Mike Potter is TechSmart 2025's keynote speaker; the man who was responsible for digital transformation across the entire UK government. We sat down with him to discover what NFP leaders can learn from someone who's tackled digital change at the highest levels.
In conversation with Hart Square's Alan Perestrello, Mike shared insights from his remarkable journey and the lessons that translate from government-scale transformation to any-scale mission-driven organisations.
The man who transformed UK government digital services
Now semi-retired, Mike has held one of the most influential technology roles in the UK: Government Chief Digital Officer. Prior to that, Mike has been responsible for digital transformation strategy across a number of different government departments from HMRC to smaller agencies.
"I was appointed as UK government chief digital officer; an absolute privilege to lead technology strategy and digital transformation across the public sector," Potter tells us.
This wasn't just a policy role. Potter led a team of 200 technology specialists in the Central Digital and Data Office, setting digital standards, monitoring major programmes, and driving collaboration across departments that had historically worked in silos. His mandate: strengthen UK government delivery through better use of technology and data.
What government-scale transformation teaches NFPs
When Alan suggests that government services can seem "big, and complicated, and messy," Mike offers a refreshingly different perspective. His experience of transformation in government is something unique: there are proven strategies that work under the most challenging conditions. And through these strategies, complex can be simplified and meaningful change can and does happen.
"Large complex organisations are large, complex organisations, no matter what their purpose is and achieving change in them, is challenging. There's no doubt about it. But actually, small organisations have some real advantages in the way that they can operate," Potter explains.
His insight? The principles that transformed billion-pound government programmes work just as well, often better, in smaller, more agile organisations. Government departments face many of the same constraints as NFPs; limited budgets, competing priorities, legacy systems, and the need to serve diverse user groups effectively.
From government scale to human impact
Before his government role, Mike cut his teeth on transformation projects that directly parallel NFP challenges. At NHS Blood and Transplant, he faced the classic NFP dilemma: how to reach new audiences and drive engagement with limited resources.
The Blood Service needed continuous new donors, particularly younger people who required different approaches. Potter's solution combined creative campaigns with user-centric digital transformation.
“We engaged and involved real users in the building of a new model for blood.co.uk, which at the time had 35,000 donors at the start. Now has over a million" he shares.
More importantly, users became advocates: "They're active contributors to this incredible mission of saving people's lives, but what they also are as positive advocates to encourage others to donate."
The product mindset that transforms outcomes
Potter's approach challenges how most NFPs think about digital projects. Instead of building systems and hoping people use them, he advocates for building products with users.
"We build this stuff for a reason, because it has an impact on somebody's life... We're not just delivering System X or System Y," Potter emphasises. “When we build things with a product in mind, we tend to focus on the end user, the benefactor. Not the internal process or the organisation which gets us focused on the wrong things. This is where the complexity comes from.”
This product mindset offers NFPs something more valuable than just better technology: powerful storytelling.
When users co-create solutions, they become invested stakeholders. This builds confidence among donors, volunteers, and potential team members.
When Non-profit organisations think about technology change, budgets are always an issue. However, “...the advantage NFPs have is the compelling mission; the opportunity to impact on real people's lives, the ability to grow personally through the work that you do."Mike offers that this unifies people, gives them purpose and gets the best out of them and this ability that Non-profits have is not fully explored or exploited.
Alan notes the broader significance: "Digital transformation has been used a lot over the past 10 years, and the focus tends to be on the technology, but really at its core digital transformation is about helping organisations use digital to transform the way they engage with people. People should be the focus. Too often, projects tend to be about the tech, but we need to remember that the technology works for people"
Making constraints work for innovation
One of Mike's key transformation insights is that resource constraints, often seen as barriers, can actually drive innovation.
At HMRC, he tested a simple idea: could customer service staff help callers get up and running with new digital services?
The pushback was predictable: "That will impact our handling times." But through a small-scale experiment, they discovered that 55% of people who received digital support never called back. While handling times increased, call volumes dropped even more.
"When resources are tight, you have to focus on goals and cut unproductive activity. Constraints should be seen as catalysts for innovation rather than barriers," Mike explains.
Learning from others: the government approach
Potter's "learn fast" philosophy has particular relevance for NFPs that can't afford expensive failures. His approach involves looking outward before building inward.
"99% of the problems you're trying to solve have been solved by others. And what you can do is take their learning and apply it in your own context," he tells us.
When he couldn't find a playbook for encouraging digital adoption at HMRC, he spent three weeks talking to practitioners across government and private sector organisations. This research approach, which cost time but not money, yielded twelve testable approaches that ultimately transformed the department's digital services.
"I got it from reaching out to a community of practitioners," Potter emphasises.
Alan agrees: "I think the NFP sector is actually really good at that. And it's one of the reasons why I think, we've typically seen over the past 15-20 years that people do go to events like TechSmart because they're there to learn from others. Camaraderie as opposed to competition"
Relevance to TechSmart
Mike's upcoming keynote, "Success by design," distils lessons from transforming the UK's largest digital estate into practical frameworks for smaller organisations. His approach focuses on creating the conditions for success rather than hoping for it.
"It is entirely possible to set yourself up for success from the beginning, and the role of leaders is about creating those conditions for success and ensuring, they persist through time," Potter explains.
When Alan asks what "Success by design" means as a high-level concept, Potter's response is telling: "I think the first thing is to reassert that these principles can be applied in any context of any organisation, no matter their purpose or scale."
After stepping down from government, Potter's focus has shifted to helping smaller organisations, particularly those in the public and not-for-profit sectors. His personal connection runs deep: following his own cancer treatment, he's chosen to support Maggie's Cancer Care, embodying his philosophy of helping those who need it most.
"I wanted to help those people that perhaps government helps least but need help most. That was one of my driving missions for me working government, and Maggie's absolutely embodies that," he shares.
The credibility that matters
Mike Potter brings something rare to the NFP sector: a proven approach that works across complexity and scale, delivered by someone who understands both the ambition and constraints of mission-driven organisations.
"Events like TechSmart create a safe space where people share ideas, learn from each other, challenge each other... What practically can I take away and do differently on a Monday morning, as a consequence of attending something like this," he reflects.
His government experience isn't just impressive credentials—it's proof that the approaches he'll share have worked under the most demanding conditions. If these strategies can transform UK government digital services, they can transform your organisation's impact too.
Alan concludes our conversation by noting the excitement around Potter's upcoming session: "I was excited before we had this chat for your talk, I'm even now more excited. Because I can see not only the lessons I can take from it, but I can see in my mind's eye people gathering real value from this session.”
"If we can do that together as a community, share those experiences and learnings, tackle this very differently. I think we can have a profound impact on the people that we serve," Mike responds - a fitting summary of what TechSmart 2025 aims to achieve.
Don't miss out on hearing from Mike Potter at TechSmart 2025. Book your ticket today.
