The programme
An embedded consultancy for AI user‑centred design.
Senior practitioner expertise on AI‑enabled services, embedded at a day rate. Three shapes: head‑of‑profession advisory, community of practice, project embedding.
01The shapes
Three shapes of engagement.
Each shape suits a different question. Pick the one that matches what your team needs.
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01
Advisory
Profession advisory
A standing line for the head of profession. Strategy questions, hiring shape, capability uplift, assurance posture on AI‑enabled work. The practitioner sits beside you, not in your team.
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02
Community
Community of practice
A standing programme for a UCD profession or cross‑profession group. Sessions, materials, office hours. Builds capability across the whole community on AI‑enabled methods, the Service Standard, and assurance.
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03
Embedded
Project embedding
A senior practitioner inside a delivery team, doing the work. Discovery shaping, alpha review, AI‑systems specialism on a live build. Used where a team needs a hand on the work, not just an opinion.
02How it works
From first call to close, in five steps.
Light contracting, fast start. The shape is the same whether the engagement is one month or six.
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Step 01
Intro call
A thirty‑minute call to test fit. What you're trying to do, where the practitioner can help, what shape suits.
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Step 02
Scoping note
A two‑page note: shape, cadence, what's in and out, success criteria, day rate, total. Your procurement team can lift it straight into the contract.
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Step 03
Kick‑off
A working session in your first week. The practitioner meets the team, reads the artefacts, agrees the first three things to tackle.
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Step 04
Fortnightly review
A standing thirty minutes to check the work is biting. What's open, what shifted, what to drop. Written summary after each.
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Step 05
Close
A handover note: what was done, what's left, what to read next. Continuation by mutual agreement. Otherwise, a clean stop.
03The first thirty days
What the first thirty days produce.
The work begins where the head of profession or service owner is already standing. The practitioner reads the artefacts in the first week: service maps, research repositories, recent assessment letters, the AI register entries that matter. By the end of week two, the team has a working diagnosis of the four or five things that are actually pulling the work.
By day thirty, three things are written. A short read of the AI‑enabled work in flight against the first five Service Standard points, calling out where the assurance posture is thin. A capability map for the UCD professions in scope, naming the gaps that matter for AI‑enabled delivery. And a one‑page brief on what the next sixty days should focus on, with two or three specific moves the team can make.
None of this requires a new method. It runs on what your team already does, sharpened with the AI‑systems specialism the practitioner brings.
04Commercials and procurement
How to buy.
Day rate
The programme is sold at a day rate, set on the engagement's shape, length, and security profile. Rates are shared in writing on the intro call so your procurement team can budget against them.
Half‑days are billable, week minimums apply for project embedding. Rates hold for the duration of the contract.
How you buy
Two routes. Crown Marketplace DSP for any central‑government department, ALB, or devolved administration on the framework. Direct procurement for engagements below your department's framework threshold, contracted on the practitioner's standard terms.
Supplier facts
- PracticeLoopwork, the practice brand
- StatusUK SME, sole practitioner
- FrameworksCrown Marketplace DSP (status confirmed at intro call)
- InsuranceProfessional indemnity, public liability (certificates on request)
- SecurityCleared to handle OFFICIAL; SC clearance available where the engagement requires
- ComplianceWCAG 2.2 AA, GDS Service Standard, UK GDPR
05The practitioner
Chris Leo. Senior UCD on AI‑enabled work.
Eighteen years in UCD, eight in UK central government. Cross‑government and HMRC Service Standard assessor. Trained on Cambridge's HCI for AI Systems methodology, the public reference for the practitioner's approach to AI‑enabled service design.
The programme is a 1:1 service. Chris is the practitioner on every engagement, not a partner, not a delivery team.
Drawn from
Cambridge HCI for AI Systems·MRS Diploma·BSc Psychology
Get in touch
Tell the practitioner what you're trying to do.
Email a sentence on the work and a date or two that suit. You'll get a reply the same week with a calendar link and a short note on whether the programme fits. If it doesn't, the practitioner will say so and point you elsewhere.