Its a bonus week this time around, so plenty to pack in. I started at public digital last Monday, but only worked three days and was off on Friday…so thought I’d save all my weeknotes up!
Some thoughts on the last two weeks:
- I’ve been meeting a lot of people in the new job and increasingly realising that I have had a very linear career direction in design, slowly specialising over time, compared to many PD’ers who have embraced a whole wide range of experiences before arriving at this point in their careers. It’s great to be amongst people with such wide ranging expertise, in particular who have done the hard work within big complex organisations to get traction for digital/design.
- One of the outcomes of those conversations that I’ve already started to take some action on is writing a first draft of content for ‘The public digital design research playbook’. There has been loads of great examples of work in the space scattered across project files, but we don’t as yet have a structured guide to doing things. I’ve started one, if nothing else to start the conversations with people who have opinions about it how it should be done.
- User research possibly needs repositioning as a strategic thing, rather than a purely delivery thing. I.e. There is value in user research even if we’re not the ones delivering the service, because the strategy/operating model etc should be informed by user needs, not just the services themselves. References that come to mind are Emma Boulton’s research funnel and various different takes on what a ‘research framework’ is.
- I attended a service design days satellite event in Cardiff around civic engagement. It was a trip down memory lane meeting up with loads of old colleagues, some who were shocked how much I’d aged
but were otherwise kind! The sessions covered new approaches to journalism, democratic participation, fighting misinformation and designing for policy. Interesting stuff! - Catching up with old colleagues means being asked if I’m still doing ‘that doctorate thing’…to which I have to answer yes. This time the conversation was much more about how I should publish what I’ve learned so far…working in the open as it were. So as a shameless act of self promotion, you can read my blog post ‘Seven things to think about when prototyping a service‘. Feel free to ask me more, I can bore anybody with it!
- I’ve also managed to make some progress on some DIY in prep for building work starting in our kitchen. That’s included cutting down bamboo worktop, digging some drainage ditches outside, as well as hanging pictures and clothes rails in our recently redecorated bedroom.
- I signed up to get more info on the ‘user research in wales community‘ so might see you there maybe!?
- Oh and I also swapped my desk legs for some drawers that put it at standing height… which reminded me how much difference swapping to standing all day makes on the legs! I also messed with the new Sonoma camera ‘portrait’ settings to try and hide my ageing better…
The long read this week is an old one that has been doing the rounds this week (as it does periodically) – The smart-talk trap is something I’m increasingly aware of as my role has often hovered around the consultant title, and is now firmly in that area. How to make sure I don’t fall into the smart-talk trap, saying things that sound interesting and clever but don’t actually make anything happen.
Food for thought.
alistairuff 
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