A day in the life as…an Innovation Manager

---

Dwain Nicely shares what it is like to work as an Innovation Manager in Barking and Dagenham Council. 

1. What is your role, and in one sentence, what’s the single biggest project you’ve worked on for Londoners?

I’m the Lead for Continuous Innovation at the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, and the biggest project I’ve led is creating an AI-first (Artificial Intelligence-first) front door that allows residents and staff to get clear, instant answers and support without needing to navigate complex council systems.

2. Describe a moment this year when you truly felt the impact of your work on the community.

Earlier this year, our homelessness advice team was only able to answer around 44% of incoming calls because their number had become a general route into the council. This meant genuinely vulnerable residents were struggling to get through.

We designed and delivered an AI-powered call triage service in just five weeks. It identifies why someone is calling and routes non-homelessness enquiries elsewhere, while prioritising people who urgently need help. From the day it went live, the team has been able to answer all homelessness calls—which is exactly the kind of impact that reminds you why this work matters.

3. What is the most complex or ambitious technical problem you are currently trying to solve for your borough?

We’re rethinking what customer experience looks like in the age of AI.

The ambition is simple to say but hard to do well:

“any resident, at any time, should be able to ask a question and receive a fair, accurate, and supportive response—regardless of channel, confidence, or circumstance.”

That means redesigning services around intent, not systems.

4. Describe your average day.

I usually start the day by dropping into team stand-ups. The team is self-organising, but staying close helps me spot blockers early and keep us aligned.

From there, my day is a mix of:

• Sprint planning and reviews
• Stakeholder sessions focused on real service problems
• Board-level conversations about risk, value, and outcomes
• Reviewing live demos or code to ensure we’re building the right thing, not just shipping quickly

The biggest deliverable I’m currently focused on is scaling our AI services safely while embedding them into business-as-usual, rather than leaving them as interesting pilots.

5. What’s the soundtrack to your commute, or your go-to podcast?

If I’m working through a difficult problem, it’s usually heavy, tribal, groovy techno—that’s when my best ideas tend to land.

If I want something lighter, I listen to “AI News & Strategy Daily” by Nate B Jones for grounded, forward-looking thinking without the hype.

6. Which non-technical teams do you work most closely with, and what’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned from them?

Right now, it’s frontline teams—contact centre staff, homelessness officers, and social workers.

The biggest lesson is how much cognitive and emotional labour sits behind everyday processes. The technology only works if it genuinely reduces that load rather than shifting it elsewhere.

7. Explain a complicated aspect of your job in a simple way.

A big part of my role is balancing three things at once:

• What the organisation needs today
• What can realistically be delivered in the medium term
• And what might be possible in the future

Innovation fails when you ignore any one of those. The real skill is knowing when to push and when to stabilise.

8. How would you describe the culture of your team and the wider council?

My team is fast-moving, curious, and experimental. We test ideas early, learn quickly, and aren’t afraid to show unfinished work.

The wider council, particularly in Barking and Dagenham, has a genuine appetite to try new things. What’s different from the private sector is scale with meaning—you can build something, see it used by thousands of people within weeks, and get immediate feedback from real lives being affected.

9. Where do you usually grab lunch in the borough?

Christina’s. No competition. Smashed Double Cheeseburger – thank me later!

10. Aside from the pension and flexible hours, what’s the best unexpected perk of working in local government?

Putting something live and seeing thousands of residents use it almost immediately—and knowing it’s helping people who genuinely need it.

That doesn’t happen often in the private sector.

11. How does the council support your continued professional development?

By giving me permission to invent. I’m trusted to explore new approaches, backed by a CIO who values experimentation, and given exposure to senior leadership where ideas have to stand up to real scrutiny.

That combination accelerates growth far faster than formal training alone.

12. Do you mentor or coach junior staff? What advice do you always give?

Yes—especially junior developers.

My advice is always the same:

Spend your first year understanding how local government actually works before trying to change it.

Once you understand how decisions are made and where power really sits, your second year becomes far more impactful.

13. How do you switch off after a busy day?

I put the dog in the car, drive out of the city, and walk. Ten minutes outside the city and you realise how much beautiful quiet space we have in this country if you know where to look.

14. If a senior professional from big tech asked why they should join local government tech, what would you say?

If you want to work on hard problems that actually matter, with constraints that force better thinking, and outcomes that affect real lives—not just metrics—local government is one of the most challenging and rewarding places you can work.

15. Complete the sentence:

“My job is challenging, but every day I am reminded that I am…”

…building services that genuinely support the most vulnerable people in our society.