What inspired me this week? Two workshops in which I was reminded of the growing breadth and depth of talent in our user-centred design community across national NHS organisations. Helen and Nancy led a brilliant session on user insights, personas and problem statements for a large and complex new service. The following day Sophie facilitated … Continue reading Weeknote: 25 to 29 May 2020 →

What inspired me this week? So much to choose from, but these tweets from James sum it up... https://twitter.com/jiggott/status/1241308962718461952 Our user researchers moving rapidly away from face-to-face research without remotely compromising on the importance of involving users. This has been a real community effort, with lots of hints, tips and tools being shared under the … Continue reading Weeknote: 16 to 22 March 2020 →

1. What inspired me this week? All the likes and retweets for our user-centred design graduate scheme - open for applications until 30 November! Getting along to the weekly design huddle for the first time in a while. Sam's spooky Hallowe'en presentation of a challenging piece of work was excellent. Meeting former GDS Academy colleagues, … Continue reading Weeknote: 28 October to 1 November 2019 →

A 2-week batch of weeknotes, having taken time last week to finish my NHS Leadership Academy Nye Bevan Programme element 2 submission. Things at work have been changing fast during the weeks that I've been writing this critically reflective essay, but the whole process has helped me to clarify what I need to focus on, … Continue reading Weeknotes: 14 to 25 October 2019 →

1. What inspired me this week? My former colleague Andy Callow published reflections on his first 6 months as Chief Digital Information Officer at Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. I'm missing Andy's wise reflections at NHS Digital, but it's great to know he's more-than-surviving at KGH. NHS X CEO Matthew Gould joined us at … Continue reading Weeknote: 7 to 11 October 2019 →

1. What inspired me this week? Seeing Rochelle and Tero settling into their new NHS Digital roles as head of user research and head of design respectively, and - bonus! - the news that Simon is moving over from PHE to NHS X in a head of design role there. Being part of a panel … Continue reading Weeknote: 30 September to 4 October 2019 →

Another two week batch of notes, having missed last week's due to various pressing deadlines. I hope not to make a habit of this. The downside of fortnightnotes is that 16 September feels like an eternity ago. On the upside, I'm reminded just how many good things have happened since I last hit the "publish" … Continue reading Weeknotes: 16 to 27 September 2019 →

A bumper double edition of weeknotes, having skipped last week's to work on my NHS Leadership Academy Bevan Programme "element 2" draft. Also, this happened... This new role in our Product Development directorate lets me work across a wider range of NHS Digital products and services, and build a small central design and user-research function … Continue reading Weeknotes: 2 to 13 September 2019 →

A short week because of the Bank Holiday, which I spent packing up our kitchen ready for a builder to rip it apart first thing on Tuesday morning. Also something on Friday afternoon that I will cover in next week's note. 1. How did I make expectations clear? I started planning a planning process for … Continue reading Weeknote: 27 to 30 August 2019 →

Back to weeknoting after a break including a 2-week family holiday in Finland and St Petersburg. 1. What leadership teamwork did I see? Going away for two weeks at a critical time in our organisation change process has helped me appreciate the awesome people I work with even more. In particular, Eva and Richard dealt … Continue reading Weeknote: 19 to 23 August 2019 →

"The rights are there to help ensure that staff: have a good working environment with flexible working opportunities, consistent with the needs of patients and with the way that people live their lives have a fair pay and contract framework can be involved and represented in the workplace have healthy and safe working conditions and … Continue reading Weeknote: 22 to 26 July 2019 →

1. What inspired me this week? NHS.UK team members demonstrating some of the kit going into our new accessibility lab to the NHS Digital board. Board members tried on visual impairment simulation glasses and gloves for mobility impairment, and we had some great conversations about how to improve the experience of our digital services for … Continue reading Weeknote: 15 to 19 July 2019 →

A different weeknote format because I spent most of the week on the NHS Leadership Academy Nye Bevan Programme - a 3-day residential followed by a 1-day learning set meeting. I'm learning loads, from the course directors Naomi and Majid, the guest faculty, our learning set facilitator Caroline, and of course all my peers in … Continue reading Weeknote: 8 to 12 July 2019 →

1. What inspired me this week? A post by Zoe, one of our graduate trainees: 6 things I learned in 6 months as a user researcher. The NHSx launch, and in particular the news that Hadley is joining the new organisation as acting CTO. Reading recommendations from practice leads on requests from people across the … Continue reading Weeknote: 1 to 5 July 2019 →

1. What leadership teamwork did I see? Loads! I worked with Helen, Karen and Jayne to put together a strategy day on Tuesday for our exec director Wendy and her product directors. (Thanks to Futuregov for hosting us, and to Dominic Campbell for an inspiring talk to kick the day off.) I reached into my … Continue reading Weeknote: 24 to 28 June 2019 →