Following an initial discovery phase, Defence had a clearer understanding of user pain points across the travel ecosystem, but delivery efforts remained fragmented.
Eighteen teams across Defence were independently progressing initiatives to improve travel capability, often without visibility of overlapping efforts, dependencies or shared priorities. This created duplication, misalignment and slowed progress toward meaningful, system-wide improvement.
There was a need to align teams around a single vision, prioritise effort, and create a coordinated path forward.
We began by identifying and mapping all active travel-related initiatives across the 18 teams, focusing on work beyond business-as-usual activities.
This was visualised in a roadmap view, highlighting:
This created a clear picture of the current state and exposed the need for a more coordinated approach.
We worked closely with the Travel Board and Senior Executive Suite stakeholders to define and align on the purpose and intent of a unified travel strategy and roadmap.
Through a structured cadence of Travel Board engagements, we combined clear, strategic communication with evidence-based insights to highlight misalignment across existing initiatives and build a compelling case for change. We facilitated discussions that cut through organisational silos, enabling senior leaders to align on shared priorities and make informed decisions on where to focus effort.
By presenting the roadmap iteratively, we created a feedback loop that allowed for rapid refinement, early direction on priorities and stronger executive ownership. This approach not only ensured alignment at the leadership level but also fostered collaboration across teams, establishing a clear and coordinated path forward for delivering travel transformation.
Building on insights from the discovery phase, we developed the travel strategy through:
This ensured the strategy remained grounded in real needs while supporting organisational objectives such as compliance, financial oversight and data traceability.
To bring the work together and align the 18 travel teams, we developed a centralised, evidence-based story that articulated the key problems to solve, the strategic direction and vision and how it needs to be executed.
We did this through developing a comprehensive insights report that articulated:
This provided a clear, cohesive narrative to support decision-making, ongoing communication and the evidence-base to back future changes.
We developed a structured, multi-horizon roadmap to guide delivery over a three-year period.
To achieve this, we:
Prioritisation was driven by a combination of capability maturity, user experience, business value and delivery feasibility. This ensured the roadmap sequenced effort in a way that delivered early wins in the areas of greatest need while establishing the foundations for longer-term transformation.
To bring more tactical planning into the roadmap and strategy we worked with delivery teams to develop plans on a page for each priority Horizon 1 initiative. This empowered teams to align on scope, sequencing of work effort and clarity on ownership across teams to achieve the roadmap.
Beyond planning, we supported a smooth transition into delivery through regular syncs and knowledge-sharing sessions with implementation teams. These sessions were designed to embed context, share the rationale behind decisions, and build confidence in applying the service design approach in practice.
This ongoing engagement ensured teams were not only equipped with clear plans, but also with the understanding and capability needed to carry the work forward, strengthening ownership, reducing delivery risk and enabling continuity from strategy through to execution.
The Jude team were able to unpack a highly complex problem space in Defence that had been a known issue for over a decade. Jude delivered a clear, evidence-based travel strategy supported by a prioritised three-year roadmap, enabling Defence to align 18 teams around shared goals and coordinated delivery.
The work established a structured approach to translating user and business needs into actionable initiatives, creating clarity on priorities, ownership and sequencing of effort.
By aligning leadership through ongoing Travel Board engagement and grounding decisions in user insights and operational realities, Defence is now equipped with a single, cohesive plan to incrementally uplift travel capability in a way that is strategic, feasible and scalable.
