Alpha has officially arrived for the team, what does this look like as an interaction designer?
It means a lot of conversations with SMEs and my besties - the BA. Chewing their ear off, asking and asking and asking, and sometimes (all the time) listening.
Working closely with the design team (and wider), we are shaping something pretty special which should allow us to breeze through alpha with answers, solutions, experiments, failures and successes!

Anyways, let’s get onto what the week was like, sharpies and Post it’s at the ready.

What did I enjoy:
The design team arrived! Working with my old pal Tom Adams (content designer) and the equally brilliant Zoe Popperwell (user researcher).

The work starts this week, the project officially started Alpha and mural boards a-plenty have kicked off.

I love this phase, I am leading the User Experience board, showcasing the journey from start to end (and what’s outside of this), including points of feelings, touchpoints and risks.

What challenged me:
Finding my place has been interesting, I am always the quiet one when I first join (which if you have worked with me, you know doesn’t last) - but I find this time to understand, sit back and see the lay of the land and work out who I need to talk to.

Getting things in order, I know what needs to be done for the GDS assessment and using that as fuel to help shape what answers we need to find out, and finding the correct avenue of output to showcase this, again - it’s about finding out what stakeholders and team need to get things moving in the direction that is needed.

What am I looking forward to next week?
Showcasing outputs, I love it when the team sees the value of work done and can see why I am quiet (for now). Structure, it’s always a bit wonky at the start - finding correct times for stand up and ensuring all attendance on meetings etc.

Allowing my voice to be heard more, now I understand my place, reason and work needed, there ain’t no stopping me!

Watch of the week:
I’m a huge Doom fan, the game is one of the best things I’ve ever played, and still is playable after all these 105 years it’s been around.
This documentary “MyHouse.WAD - Inside Doom’s Most Terrifying Mod” was an incredible insight into a mad mad, game-breaking mod.
Watch it, it’s longgggg, but worth it if you did this kind of stuff.

Podcast of the week:
I am always on the ear-out for new things to listen to, learn and binge - my design collection of podcasts is extremely low - in fact, it’s almost zero. Please help me, I’ll take interviews, hot topics, hot takes etc.

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