Weeknotes – series 01 episode 06

Inflatable bowels, Twitter charts and busy, busy days.

Monday

Sharing charts on Twitter at time of release

It's difficult to remember back to Monday now, but one meeting in particular stood out. A few of us got together to try and improve the 'sharing charts on Twitter at time of release' workflow.

Because of the unique (it's probably not unique) way ONS handles and publishes sensitive data, creating an image of chart in time for 9:30am publishing is really tricky and it's causing headaches for a few of us.

Tuesday

Show and tell with the publishing team

On Tuesday I was asked to run a show and tell for the publishing team.

The publishing team are the people who use the ONS website's content management system to upload content so it can be published.

It reminded me that we have made some progress in breaking down the silos in the department. But there is still more that can be done, and I've made a note to remind myself to spend more time observing the work that they do.

Wednesday

Wednesday was intense

In the morning I finished off my find data by location prototype, then presented it at our usual end-of-sprint show and tell.

Sue (graphic designer from Home Office Digital) visited. She spent some time chatting with the various design teams (thanks everyone who spent time showing her around). She has plans to start a cross-gov graphic design meet-up.

At lunch time, we walked around a giant inflatable bowel. Which was a completely normal thing to do.

Whilst all this was going on we had our usual end-of-sprint ceremonies like retrospective and sprint planning. These are usually exhausting just by themselves. Especially for an introvert like me.

Last of all, Sam has rebooted the digital services monthly meeting. The team rarely get together, despite all sharing digital job roles, so it was good to be in the same room sharing news and updates.

Thursday

Thursday was also intense

Looking back — I had too much on on Thursday. My day went a bit like this...

  • 3 stand-ups
  • Usability testing with the publishing team part 1
  • Follow-up chat about social media workflows
  • Meeting to discuss UX (user experience) designer progression pathways
  • Design community of practice
  • Usability testing with the publishing team part 2
  • Meeting to finish off sprint planning because we didn't finish everything on Wednesday

My head was spinning by the end of the day. Part of me feels proud that I can play an active role in 9 different meetings/discussions and still do some good work. Another part of me was just glad I had booked off Friday.

Friday

Day off with the kids — whoop!