The roles that drive the devolved model

Five people in a digital product stand-up, looking at a board with diagrams and post-it notes.

To keep quality and performance front and centre while empowering more teams, the framework aims to maximise accountability and responsibility. Which makes it easier for us to face new challenges and adapt to new opportunities of all sizes, at all levels.

In the devolved model, directorate teams take on responsibility for their live services and products, and change their focus to managing their own publishing. Three role types facilitate this.

Content Managers

There are two types of content manager: those on self-publishing teams and those who rely upon the Central Digital team to publish content and manage their sections. Content managers:

are answerable to their directorate’s business owner
are responsible for keeping pages accurate and up-to-date
make timely removals and archiving or decommissioning of content
have a clear understanding of their content, where it’s used, and why we use it

Senior Content Owners:

are accountable to the business owner of their directorate team
have key input into design and development of new services and products, working closely with Central Digital product teams and teams delivering underlying business operations (such as data or fulfilment)
collaborate with Central Digital or Scotland product teams during the creation of new products and services
operate and continuously optimise their live products and services
are responsible for measurement and analysis – applying tools and metrics that either fit specific goals of a service or product (such as event sign-up conversation rates), or aligning with organisational metrics (such as social engagement), to assess performance and impact
report on performance
can delegate within the team if needed, but accountability remains with the Senior Content Owner
understand and meet the training needs of their content teams

Business Owners:

are senior leaders within the organisation
are responsible for a portfolio of products and services
represent directorate priorities based on the organisational strategy, to guide self-publishing teams and product teams in opportunity selections
are accountable for setting strategic direction based on their digital priorities
focus on the value created by their products or services for Shelter’s audiences, and have ultimate accountability for return on investment
are empowered to take decisions within their remit, and bear accountability for those decisions

Digital Leadership Group

In the digital framework, business owners translate organisation strategy into digital goals through well-planned and designed products and services.

In addition to the Head of Digital, we have four business owners, for Income Generation, CPC, Scotland and Services. Together they comprise the Digital Leadership Group, which meets regularly to discuss digital matters such as performance, alignment, opportunities, future services and products, and more.

Support given to devolved content roles

Regardless of which type they are, content managers are supported by the Central Digital team through:

ad-hoc reports by the analytics team
training and guidance on systems and tools
involvement in relevant work by product teams
alignment with other organisationally-driven digital work such as the rebrand
help with content production or technical issues

Delivering content operations at Shelter

Shelter’s devolved model of delivering digital.

The tiers that determine how digital work is distributed.

Learn the lingo with Shelter’s digital glossary.

Contact us about the digital framework

Have a question or comment? Found a bug? Or maybe you’d like to contribute to the framework? Use our contact form to get in touch.