Decembernote
Some of the things I have been doing
I wrote a blog post about how we have developed the user centred design maturity model and the practical support that sits around it to help mature practice. I have had a lot of positive feedback since it was published including how having a practical tool to support whole teams is incredibly valuable. You can learn more about it here https://digital.nhs.uk/blog/design-matters/2021/how-nhs-digital-is-developing-user-centred-design-maturity
I was asked by our deputy chief medical officer to support and advise on some work that a quality improvement team were working on. I have been spending time meeting that team, understanding their work, collaborating with them and linking them in with user researchers.
I worked with colleagues as part of a progression framework review of the organisation, met with Tracey about Shuri network shadowing and met with the Heads of Product to take them through the UCD maturity model and how it was developed. I also worked with and negotiated support for one of our sub directorates who are on the first steps of UCD maturity. I chaired a panel for Head of Delivery roles and met with a potential new delivery manager for the UCD team.
I met with cross system colleagues as part of the NHS UCD profession steering group. I also discovered some UCD colleagues working within the system and linked them into our NHS UCD communities, user researchers working in similar areas and into things that will help develop the UCD maturity in their part of the system.
I met Chiara and Kate, face to face, in Leeds for the first time since they started working at NHS Digital nearly 2 years ago. I also had an in person catch up with Claire. I caught up with Krupa in UKHSA and met Liliana, one of our new service designers. I had 3 separate catch-ups with 3 different people who I am supporting through recruitment processes. Throughout the month I was also really happy to find out that one-by-one, each of them secured the roles they were after.
We held our user research community awayday, excellently designed, co-ordinated and facilitated by Brigit, Owen and Karl. This task was made even tougher by the need to change from planned face-to-face to virtual. The team had put a lot of hard work into making sure we could all meet in person for the first time in 2 years and although it wasn’t to be this time, the community really appreciated the effort the team put in to try to make it happen.
We also said goodbye to Nancy who has been leading the NHS UK team for the past few years and we are really going to miss.
What have I been thinking about
I have been working closely with colleagues in the directorate team to work through the outcomes of our recent recruitment. One of the things I have been doing is successfully negotiating to bring in a number of associate user researchers. Associate user researchers deliver user research whilst working alongside an experienced practitioner. They are people who are early in their user research career, who have some user research experience and are looking to develop into a practitioner.
We need to be providing opportunities for people to develop a UCD career and remove barriers to entry. I’m not the first person to think or say this but I have been thinking about how I can use my power and privilege to make it happen. There are a lot of talented people out there and in our organisation we have such a great opportunity to use the skills we have developed, to develop others. Whilst we need more apprenticeships and other routes that overcome barriers to entry to UCD professions, these associate roles are a start. These roles are few and far between across government and non-government UCD teams and I am looking forward to what we all learn from the people that we have recruited into them.
Some of the things I am doing in January
- Attending Digital Health Inequalities Steering Board
- UCD maturity reviews
- Attending Digital Primary Care Evaluation and Research Network (DPCERN) meeting
- Attending knowledge management project kick off
- Business planning
- Recruiting Lead, Senior and User Researchers (roles here and close from 9th January https://jobs.digital.nhs.uk/vacancies/vacancy-search-results.aspx )
