Every day, thousands of OVO customers engaging with its digital services experience the work of Lucas Woodward. Over nearly four years of developing customer experience (CX) solutions as Senior Software Engineer at leading UK energy provider OVO, Woodward has built a diverse portfolio of solutions that redefine what’s possible in CX technology. 

Woodward has become the go-to subject matter expert of the Genesys Cloud™ platform at OVO. He has studied and built bots, CX as Code solutions, integrations, observability pipelines, open-source tools, and proofs of concept – all of which also shape how OVO optimizes its use of Genesys Cloud.

Woodward’s exceptional ability to translate complex technical challenges into seamless customer experiences, all while mentoring colleagues and driving industry innovation, has earned him recognition from Genesys as the 2025 Orchestrators Innovation Award winner in the Orchestrator of the Year/Developer category.

Any organization would be fortunate to have a Lucas Woodward, with his genuine excitement around developing for a platform with such a rich and accessible ecosystem, and his appreciation for how Genesys helps companies connect with customers. His curiosity and determination have led to the creation of solutions designed to scale, influence best practices and push to raise the bar in the CX industry as a whole.

“Being able to literally hear how your solutions affect the customer makes you want to do your best for them – and for the other developers who build CX solutions,” said Woodward. “Couple this empathy with a passion for building things and you have, well, someone like me.”

Impact Measured in Real Interaction

One of Woodward’s standout achievements began as a side project: a real-time dashboard linking chatbot and flow performance metrics to backend service metrics. Initially designed to improve visibility for developers at OVO, it quickly became mission-critical across the company.  

Woodward honed the dashboard to now be able to monitor journeys used by over 40,000 customer interactions each month. “It’s a small tool but with a big impact,” said Woodward, pointing out how the dashboard has improved reliability monitoring and decision-making for both technical teams and customer service operations. 

Another key accomplishment is his automated chatbot testing tool. Used by QA testers to run more than 100 test types on complex flows, and by developers to speed up feedback loops, the tool has caught numerous regressions before they reached production. It has become a trusted part of the organization’s deployment pipelines and was even featured on the Genesys Developer Blog. 

Sharing Knowledge and Building Community

From CI/CD automation and CX as Code pipelines to chatbot test automation and data observability tools, Woodward has developed systems that improve not only customer experiences but also developer efficiency within OVO. His contributions extend beyond individual projects to innovations that have shaped the way OVO approaches Genesys Cloud across multiple teams – and to thought leadership that has reached beyond the company walls. 

Woodward has built a remarkable community presence. Through his Genesys-focused newsletter and corporate blog contributions, Woodward shares deep technical insights that aim to help CX practitioners worldwide. But it’s his LinkedIn activity that truly showcases his community leadership – with more than 1,000 followers, his posts regularly reach 18,000 impressions and generate scores of reactions, making him an influential voice in the Genesys Cloud community and helping to shape the conversation on CX technology there. 

Recent posts exemplify his generous approach to knowledge sharing. When he explored why contact centers should be treated like software, he didn’t just share the theory; he paired it with an open-source repository that walked readers through the Genesys Cloud CX as Code implementation. Similarly, his post about the creation of an open-source model context protocol server for Genesys Cloud was generously shared, enabling others to test and use the server.  

The Mindset That Makes the Difference

For Woodward, technical excellence is only part of the job. His work is grounded in empathy for both the end customer and the developers building CX solutions, with a consistent mission of democratizing access to advanced customer experience technology.  

Woodward’s recognition as Orchestrator of the Year/Developer reflects not just a track record of innovative solutions, but also a commitment to empowering others, improving systems and contributing to the wider community. And he has an awareness that while customer experience technology can be highly technical, approaching it with generosity and empathy makes it deeply human. 

Read about all of the CX leaders recognized in the 2025 Genesys Orchestrators Innovations Awards.