I’ve skipped a week. You can thank trying to work whilst surviving the school holidays for that. But it’s been a banger! We travelled during those weather warnings to see family in Wales, which was nothing short of lovely. I really like going to Wales. It’s such a beautiful country and always reminds me of my grandmother, so all good!

Upon returning, perfectly timed for Halloween, hands up who’s drowning in sweets and trying to tidy them all up by eating every single damn one? Then getting acid reflux as a reward. The joys of being 404 years old.

This is a late edit, but I’ve just noticed this is my 100th weeknotes. Crikey! I’ll do a proper write-up about that very soon.

Onto the week…

Let’s discuss how much crap I’ve eaten this week. Never mind the kids wanting snacks, the cold weather has officially activated snack mode, and all I need is pastries, cake and coffee.

I’ve been context-switching between three teams, ensuring they’re all aligned and not duplicating each other’s work. Duplication is one of my biggest bugbears throughout my career, and something that really gets to me!

The teams I work with are all appreciative of design and my experience, which is a huge win. I will say it’s mostly come through word of mouth, and I’m trying not to sound like an arse here because modesty is surprisingly hard to write about!

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to remember every deliverable and every conversation. More importantly, remember that not everyone really cares about design in the way we do. So bring people along on the journey by speaking their language and giving the room what it needs. Sometimes it’s not about explaining why you made a particular design decision, but helping people understand why the thing needs to exist in the first place.

I recently kickstarted user research again, and it’s been brilliant. People have been incredibly willing to talk, and there’s been loads of praise for what we’ve delivered and how quickly we’ve managed to get it into their hands. They love the look and feel, which is lovely for my ego, but what I really care about is HOW they’re actually using it.

Are they using it how they said they would? Has anything changed now they’ve got their hands on it? And my favourite question of all: “What workarounds are you using?”

That’s where the real gold is. The little cheats people have invented, the frustrations they’ve quietly worked around and the things they might not even think to mention unless you ask. Those are the bits I want to uncover so we can scurry away and fix them.

I try to take as many quotes as possible and let the conversation flow naturally. Of course there’s a structure to the research, but I want people to feel comfortable enough to tell me what they really think, rather than just answer a list of questions. I’m also not interested in asking someone to guess what percentage of time we’ve saved them. The proper numbers will come from line managers and service owners who can measure that.

At this stage, just after the pilot, I want to know whether we’ve delivered something that genuinely works. Something people find useful, rather than another blocker or annoyance in their working day.

And I think that’s the most rewarding part of it all. We spent time understanding what people needed, acted on it, delivered something and now we’re hearing how it’s working in the real world. It’s a lovely reminder of the power of doing the user needs work properly in the first place.

I did a bit of co-working this week at Roots of Respect, which was fun. I met up with Sophie Greenwood and a few other folks, including another designer! BUT… all of a sudden my workload hit, and I was absolutely rammed. Earphones in, coffee mode activated.

This isn’t a moan about being busy. In fact, MAKE me busy! I just wanted to have a proper natter with people about their lives, careers and businesses. I can’t deny that my sandwich from Bakery 164 was incredible, though. Meatballs, mozzarella and Reggae Reggae sauce. An absolute taste sensation!

I’ve slowly started thinking about my next steps with work. What do I want to work on next year? This contract feels like it’s winding down. We’ve delivered so much in such a short space of time, and perhaps it’s time to move on. The timing might actually be good because I feel the challenge is getting smaller and smaller.

There’s also a strange situation where my work feels less in demand within my core team, largely because of development backlogs and constant bug fixing, but more in demand from teams outside it. The irony is that I’m not actually contracted to those teams! It’s an interesting position to be in, and something I’m thinking about as I work out what comes next.

Also, is anyone else struggling to organise a gathering of mates this Christmas? We’re constantly knee-deep in work, kids’ events (birthdays… oh jeez, the endless birthdays) and I’m drowning in calendar checks!

Watch of the week

I was the biggest fan of Making a Murderer. I even went to see the two lawyers, Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, at Leeds Town Hall back in the mighty 2017. That case has always been in the back of my mind.

But after one of those deep Instagram scrolling sessions, I came across a documentary that seems to have completely gone under the radar called Convicting a Murderer.

The host is a bit… urgh (let’s leave it at that, thankfully she’s not in it much), but wow. And I mean WOW. It’s so worth a watch, and it’s on Amazon Prime.

Stop reading this and go watch it!