It’s been an interesting week, both at work and home.

Work-wise, we were told the project is now tactical rather than strategic. In short, this means it has a shelf life, and we have to be mindful of this (when it is the public sector, we all should be anyway). With the absence of a PM on the project, this news should help us keep this on the straight and narrow route to delivery.
Yes, this approach always has its negatives. We can let something slip due to the time allowed, and my eye might also be taken off the ball because I’m working on other projects, but this is the card dealt, and I’m more than happy to help as much as possible. It is the right decision, assuming the other planets align and we can deliver something more significant in a few years.

With that in mind, we are in the home run of launching the service into its private beta stage. We’ve done rounds and rounds of User Research, and it’s one of the best services I’ve been part of. It’s been measured, and it had endless playbacks and iterations through the roof. The development team are great.
This is a GOOD service. It’s a measure of the team and the things that can be done with strong leadership from both product and design (yes it’s our job to do more than just be given work.. a lesson I learned far too late in my career).

We will be running User Research face-to-face in two locations again—this is brilliant work from the team to make this happen, and the locations are being so incredibly useful. They are doing this purely as volunteers—supporting a new service that will improve themselves and the claimants at the end of it, and with the added bonus of saving the government money, it just feels good to be part of it.

Completely not work-wise, I built my pc, which, if you know me, is an incredible feat considering I’m useless at all things manual - I have wanted to play Mafia 2 for years, and from the opening scene (no spoilers) it had me griped, I love the atmosphere, the story building and the dialogue (challenging listen in parts but it’s representing 1940s-50s era).

Song of the week (possible ever?) I’ve been a fan of Teddy Swims for what seems an ever and ever, but hearing this collab with the brilliant X Ambassadors and the newfound fave Jac Ross. Give it a listen, play it 105 times and love it as much as I do.