A lonnnnng week.
Work-wise I’m in the phase of being unsure what to work on, there are bigger things to look at, but immediate work to do - one of those weeks! News around schools in Leeds being threatened and having them put in a “lockdown”, was shit, the world my kids are growing up within needs to look long and hard at its-self and have a talk.

What did I enjoy:
I gathered all of the user journeys from our 1st week to this a week or so before the end of alpha - showing vast iterations powered by user research sessions, presentations to subject matter experts (SMEs) and wider team(s) input and we find ourselves at a good point.
Seeing the above work laid on in Mural, and seeing the changes we have done from initial thoughts (we all need a starting point) to where we are now is great and reminds me of the shift we’ve all put in.

Listing all our assumptions, some we’ve found out, some still unanswered, and a handful we’ll look at during private beta - love this part where we start to measure against good vs. not good.

Being asked to present “how I settle into teams” is great, just need to remember what the heck I do and write a thing up.

Finally left the house and met a pal that I hadn’t seen for years, in fact he once hired me when he overheard me mention at a bar (whilst ordering a drink) that I just left a project styling out a Magento theme (remember those days?).. cue me walking into his office the next day on my first day.

What challenged me:
My daughter’s school issued warnings about being held in lockdown due to some idiots putting threats into schools. The world is fucking mad when kids are under threat.

Working out what to work on first, it’s been tricky to prioritise, whilst it’s not a huge mass - it’s tough to work out what to do first and whether I need to do it at all. The difference between working as a consultant and a freelancer is the challenge here, as a consultant I would be expected to do everything, here I am expected to deliver high-end interaction outputs - which is much easier, but…I do not work slowly so I’m ahead of schedule!

What am I looking forward to next week?
I am presenting to the design community next week on how I settled in, and I’m looking forward to that, taking any questions and seeing if my process is right if there are places I could work, and gaps I could fill.

Podcast of the week:
Decided to reach into the vault and start to listen to one of my favourite speakers - Mike Monterio. And this episode is his usual hard-hitting, direct speaking way, which I’m a huge fan of.

Tune of the week:
Found a band that screams, plays violin and is VERY good - Imminence, and this track is a complete banger.

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