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Technoanthropologist Anders Møller Droob

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At the intersection of citizens, case officers and it

Anders Møller Droob is a digitalisation consultant in Thisted Municipality where he handles a wide range of digitalisation projects, large and small. As a techno-anthropologist, he has exactly the skills needed to ensure coherence between those who are developing a system and those who are going to use it.

Article

At the intersection of citizens, case officers and it

Anders Møller Droob is a digitalisation consultant in Thisted Municipality where he handles a wide range of digitalisation projects, large and small. As a techno-anthropologist, he has exactly the skills needed to ensure coherence between those who are developing a system and those who are going to use it.

When Anders Møller Droob clocks in at work he knows he’ll be juggling several different hats, as he puts it. As project manager, along with a colleague, he guides Thisted Municipality safely through large national projects such as Next Generation Digital Post and the new digital solution for the business community: MitID Erhverv [eID Business].

Other times, he wears the consultant hat when he is responsible for the development of large and small automated processes in the municipality. These include automation of work procedures that can relieve colleagues of monotonous repetitive tasks, as well as digitalisation of simple self-service solutions that make citizens more self-reliant and case officers' work procedures more automated and fluid.

THE CITIZENS' ANGLE – AND THE DEVELOPERS'

All his tasks put Anders Møller Droob’s work at the intersection of technology and people. He knows how to talk to users and understand their wishes and needs, and he knows how to take the next, equally important step – translating the task into technical language so that the municipality's IT developers can make the project a reality.

− In the projects, I have to shift back and forth between very different areas. Imagine a long line with users at one end and developers at the other, and I’m in the middle navigating back and forth. If you want something to succeed in IT or digitalisation, clear communication with no barriers is the alpha and omega. And those barriers that do exist, as a techno-anthropologist I can help identify them and break them down, he explains.

IMPORTANT TAKE ON DIGITALISATION

Anders Møller Droob is pleased with his training as a techno-anthropologist and feels that he has landed in the perfect position as a digitalisation consultant. Fortunately, his boss, Lene Kjær Holst, agrees:

“
The programme in techno-anthropology prepared Anders well for being part of the Centre for IT, Digitalisation and Citizen Services [Center for IT, Digitalisering og Borgerservice]. In digitalisation, it is important to have drive and a great deal of curiosity about both the individual and technology. Anders had this attitude right from the start and it has served him well. We are dealing with many areas of expertise, each speaking their own language. The desire to help and understand is therefore incredibly important for us when it comes to best implementing the projects. I can only recommend that others hire a techno-anthropologist.

LENE KJÆR HOLST, HEAD OF SECTION, DIGITALISATION, THISTED MUNICIPALITY