Trying out something new is tiring, exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time, and I honestly believe it’s the best way to learn and push yourself.
This week was a week of firsts, whilst delivering and once again - leading direction and scope to help meet user needs and business needs (or requirements) slap bang in the middle.

Love it.
Now we lean heavily into iterate, test, fail, and repeat.

Hi prototype kit, great to see you again.

What did I enjoy:
While travelling on trains isn’t my favourite bit of the day, doing workshops is, leading rooms is something I enjoy and directing a room to keep them honest and the work flowing is a great challenge that I enjoy. Trying out a new technique (mission impossible) during the workshop was a great experience that came off, and the outputs prove this, will certainly add that to the bag of tricks!
Seeing the team writing the post-it (as a project need) Accessibility is a great step forward, and something Defra seem to be on top of compared to previous public sectors. Less drum banging and just baked in from the start as a must.

Meeting colleagues, sharing knowledge of work and discussing future collaborations that will save the country money and time is an amazing feeling, and part and parcel of working at the government.

What challenged me:
Reading people’s handwriting on Post-its..

Working away, it’s tricky during a time of my life when I haven’t left the house during a working week for longer than a handful of hours, but it shakes the kids and seems to put the house into a state, I’m the one that is home, the consistent one so it’s a learning curve for us all.

With Alpha always being hectic, it may creep into the overwhelming area, deadlines looming, assessments are incoming and my own standards are high.

What am I looking forward to next week?
I am hoping now, it’s time to do the prototypes, use all of my experience working within the design system teams and knock prototypes out that are useful, align with our UR goals and design requirements and meet all needs sooner than later - this is what I’m here for right?

Best news of the week:
Not a watch of the week, but I’m delighted to read that Hype Park Cinema is back in action, it’s one of my favourite cinemas ever and it is back

---