Weeknote 21st to 28th May

Some of the things I was involved in

Hearing Clara and Sonia talk about the outcome of their equity and inclusion work. The value they have brought is difficult to articulate and I am committed to ensuring that we continue this work now their time is coming to an end. Going to really miss working with them both.

Tero and I ran through the vision and mission for the UCD team with the directorate design group and also the rest of the UCD team. We got useful feedback from both which will allow us to iterate it and test it with people again.

Met with some of the people who are about to finish our UCD graduate scheme to talk about their end of scheme assessment interview. Watching all our graduate scheme people grow through each 2 year cohort and seeing the impact they have from their very first day, is one of the great pleasures of working here.

Heard Kate talk about a data access discovery at the user research community meet up.

I sent out a survey for colleagues to give feedback about me and help me reflect on my goals for this year.

What made me think

Sending out my ‘feedback on me’ survey. Whatever role I do, whatever level I am in an organisation, it is important for me to have feedback. The core of me will always be a user researcher. I will always want to learn and understand. I will always want to discover needs and whether they are being met. I will always want to do this irrespective of whether the subject is a product, service or me.

Whilst a key aim of my feedback survey is to understand where to focus my growth, reading through some of the initial responses has made me feel incredibly valued.

Some of my plans for next week

Working on the UCD vision, objectives, priorities, and team structure

Preparing for my own performance and development review

Working with colleagues to plan a pilot of how we implement the product development strategy

Bank holiday BBQ with friends