A Journey to People Empowerment
It’s been an extraordinary year for the MyDefence programme. From shaping the vision of an ambitious coherence initiative to navigating multiple phases of research, design, and development, our journey has been nothing short of remarkable.
With the dedication of our talented team and the support of key stakeholders, we've made incredible steps toward, delivering a truly user-centred experience that will support the entire defence community.
We’re excited to take a moment to reflect on everything we’ve accomplished, celebrate our victories, and share updates with the wider community about what’s been happening in our space. As we look back on this incredible journey, we also set the stage for what promises to be an even more impactful year ahead.
Why MyDefence, Why Now? Addressing the Challenges
The concept of MyDefence is born out of a pressing need to confront a range of challenges facing the defence community. Recent headlines and high-profile reports have highlighted issues that demand urgent attention, painting a stark picture of operational unreadiness and a failure to meet the career expectations of both current and future defence personnel.
At a time when more people are leaving the military than joining, and with an ever-growing demand for essential skills, defence has struggled to adapt to the demands of a modern workforce.
Adding to these challenges is the fragmented and outdated landscape of people-facing digital services. Operational priorities have meant that the maturity and adoption of emerging technologies in the people space is lacking velocity Users are faced with a frustrating number of multiple logins, portals, and interfaces, each with different designs and experiences. This disjointed approach not only causes inefficiencies but leaves defence personnel feeling undervalued and out of control over their professional lives.
“Instead of having the freedom to give their best for the people working with and for them, they feel disempowered by a system that swamps them with rules and process rather than embracing their ideas and initiative. Many feel that promises made are not being kept. In short, people’s expectations and ability, shaped by a world that is changing with unprecedented pace, has moved on. But the way Service personnel are incentivised and managed has not.”
Haythornthwaite Review, Section - Foreword by the Review Chair – Jun 2023
MyDefence was conceived as part of the solution to these challenges, driven by a vision to transform how defence operates and interacts with its people in a digitally connected, efficient, and enabling way.
Our Vision: Empowering the Defence Community
At the heart of MyDefence is a bold vision: to create a truly user-centred digital experience that is accessible anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Through a seamless and intuitive digital interaction layer, designed with security at its core, it aims to revolutionise how defence personnel interact with their information.
The long-term mission is to improve the experience for the whole force, whether you’re a recruit, a veteran, a civil servant, or even a family member. By removing the administrative barriers and unnecessary frustration that currently exist, we want to demonstrate that everyone is truly valued.
This isn’t just about technology, it’s about cultural and behavioural change. By improving day-to-day experiences and showcasing that defence values its people, it will help attract and retain the top talent needed for a resilient, modern force. Together, we’re building a future where everyone in defence feels supported, valued, and ready to succeed.
‘It makes yourself much more manageable and it’s all on you then as well. You don't need to lean on other people or ask people for help with stuff or have people chase you up for stuff. Everything you need is here.’
Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineer - Participant 3
What MyDefence Will Deliver: A Service for All
Emerging from the huge successes of MyNavy, MyRAF and the MySERIES, this will be designed to be more than a digital platform, it will be the standard that the entire defence community sees through a world class user interface and seamless experience. Here’s what MyDefence brings to the table.
Guided by 5 strategic objectives:
- Supporting & empowering the whole force at every step of their defence journey
- A world-leading user experience
- A Whole Force approach: maximising efficiency and reducing duplication
- An agile mindset - think big, start small, scale fast
- Unlocking opportunities through data
It will deliver as a service:
1. User Experience & Personalisation – At its core, it will provide a personalised user experience, based on the information we hold on you. Through intuitive design, familiar screens, and tailored features, the platform will adapt to each user’s defence journey.
2. Communication & Engagement – The evolving approach will enhance communication across defence by delivering a secure, customisable channel for both whole-force and tailored messaging. Features like actionable notifications and integrated feedback mechanisms will support effective collaboration and foster a user-driven culture of continuous improvement.
3. Platform Architecture, Infrastructure & Integration – Built on the robust infrastructure of D2S, MyDefence will integrate data sources and adopt common standards to create a secure, scalable experience.
4. Digital Enablement & Tools – Acting as a centralised digital layer, streamlining access to essential tools and services. From resource libraries to pay & benefits functionality and healthcare, wellbeing, and career development, will enhance productivity and accessibility across defence.
5. Sustainable Alignment & Scalability – Aligned with defence’s modernisation objectives, The services will grow through a user focussed future that drives efficiency and reduces duplication.
‘This is my first time using the app and I can navigate everything. I’ve been in the army for a few years and still go on the Defence Gateway to look at something, and I’m like, I don’t even know where I’m going’
Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineer Participant 3
So, What’s Been Happening in 2024?
Phase 1: Research & Exploration (Jan - Mar 2024)
Setting the Foundation
The first phase was all about laying the groundwork for success. From January to March, we embarked on a thorough research and exploration journey to understand the current people digital landscape and identify opportunities to drive coherence and alignment across defence.
Conclusion
This phase culminated in the proposal of what we now call MyDefence, evidenced by a suite of supporting artifacts. These outputs helped refine the vision and objectives, ensuring it remains a vital part of defence modernisation efforts.
Phase 2: Further Exploration and Discovery (Jun - Sept 2024)
Building on Insights
This phase was divided into several targeted workstreams aimed at addressing core user needs, refining technical solutions, and aligning with strategic objectives.
1. People Data and Systems – defining initial requirements for personalised user experiences and benchmarking against live services, like MyNavy, MyRAF and MySERIEs to ensure consistency and effectiveness.
2. MySeries Transition: performing gap analysis across the MySERIES apps and understanding the coherence possibilities with other products
3. Platform Decision on D2S: Recommended the DDF DevSecOps (D2S) platform as the delivery foundation for MyDefence.
4. User Research: Conducted User research across user groups to deepen our understanding.
5. Creative and Design Maturity: Developed and refined the design principles that originated from the award winning MyNavy and clarified how this would integrate with individual service designs and identities, creating a unified yet flexible experience.
6. Design System Evolution Planning: Laid the groundwork for a best-in-class design system to support federated delivery that delivers a consistent user experience across defence.
7. Supporting Haythornthwaite Recommendations and HRAFI Programme work: Aligned with the HRAFI strategic programme, so that it might enable priority change to engineering professions across Defence, whilst answering the recommendations issued in the Haythornthwaite Report
Conclusion
Validated our position by greatly increasing our understanding of user needs and refining technical and design strategies.
By the end of Phase 2, we had a clear path forward for Phase 3, including plans to develop the design system website.
Phase 3: Alpha & Design System (Sept - Dec 2024)
Laying the Foundations
Focused on two key workstreams, this work set the standard for the long-term scalability and adaptability of MyDefence, establishing a robust design and technical foundation.
Taking the plans from phase 2, the creation of the MyDefence Design System website begun, taking on board the feedback from user research and working towards creating a consumer grade experience that will hold all components utilised in the development of the MyDefence digital interaction layer.
Within this work, a public facing website has been created to guide and educate developers through the journey of using a design system, whilst linking back to a design library in Figma, component library in Storybook and code repositories in GitHub. This will be an evolving resource for all to consume.
The team have meticulously planned the user experience so it’s simple and easy to navigate whilst also using all the components from the Design System, into the building on the website, showcasing the design possibilities.
Continuing work throughout the Alpha phase, aligned to the Government Digital Standards, we have reviewed the user research from previous phases and further investigated (and documented) technical details of how to create a service that solves a problem for our people.
This has included liaising with other teams within the People and Products space to ensure we are all aligned on the future vision, the technical dependencies and deconfliction of work that's already in progress.
The team have liaised with SME’s to organise working groups around Technical, Data and Communications to ensure that we stay on the right path and share insights/learnings as we progress through.
As we lead into 2025, our intention is to improve our public communications with monthly blogs, drop-in sessions and further user research revisiting previous groups and new target groups to gain further insights before progressing with Beta.
Conclusion
Phase 3 marked a critical moment, delivering a fully operational design system and supporting resources. This effort ensured a solid foundation for federated delivery, consistent user experiences, and measurable success. And the best, this is for everyone to use!
With these achievements, MyDefence is now ready to move forward with confidence, equipped with the tools and information necessary to drive the impact across defence.
‘This thing looks great and guides you in the right direction straight away compared to other apps in the Defence Gateway.’
Royal Engineering & Mechanical Engineer - Participant 7
What Does The Future Hold?
With MyDefence now becoming part of the strategic reviews vision and fully aligning to the Minister for Armed Forces ambition to have a consumer grade digital experience for all their people. It’s safe to say that MyDefence’s delivery in 2025 will change how People focussed digital services interact and empower our people.This year’s success in driving coherence, aligning stakeholders, and showing the value of reuse, is only possible by a truly diverse team. I’d like to thank our digital partner Great State and all the team members across Defence Digital Foundry, People Digital CIO, Army Digital Services and Head Office that’s made this possible.
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