Benjy StantonDiscovery report feedback, stand-ups and Jukesie's talk
- Author Benjy Stanton
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Discovery report
After a bit of a delay last week, our discovery report is out and being reviewing by stakeholders. We've had less feedback than I was expecting (I think this is a good thing, because nothing in the report should be a surprise). We've tried to quickly address some initial comments by updating the design and reissuing the report. Hopefully we are showing that we can respond quickly.
Next step is to do some walkthroughs, we're not sure yet if these will be recorded and shared, or done during a call. We were hoping to do that this week, but things have slipped. Our final deadline is a week today, otherwise there won't be time to prep for the next PI, and we risk losing out to other work that is ready to be picked up by the tech teams.
Honestly, it feels unlikely that we'll get sign-off from all the right people at this point. But maybe the tech teams will take on the risk themselves, and restart the build work anyway. After all, the design has been through multiple user research rounds, and it's quite well annotated. Although I do need to spend some time adding some notes, especially around technical accessibility considerations.
Any further changes feel like tinkering around the edges compared to the impact of the service changes as a whole. So, I'm starting to wonder if there is nervousness about going ahead at all. At least with some stakeholders.
This is a strange position for a design team to be in, at least not one I've had much experience of. I certainly feel a bit powerless to influence the decisions that are needed.
Too many stand-ups?
In other news, I've been trying to get a little closer to the tech teams (again). I want to start joining their stand-ups every day, but on a busy day I have 5 stand-ups to join and many of them clash. Looking at this objectively, it's probably another sign that I'm split across too many things.
Still, I've enjoyed the time chatting with software developers, I enjoy the push and pull between perfect interaction design and what's possible technically. Software developers are really great system thinkers, so they can give valuable pointers on ways to improve designs.
Jukesie's working in the open talk
I was really happy to have got a mention in one of Jukesie's slides at Camp Digital: The Power, Peril and Privilege of Working in the Open.
I haven't seen the talk, but seeing the responses online to all the talks made me very jealous for not attending the conference.
I've seen Jukesie speak a few times, and I think his talk about his time at ONS (Office for National Statistics) in 2014(?) was a big reason for me ending up working in the public sector. So, thanks Matt!
It's also made me reflect on how my blogging is going. It's half way through the year, and including this post, I've published 22 blog posts. I think that's pretty good going.
Here's to working in the open.