Balancing two teams

A list of different design tasks I've been doing (juggling?) this week.

I like to try and give my weeknotes a theme, but this week has been a whirlwind of different meetings and themes. So I guess that's the theme.

Splitting my time between two teams has been interesting. I'm constantly wondering if I'm getting the balance right. For example is it helpful that I pop-up here and there to do code reviews and nudge a couple of tickets long, or should I be carving out more time for the bigger problems?

Anyway, here's a little example of some the things I've been doing or thinking about this week:

  • I made the mistake of starting early some days, but then I kept going and ended up finishing late too. Need to make sure this doesn't become a habit.
  • I'm enjoying working with our new product manager on the plus team, I think they're making a huge contribution already. As we inch closer to releasing our pilot, the team are focusing on final tidy up tasks, it's feeling very reactive at the moment so I'm hoping that calms down soon.
  • I'm playing around with two different user journeys for our invites and reminders feature. I don't think either is necessarily going to be shorter, but I'm keen to know which matches user mental models more closely:
    1. Start with all patients, filter patient list down, choose a message, send
    2. Start with all message templates, choose a message to send, add patients, send
  • On the core team, I've been doing some desk research into adding a new conditional question to one of our existing pages. I'm gathering web analytics, clinical advice, and interaction design best practice ahead of making the change.
  • I reviewed a couple of changes to the digital prevention services design history website. It's interesting to read about the common service patterns (like appointments) that are being worked on by different teams.
  • I'm already two thirds through my 3 month contract. The time is flying by. I think/hope I'll be getting an extension, expecting to hear about that next week.
  • I'm off to London on Tuesday for a couple of nights. Is it strange to say I'm looking forward to 3 hours on the train? I value the change of pace that a few days away from home can bring.

Outside of work

Summer is nearly over, and it's been rainy and cooler for most of this week (which is welcome to be honest)

The kids are back in school on Thursday. Our youngest is old enough to walk home from school by themselves now which feels like a big milestone.

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