Using AI to build better services across role boundaries

Every day, organisations invest heavily in user research, design and service strategy.

The traditional handoff process slows down delivery, increases risk and creates a disconnect between design intent and the final prototype.

But what if your delivery team shared a single, living source of truth?

In this session, Ed Hiley and Matt Fielding explore how living knowledge graphs, AI and spec-driven development can seamlessly bridge the gap between design and engineering.

Using knowledge from national NHS projects, they will use a fictional service and live technical demonstrations to show how user evidence can directly shape a shared specification and run a working production service.

• How to transform static research and design artefacts into active, reusable delivery knowledge.
• How spec-driven development links user evidence, design decisions, testing and production code.
• Practical strategies to navigate the increasingly blurred boundary between design and development without losing quality or accountability.
• How to use knowledge graphs to optimise handoffs, speed up build times, increase traceability and keep your teams aligned.

The division between design and engineering is rapidly shrinking. As teams face mounting pressure to deliver high-quality services faster, relying on static documents and manual handoffs is no longer enough. This session moves past the AI hype to showcase a practical, structured approach to accelerating delivery while keeping user-centred design at the core of the service.

Food and drink will be provided at this event.

This event is sponsored by Hippo in connection with Leeds Digital Festival. Hippo is a full service digital design consultancy that builds for impact whilst putting humans first. We do digital transformation, bridging the gap between user-centred design principles and robust engineering, data and cyber practices, leading to transformational results, including improved public service access and functionality.