This week has seen a lot of interesting news happening around consultancies that I was very close to joining or have friends who work there, a lot of people looking for new roles, so if you require a designer or dev etc, look no further than the LinkedIn group AND Digital set up.

What did I enjoy:
Prep, prep, prep - I’m a huge fan of planning before you do the work, so knowing what’s coming down the line (thanks to a roadmap), I can plan alongside the DM and BA what to expect in 1-2-3 etc weeks/months and prep that Figma board already.
Just doing the work, it’s been busy but creatively busy - solving problems with design solutions that the team have rallied around and supported, it’s a lot of presenting work for the sell-in, but it’s really giving me satisfaction knowing I can do this, and do it well (modest boast there of course..), which is great for any designer’s self-esteem after tricky projects.

Still awaiting confirmation I’m staying at HMRC, it’s now running close to my end date!

What challenged me:
This week I made a couple of silly oversights which pushed back some work by only a day - these mistakes are continually annoying to me and I’m sure I’m not alone as a designer striving for perfection, most of the time it’s just an oversight - things like I’ve copied and pasted incorrectly content or just not closed a blinking bracket so the page is out of whack, nothing massive - but the team is fully accepting of these, but it’s tough to not be your tough critic!

Retro-fixing prototypes, as I prep work, I also prep my prototype structure, how to present scenarios and provide an avenue for feedback, but the prototype I have inherited isn’t quite as robust for purpose, so it’s taken a while to get it into a shape that I can amend and showcase work (whilst allowing users to use it freely and roam around and break things), but it’s a work in progress that I can’t overdo (time is money, money is time and its the taxpayers).

What am I looking forward to next week?
We have two ideation workshops planned, which is always exciting when it’s discovery work, and this is my area of gold!
Working closely with the developers in the team to finalise and check everything is ready for the MVP launch. It’s crunch time!

Youtube of the week:
Not technically on youtube (but the trailer is), but I am a huge fan of documentaries about Cults, and I finally got around to watching Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults. After listening to podcasts surrounding this, the documentary delivered and so much more. A really interesting watch, certainly worth your time if it sounds like your cup of tea.

Podcast of the week:
I’m sure many might of listened to this, but the Simon Sinek appearance on the Diary of a CEO was really interesting, I often take plenty away from this podcast and this one gave me plenty.

Tune of the week:
Spotify did a stunner this week, it recommended a banging playlist called “Retro running”, it’s full of incredible bangers from the 80s and 90s.

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