Move Fast, Stay Safe: What It Takes to Deliver Rapid, User-Centric Digital Services in Regulated Environments

At our recent breakfast panel event in Leeds "Unleashing Rapid, User-Centric Delivery in Healthcare and MedTech” we brought together leaders from across the health and digital sectors to tackle a critical challenge: How can the health sector deliver large-scale digital services quickly, safely, and with users at the centre?

Our expert panel featured:

Cleveland Henry, Group Delivery & Deployment Director at Optum

Ute Schauberger, Service Design Practice Lead at Opencast

Martin O'Neil, Deputy Director, Digital Diagnostics and Therapeutics at NHS England

Gordon Cullum, Technology Director at Axiologik

Chaired by Adrian Stanbury, Co-founder at Axiologik

Insights from the Panel:

Each speaker brought their unique perspective on how to balance speed, safety, and user-centricity in complex environments:

Cleveland outlined that progress in digital health comes from small, safe steps—built on security, shared goals, and constant feedback. He underlined that you need to empower teams, embrace safe failure, and let every lesson shape a better solution.

Accelerating digital health starts with a shared vision, empowered teams, and patient-first design, Martin shared with the attendees. He outlined that todeliver fast,you need to de-risk early and ground every solution in real-world experience to ensure there is a lasting impact.

Ute reflected that users aren’t the problem—it’s often systems that are. She believes that inclusive, research-driven design isn’t just ethical; it’s essential for creating services that truly work for everyone, from patients to providers. With that, user research is a criticalcomponent.

Gordon underlined that speed doesn’t mean starting from scratch. He shared that you should look to reuse what works, design with scale in mind, and build modular, interoperable solutions that serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s systems.

Five Key Takeaways for Fast, Safe, User-Centric Delivery

These lessons apply far beyond healthcare. Whether you're in financial services, government, or any other regulated sector, the principles remain the same: move fast, stay safe, and never lose sight of the user.

1. Small, Safe, Incremental Change Wins

Large-scale transformation doesn’t require big-bang delivery. Break work into manageable, testable increments to reduce risk, build trust, and maintain momentum—especially when stakeholder engagement is critical.

2. Build in Security and Compliance from Day One

In regulated environments, speed without safety is a false economy. Embedding security, privacy, and compliance into your architecture from the outset ensures you can scale confidently and sustainably.

3. Empower Cross-Functional Teams and Remove Egos

The best solutions come from diverse perspectives. Create multidisciplinary teams where every voice matters and align them around a shared goal—whether that’s improving patient outcomes or financial wellbeing.

4. Relentlessly Focus on User Feedback

Users aren’t the problem—they’re the key. Deep, continuous user research helps uncover real-world barriers, from digital exclusion to trust and accessibility. Design for all users, not just the digitally confident.

5. Celebrate Safe Failure

Not every idea will work—and that’s okay. Controlled, well-documented failures are essential for learning and innovation. In fact, they’re often the fastest route to the right solution.

Why This Matters Beyond Healthcare

While our event focused on healthcare and MedTech, the themes resonate across any sector where digital services must be delivered at scale, under scrutiny, and with high stakes.

Financial services, for example, face similar challenges: complex regulation, sensitive data, and a diverse user base with varying levels of digital confidence.

Whether you're designing a patient portal or a banking app, the same principles apply:

• Architect for reuse and interoperability
• Align around value streams
• -Embed user research into every stage of delivery

Final Thought

The panel made one thing clear: rapid, user-centric delivery isn’t just possible—it’s essential.

By starting with outcomes, aligning around value, and embedding feedback and safety into every step, teams can achieve fast flow—even in the most regulated environments.

With the right mindset, modular architecture, and empowered teams, we can move fast, stay safe, and deliver what truly matters.