Communities of Practice - An opportunity to learn, share and discuss at H&B.

“In H&B we are embarking on a bold mission and at the heart of it is our technology function. We want to be the best at what we do; learn, challenge, and grow ourselves & H&B. And the best way to foster this empowered, open, knowledge-sharing culture is through CoP (Communities of Practice).”

Sathya Nandakumar - Chief Technology Officer

In the Tech team at H&B, we’ve been holding virtual ‘Communities of Practice’ since Feb 2022. Our subject matter experts from across our business come together to share their knowledge with the wider team. A bit like our very own TED talks!

What is a Community of Practice (CoP)

A Community of Practice is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact ". In short, it’s a way of sharing expertise on a subject.?

At Holland & Barrett, the CoP is driven by our Product Ops team, discussing a variety of Technology topics. Each week guest speakers provide a window into software innovation from engineering, product, design, and UX. We also hear updates from across our business operations, retail, and commercial teams.?

Why do we love them at Holland & Barrett

These sessions have proved popular. They are open to all colleagues who have an interest in Digital Products, Technology Solutions that delight customers and enhance both the in-store shopping and online buying experience.

In the last session we discussed Lean Six Sigma. We learned how it works, why are we adopting it and how colleagues can sign up. Plus, the burning question for Tech - how and where does this link to Agile and Tech.

We have also covered subjects including: Agile 101, Storytelling, UX 101, The Laws of Simplicity, What’s a TPM? And Crazy 8’s ideation technique!?

Some of the topics coming soon are listed below. But, we would love to hear any ideas from you in the comments below!

Cognitive Psychology in UX

How does our thinking influence our buying experiences? Learn more about how our brains work when it comes to shopping on websites and apps.

Data & Machine Learning Products 101

What does a data & machine learning product look like? How do our teams at H&B build things like personalisation algorithms that are driven by machine learning??

Similarities between QA & Product

One of our Tech team has gone through the transition from Quality Assurance (engineering) to Product Management. During this time found some interesting similarities – join us to find out what they are!

Design Sprints 101

A design sprint is a useful technique for doing speedy customer and design discovery in a very short space of time. We'll share what a Design Sprint is, how to do one yourself and some key hints and tips.

Effective Coaching

Our Head of Supply Chain is going to share some insights from his personal journey in coaching. He will also share useful hints or tips on what’s he learnt to date and thinks we could learn from and use ourselves!

UX Research 101

An intro into UX Research – What is it? Why’s it important & how do we do it? Plus, some useful hints and tips around do’s and don’ts for us all in those moments that we have to do it ourselves!

How to Pitch Perfect (in deck form)

Wellness futures is a new function, introduced to build a new customer proposition helping us work towards our 2025 vision.

"To be the trusted partner for over 100 million people globally, to achieve their personal health and wellness goals."

In Wellness Futures, the squads have been creating pitch decks and then pitching to our exec and board – think Dragons Den. Creating a perfect* pitch deck is far from simple and through this process we’ve learnt a lot on what to do and what not to do.