectives. This will give you a practical understanding of how things work.

However, to give you an introduction to some of the different roles you will encounter as a government user researcher, we have selected a few key roles and invited cross-government colleagues to discuss their experience in videos.

Let’s explore these in more detail.