Weeknotes 29th September: Two

Selected highlights from a curtailed week:

• It’s a wonderful wonderful thing to witness UX and content designers working together side-by-side, and considering the words we use in context of our users’ entire experience. One of the services we’re working on is into its 4th or 5th iteration and our research synthesis session showed me why: it’s about testing the small nuances, varying interpretations, past experiences that all go into the melting pot of creating an easily understandable service. Classic ‘hard work to make it simple’ ??
• This is such a different introduction to my last few projects, where I’ve arrived in a crisis and had to spring into action as quickly as possible. I’ve got really good at cutting through complex information and working out how to get started in messy contexts, how to make an action plan out of nearly nothing and make things happen fast. In this team I’m deliberately being given time and space to think deeply without the responsibility of solving a burning problem or meeting an imminent deadline. It’s unnerving in that it’s unfamiliar for me to not have a to-do list, but it’s exciting in that it’s giving me space to explore and think about how our services tie together and where we could be making improvements across our product lines rather than in isolation.
• I’ve been asking ‘why?’ A lot. It’s probably quite annoying (toddler/broken record) but it’s really important. It’s helping me to understand how the things that exist came into being; what constraints the team has been working under that mean things are a certain way and would be difficult/unwise to change; where things have scope to be improved or updated; whether a change request has come from user feedback or a business need or a random (perhaps unfinished) thought.
• I listened back to a recording of a team show and tell in which they dedicated part of the session to sharing their highlights from SDinGov. I appreciated this generosity in sharing knowledge, particularly how they shared how the content was relevant to our department’s work (e.g. place-based design thinking) and their own personal reflections. I didn’t feel the FOMO, rather I felt included in a small way in their experience.
• I had an encouraging first call with my new Deputy Director. Encouraging both in that they made the time in their schedule to have a 1-2-1 with me, to learn about my background and what I’m interested in, and also in how they spoke about the future and their ambitions for the team. Motivating stuff ??
• I’ve opened a Bluesky account. So far, so good. I’ve already connected with many familiar faces from gov digital/tech for good/design worlds, and I like that people aren’t taking themselves too seriously over there.
• I’m making a very silly jumper. I hope it will be ready in time for Govcamp.