Turning ambition into action in complex systems

Turning ambition into outcomes is hard. We often know what "good" looks like, but the challenge for government is translating that vision into action quickly, efficiently and at scale for citizens.

A clear direction is essential for making good delivery decisions, but you can’t wait for a perfect picture of the end state before you act. That’s the CustomerFirst approach: start early, test, learn and adapt. The priority is turning ambition into thousands of decisions, trade-offs and improvements across a complex system as quickly as possible and learning from the results.

HMLR transformation

HM Land Registry (HMLR) has a critical role in maintaining the definitive land register of England and Wales, covering £9 trillion of property. HMLR has a vision for simpler services for citizens – designed around life events – which a NewCo approach might help translate into fast, tangible progress.

To get started, over the past two months, we have looked at the service that enables you to update the land register when a co-owner of a property dies – the Deceased Joint Proprietor service. If you’ve used it, you’ll know it's a relatively simple administrative task that still requires a paper-based form, with accompanying guidance that users struggle to follow, often at a very difficult time in their lives. Many of the 21,500 citizens who apply each year end up phoning the call centre for advice or submitting applications with errors.

We tested an alternative service model on a small, controlled sample of citizens. An online form, with overhauled and simplified guidance, and a built-in triage system that made it easier and quicker for people to apply. It's an initial, positive step in the right direction that built momentum for further change, as we seek to translate our ambition into delivery.

It also showed what a fast design sprint could achieve. We deliberately avoided over-designing the vision, plans or solution and focused on what we could improve right now. Testing allowed us to collaborate, learn about each organisation, and build an evidence base, rather than relying on assumptions, to shape what comes next.

Lessons for success

CustomerFirst has been in operation since January 2026 and we have learnt a lot about what helps NewCo projects emerge, and the balance between vision and action.

1. Senior sponsorship is what unlocks progress. With HMLR we had active, ongoing leadership involvement from the start for our experiment. Support was secured from the Executive Team early on, with the responsible senior leader embodying the "you name it, I'll give it to you" mantra that change needs. This unblocked cross-cutting issues, maintaining our pace and focus.
2. A clear target drives momentum for change. We wanted to reduce citizen effort and repeat contact. That simple goal allowed us to quickly galvanise a team from across HMLR who understood the assignment and moved quickly to deliver our test. Working in the open led to rapid problem solving and engagement.
3. Build a pipeline, not a one-off success. Transformation in one area sets the conditions for success elsewhere. In HMLR, we chose our small change because we knew it could scale up to over 100,000 applications each year. We’re constantly on the lookout for common features, laying the foundations for future transformation and building an evidence base that derisks scaling to wider ambitions.
4. Be ambitious, embrace failure. We didn’t get everything right – and that was the point. We set a stretching target for a small change: to fully automate the process and replace all physical correspondence in a short period. The ambition really forced us to work outside our comfort zone. And it also showed what was possible in future. We got 20 citizen customers to complete a fully digital journey, a milestone that felt years off just two months ago.

Keeping the momentum going

HMLR is building on these early foundations and applying these lessons, by broadening their NewCo approach to a set of experiments covering several existing citizen service areas. They are working to fully transform the Deceased Joint Proprietor service with a test and learn approach, as well as cracking cross-cutting challenges like improved identity verification and assurance and integrating further with other government services.

The experience of HMLR shows that starting small, learning fast and building evidence early can create momentum for much bigger change, and drive conversations about the end state. Every improvement teaches us something about users, services and the barriers to progress. Over time, those lessons become the foundation for transforming entire systems.

The biggest risk in transformation can be waiting for certainty before taking action.