I am now 2-3 weeks into my time at AstraZeneca, and it’s just bloody great - the project is really interesting, and I mean REALLY interesting, it’s one of my first projects which has involved conversational design, which comes with its unique challenges and problems and its exactly what I wanted, this is why we do contract right?

The challenges are different, the goals are different and certainly the user needs are very different. (also - thanks for your well wishes for my new workplace, you lot are lovely)

It was also my birthday, I will not reveal my age but, I am sure it was in my 20s only a couple of years ago.

And finally - The Frank Skinner Podcast show ended, very sad times.

What did I enjoy?
Well, let’s start with my birthday and the Five Guys burger I demolished, alongside cajun fries and the Oreo milkshake. That is the dinner of absolute acid-reflux champions - but this is what Gaviscon is for right?

I took the kids on a day trip to Skipton, including the castle, shops (costly…), lunch and plenty of sun. Was a great day, they loved it, I loved it and we were shattered after doing 16k steps.. they slept in the car, whilst I drove back - so at least 2 of us rested well.

Workwise, it’s been such a fun start so far, I am now the lead designer of the service (handover completed) and I have been asked to see what I would like to work on, alongside some UI amends to ensure high-quality is met (so the first thing was to pause any design ideas to ensure the launch is stress-free - huge step of course, but one that was well received). My current steps are ensuring the Figma DS is bang up to date and working as it should, and comparing design to UAT, to ensure we are at parity with where it should be, where it isnt and find out any answers to questions I don’t know yet.

Over the forthcoming week, I’ll be making sure my backlog is packed with work I want to do, design amends that I’ve been fed, listening to UR feedback and finally ensuring that there is a design process in place that is effective, non-intrusive and more importantly, never seen as a blocker or a huge ego.

What am I looking forward to next week?
Coming up with the backlog, starting almost a (what I am calling) UI Finesse week of seeing what dreams other people have for the service and starting to action these, there are some big dreams here and I do honestly believe we can achieve them with the team we have.

Listen of the week
It finally fell upon us, The Frank Skinner Podcast ended, after 15 years, of which I’ve been a reader (if you know.. you know) for about 8-9 years, it has been my go-to, my company during work commutes or very tough projects, my lunchtime listen whilst we were teaching my first born to eat (she even thought that Alexa was called Frank Skinner), I shall dearly miss the show and what it was and I urge many of you to listen to it whilst you can.