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Product Customer and External Relations

Ashley’s Story


Ashley Boyd is the Senior Manager of the Product Management Department, she joined SLC in 2009 initially working in the FE Services Team. Over the past 15 years she has grown and developed her skills and progressed through the organisation to her current role.

She said: “My first few years in the organisation were spent in operational roles working with customers directly, then managing teams and providing data and analytics on our yearly cycle of activities. SLC is a fantastic place for opportunities to develop professionally, and I quickly moved to working in projects which deliver change for our systems.

“It was around this time I became aware of the Product Manager role, one of the core roles of any Government Digital Service (GDS) team. The role itself was of particular interest to me because of the balance of working in a technical capacity within software delivery teams, alongside the responsibility of shaping the way our systems work for our organisation and customers.

“I applied for and was successful in gaining a role in Partner Services, providing Product Management for systems that enable Universities and Colleges to work day-to-day with SLC. In this role the development opportunities available to me, including coaches and certifications aligned to GDS delivery, opened a career path that I hadn’t known existed and was incredibly passionate about.

“After a few years as Product Manager for various systems and working in some high-profile projects, I moved on to manage the team of Product Managers in this department. In 2019 SLC brought together all Product Managers from across the organisation to a central department, and I applied and was successful in gaining my current role as Senior Product Manager, responsible for the Product Management Department within the Product, Customer and External Relations (PCER) directorate.”