weeknotes s02 ep07

TL:DR Fostering User Research; Problem Statements ; Show and Shares – not! Digital and Change ‘Approach to Change’ Design Maturity; Beach walk; Colour Works Insights; new job; user research; bike rides

What I’ve done

Enjoyed a really productive week and started the synthesis on all the fostering insights that I’ve been digging deep for the past few months. I absolutely love this bit! There are lots of problems identified some the service will already be aware of, some they may know about but not realise the impact and therefore there will be lots to think about and prioritise once I’ve written the problem statements.

Then it will be up to the service to prioritise those problem statements (or How Might We? questions) depending on how important they feel they are. So it’s been long days again and satisfying to see everything coming together.

My only slight disappointment is that some of the team have been either so busy, or on annual leave (fair!) and unfortunately there’s been some inevitable sickness which has meant my push to improve the fostering process maps hasn't quite been realised. There may be time in my last week next week to gain sign off but as already mentioned resource is highly pressured and this impacts in lots of areas — as they will see when my research gets presented on the 16th March.

I have literally enough information to present 3 show and shares; in an ideal ‘digital and change approach to change’ would have held one per month; inviting the service to see, understand and validate all the problem areas.

Ive noticeable that the design maturity isn’t consistent across the organisation for lots of reasons and whilst digital solutions are part of the transformation they are by no means just where the focus should be. Again, my research backs this up.

Service Design is a relatively new approach and the first double diamond takes the most time, but it is the most important. This can be a frustrating ‘waiting game’ for service managers. I just hope we’ve done enough to get the buy-in, time will tell! It would be great to be able to work closely with the new ‘digital team’ in Children’s services so that we’re all working in the same way; and not siloed in any way.

Digital and Change team; our group met again last week and we progressed our task some more, basically chivvying the other teams to ensure they deliver their outputs in time so that we can piece everything together in the first draft of our Digital and Change ‘Approach to Change’ user journey map.

I decided I needed a break (I have sooo much leave stacked up!) and took today (Friday) off, so my other half and I decided that we’d join the Change Team for their beach walk, coffee and catch up down at Overcombe Beach where the sun was shining! Great to meet some Change Team members and put real faces to names!

And so I start my project manager role next week! Eek! Exciting times. I will miss the ‘human’ element of the service design role but I won’t miss the pressure to get so much research done in a short space of time, repeatedly.

What I’ve learned

This isn’t new learning but always good to remind ourselves that everyone works in a slightly different way and we have to be mindful and tolerant of that, using Colourworks insights definitely helps with that. It was very noticeable in our group session that the quieter members of the team felt able to speak; I do love it when everyone feels comfortable and secure enough that they feel they can contribute. This is one of the ways that enable people to grow and develop and benefits the whole team too, which is kinda the point of multi disciplinary teams, using and appreciating everyone's skill set..

What I’ve read

Again this week I’ve been really bad at picking up a book, always easier to sit down in front of the tele after a long day on Teams, I must get that in check!

Have kept up with learning French though and am now on a 436 day streak and have managed to climb back and stay in the Diamond League; will need to do some more lessons over the weekend in order to stay there though!

The gravel bike will definitely be coming out this weekend as the weather looks set to be good and not much wind!

That’s me done! Have a good one :)