What was hard? I struggled with procrastination a few times this week, perhaps accentuated by prospect of continued home working stretching out ahead of me. There are some things on my to-do list that I meant to get done in the working time between Christmas and New Year, didn't quite get to them, and now … Continue reading Weeknote: 11 to 15 January 2021 →

What did you experiment with? A new weeknote format for 2021 What did you enjoy? Working with NHSX colleagues and some of my other favourite people on a new piece of workAn intro call with Laura, our organisation's new chairA walking meeting through the snowy woods near our house What was hard? Struggling to strike … Continue reading Weeknote: 4 to 8 January 2021 →

An autumn lockdown treat: we cooked Saturday evening dinner over an open fire in the garden What inspired me this week? This brilliant video featuring some of my NHS Digital colleagues... https://youtu.be/SOfkWR9I-XM Tero’s post on Apolitical: Design is the strategy More workshops with colleagues from Primary Care. This week it felt as if the team … Continue reading Weeknote: 9 to 13 November 2020 →

View from my Monday morning desk at Trevelyan Square What leadership teamwork did I see? On Tusday, senior leaders from 3 NHS organisations came together to kick off an intensve period of work on a knotty service transformation problem. I felt the first workshop went well, with everyone agreeing how we wanted to work together. … Continue reading Weeknote: 2 to 6 November 2020 →

Ther River Aire outside Leeds on my Sunday morning bike ride What connections did I make? An introductory call with Fran, a new director in NHS Digital's Data Services area Peter joined the user-centred design team as associate delivery manager. I'm looking forward to having some help as a team to focus on our objectives … Continue reading Weeknote: 26 to 30 October 2020 →

Caption from murals at Wallington, which I visited during my week off Back to weeknoting after a hiatus when my time was consumed with other things. Thanks to Rachel for the nudge I needed to get back into the habit. What inspired me this week? All the stuff that happened while I was on leave … Continue reading Weeknotes: 19 to 23 October 2020 →

Saturday morning bike ride round Bardsey A double edition covering the 2 weeks since I got back from holiday… What inspired me this fortnight? Getting back from 2 weeks’ holiday and seeing how the team had moved things on while I was away. The Product Development show and tell, in which two of our user-centred … Continue reading Weeknotes: 17 to 28 August 2020 →

What inspired me this week? 97 people joining our Product Development show and tell on Teams. I think that’s a record! There were great presentations about the coronavirus content toolkit, and a change to the NHS App to improve the user experience when there are temporary glitches in connecting to GP systems. Catching up with … Continue reading Weeknote: 20 to 24 July 2020 →

A four-day working week after a long weekend on the lovely Northumbrian coast. What inspired me this week? Happiness is watching a flock of user-centred design professionals from multiple delivery teams swarming over a Miro board in a community workshop. I concluded early in my time at NHS Digital that having teams talk to each … Continue reading Weeknote: 13 to 17 July 2020 →

I got a haircut!Only retrospectively did I realise how much that, along with the scratchy Sharpies, was affecting my mood at my home office.How am I developing leaders and leadership?We welcomed Emma Parnell as a lead designer to work alongside Dean across our citizen-facing services.I also had a catch-up with Eva, the practice lead for … Continue reading Weeknote: 6 to 10 July 2020 →

Back to weeknotes after a break while I wrote up my 3-year reflections. Monday Spent the morning and early afternoon in a brilliant remote unconference for Nye Bevan Programme graduates, organised by Mike Chitty, Hesham Abdalla, and Peter Watson. After the busyness of the past few months, it was a lovely change of gear to … Continue reading Weeknote: 29 June to 3 July 2020 →

What leadership teamwork did I see? Over the past couple of weeks I've got more involved in the creation of a large and complex new NHS-branded service. I'm encouraged by its leaders' focus on getting the user experience right, and on the importance of earning and keeping people's trust. It has also given me a … Continue reading Weeknote: 18 to 24 May 2020 →

Both literally and metaphorically, I live at the top of a hill. Leeds city centre lies in a dip where smoke and traffic fumes linger, so the middle classes have long chosen this leafy suburb, 100 metres higher, as a place to be socially distant. Here I am holed up in a house that’s big … Continue reading Weeknote: 13 to 19 April 2020 – notes from the top of a hill →

Slowing the pace a little after a couple of full-on weeks where several of our teams delivered new services, and I shuttled virtually between them to help make sure we would deliver a joined-up user experience. On Monday evening, while I was on a call about another new service in the pipeline, someone in my … Continue reading Weeknote: 6 to 10 April 2020 →