2021 Round-up

(June — Dec )

A rare but great in-person workshop with Empathy balloons led by Rik

As we head towards the end of the year, I wanted to take the opportunity of the quiet work days to spend a bit of time reflecting. No meeting days FTW!

This will be my last post about Moorfields as I will be leaving for an exciting new product adventure in the new year, more on that soon.

Lets start with a thanks, a thanks to the incredible digital team at Moorfields and particularly Rachel who kept me sane, has taught me loads and has done incredible work with wrangling content (& stakeholders!) and has spurred me on in challenging times. It hasn’t been easy but we did amazing stuff!

Some highlights

1. Completed a private beta of a new service for Moorfields following an agile, UCD process (then hit a budget challenge)
2. Expanded the digital team 300% — recruited three new roles, UX Researcher, UX Architect and UX writer, product manager in the wings!
3. Observed my first service assessment for the find a covid travel test provider service
4. Observed 10+ hours of user research
5. Facilitated a value proposition canvas workshop
6. Joined the UCD working group as co-facilitator and the UCD as a profession board led by NHSD and X respectively
7. Led two digital showcases attended by more than 70 colleagues from across the organisation
8. Led a cyber incident response team during a sustained DDoS and ransomware attack and learnt a lot about cyber security in a short-space of time!
9. Organised another Trust in UCD session — must do more of these soon!!
10. Kicked started discovery for appointment and stories objects looking at joining up patient letters, appointment booking and content across Moorfields.
11. Planning second design sprint in new year!
12. Connected with some amazing people across the public sector and had some great chats :)
13. Met my team in real life and had a great day workshopping OOUX
14. Geeked out for a week on an intensive UX metrics course with Jared Spool — who doesn’t love a metric geek out?

Things I have been mulling over recently (which may or may not become blogs!)

1. Value-based design techniques — re-thinking the design sprint model to focus on objects and value — finding approaches for stakeholders to build buy-in for design thinking.
2. Imposter syndrome — using it to reach out, connect and ultimately driving forwards
3. UCD and QI in the NHS — friends or foes? (definitely friends btw!)
4. Sustainability and product thinking

People/things I have been inspired by

• A great product podcast and this episode on sustainable thinking was great and something I am thinking a lot about https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/ian-peterman/
• I attended a recent workshop on resilience at work and was encouraged to reflect on ‘fuels and drains’.. I actually keep a list of my ‘fuels’ pinned on the wall behind the computer to remind myself to do one daily.
• The brilliance of the NHS to keep going in continued uncertainty and all the visible and invisible heros — you are amazing and I am proud to be your colleague.

Currently reading

Strong product people by Petra Wille (thanks Randal Whitmore for the recommendation)

A few goals I set in June and some progress updates!

1. To keep up the week noting! — Did not manage to keep this one up but I intend to in the NY
2. To do more creative stuff outside of work — more painting and prints. — have since moved house and have set up an amazing new craft room. So far I have made angels for the tree and a runner for the christmas table..
3. To develop some of my musings into blogs. — I mostly still have blog ideas and musings — lets hope Christmas provides some blog thinking downtime
4. To connect with more digital peeps across the NHS (and beyond!) — yes yes yes — keen to do more and connect with more product peeps. Hit me up if you’re reading this.
5. To pick up the oneteamhealth batton and organise the next Trust in UCD event..- must do this!

Excited to see what 2022 brings.

Peace and christmas blessings to all.