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Fund teams, not projects
A lot of teams work in an agile way. Many organisations “are agile”. But in the public sector, there is a crucial element of an agile approach that is rarely conquered. Funding. This post is a collection of three articles from across the web which explain why organisations must fund teams, not projects. Projects are… Read more
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Breaking into User Research
Most people in a user research role didn’t start their career there. If someone is thinking of switching from a marketing and/or communications background, then this post is for you they likely have a good grasp of handling sensitive information (knowing what to include/share and what not to) and picking the right angle (what information… Read more
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Find out what matters most, and use it.
I’m almost two years late to an article written by Sam Conniff, but it’s no less relevant and interesting now as it was when written. Sam mentors young people through Livity, and writes about how some of their experiences behind bars has benefited them in Lockdown, and how we all have something to learn from… Read more
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How you decide what not to do
Catherine Howe has written about the challenges in local government or prioritising an overwhelmingly important and large volume of work. We are doing work on planning and prioritisation at the moment and its really bloody hard. Everything has a claim on our attention and we are working in complexity where no one thing can trump… Read more
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Poles apart
I’ve just read Poles Apart: Why People Turn Against Each Other, and How to Bring Them Together after having it recommended by an old colleague. It is well researched, insightful and accessibly written. It has earned many highlights on my Kindle and I recommend you read it yourself. Here are some of the quotes that… Read more
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Easy is hard
On the Design in Government blog, John Newton has written about creating Easy Read content. So, to clear things up, easy read is used mainly by people with learning difficulties. It uses pictures and text to convey meaning. He created prototypes and conducted user research on them with real users. The insight was invaluable. It’s… Read more
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Be consistent. But consistent with what?
At UX Collective, Duncan Stephen writes about consistency in design. He points out that there’s a real danger in being too consistent, as it can make individual services within a large portfolio harder to distinguish. But what were Microsoft thinking when they designed the icons for SharePoint and Sway? Not only do they have the… Read more
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Enabling enabling teams
Enabling teams are the machines that run the machines. The fuel injector that provides the engine with petrol. They’re crucial to the delivery of products and services, but can rub against the agile product delivery cycles. Mark Dalgarno has written about the enabling mindset that’s need for delivery teams to get the most out of… Read more
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Humans will always struggle to be content
In 2018, Brandon Speck wrote an article in www.livescience.com about “Prevalence-induced concept change in human judgment“. It details a series of experiments which show how important context is to humans in how they perceive world around them. 200 subjects were shown 1,000 coloured dots and asked to identify which were blue, and which were purple.… Read more
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Researching remotely
Sophie Drouet has written about her experience in conducting user research remotely, talking from her experience in Action for Research‘s digital service team. When I start a project, I want to: Know what research is already out there Find statistics, user research and projects that I can learn from Make sure I’m not duplicating stuff… Read more