Back to work after an amazing time away doing the Two Ball Banger Beach Rally which, not to show off, but we made it, and here is the proof:

Laguna Matata completing the Two Ball Banger Beach Rally

It was amazing, memorable and something I wrote about on LinkedIn. Can’t recommend doing it enough.

It’s also the school holidays, so wish me luck on making enough snacks, lunches and finding things to do that are both fun, cheap and something that won’t make me feel stupid when I find out my kids are smarter than I am.

Monday


Today has been all about catching up with the team, telling them stories about warning lights and filling the car up with petrol.

I am so grateful for pre-holiday Mikey, who writes notes and almost a step-by-step guide on what I am working on, why I’m working on it and how the heck to do it. Present me is very happy with past me.

  • Had a handover meeting with the front-end developer to deliver a visual filter system — think of something like visualising data where you can interact with it to cause a change of “results”.
  • I’m working on two teams now, so managing outputs and expectations is key to keeping the balance fair and honest.
  • Caught up with a couple of ex-directees. Love speaking to them and finding out how they’ve grown.

During my time away, one of the Laguna drivers demanded I play Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (I have it on the Switch 2). I tend to chill out at night gaming and using the handheld is ideal.

I am just at a point where you finally properly get a ship… I am blown away by it. What a game.

THEN they started singing.

Just another wow moment.

Tuesday


Started the day with the usual stand-up, realising that this project is now fully running at 100mph and it’s really good to see that. Everything design is questioned, validated and people understand the value.

Working on my second project at HMRC, it’s related to fraud. It’s very close to a project I worked on at DWP which is in my case studies — you’ll have to work it out…

It’s amazing how small the world is.

Posted an update on LinkedIn about my Beach Rally and it’s brought in the DMs asking what is it, did I love it and “let’s chat ‘cos I’m feeling a little wonky about my career”.

It’s a full range!

Ended the day watching Return to Hollow Fox, which was an hour I can’t get back. I was clinging onto life trying not to snooze during it — it felt like a very forced update which I am unsure provided a clearer picture.

Wednesday


Strong coffee to start the day, knowing I would like to handover work today for one of the teams I am working in.

Initially it was just one team — but most of the time, word spreads that a designer can design and suddenly teams realise “ahh maybe we should do a design-led approach”.

We all know why and I think I’ve shown the true value!

Amazingly, I’ve gone from driving a banger to returning to find the engine light is on in my own car.

Banger to banger.

Me thinks a new car is required…

Pre-watch update — I am aiming to watch an episode of Snapped, season 29 episode 2… but finding it on UK TV might be the biggest challenge!

Thursday


Oops, completely forgot to write notes for this one on the day. It was a busy day!

Handed over the work for my second team, and it always feels good to know I nailed a brief — a pretty big one BUT with the help of a design system in place (thanks to past Mikey in planning… it’s as if I’m experienced eh?) I could whip this up in 2-3 days, leaning on user requirements, business needs and the actual “what’s the process now” mapping.

Usually I would share exactly what I am working on, but this project is in the shadows stuff, so I unfortunately can’t — but it’s a good one!

Returning back to my main SOW, I have to finalise some items in prep for the launch of launches… the usual stuff — feedback journeys and submit an issue.

Initially I’m starting with questions: how do I get the most from a user who is either wanting to be super helpful (and these users are), or they are stuck, in a pickle and potentially really annoyed?

Both moods are important and both need to be treated correctly.

THEN we move to how do we manage these? User input — and what level of resource are we providing? SLAs on getting back to the submission. How do we tell the user it’s in progress / fixed etc?

As I know from my last 8 months, keeping the user in the loop is very important.

I started to watch The Walking Dead as I struggled to find Snapped, starting from Season 1. I started it oh so many years ago and stopped after struggling with Season 2, but I feel it’s time to get back involved!

I won’t lie — it’s still not grabbing me and I keep feeling something better is on YouTube!

Friday


Let’s start with the basics — I thought today was Saturday.

It happens, especially during school holidays where I am slowly going a little bonkers with entertaining the little ones and the snacks…

Oooooh the snack demands.

I am currently writing up design in a ticket. Save yourself the hard yards by always prepping work — I write lists, lists for all sorts — yet not a single shopping list is done, BUT work? Heck yes.

This list allowed me to present my thoughts back quickly and effectively, which actually led to me finalising the design in an afternoon.

Short and sweet design, ready for developers.

I am also trying to launch a revamp of this website; it’s taking forever to do — mostly down to the fact I need to rewrite my case studies again, give them a more “honest” approach, a more mature approach and allow myself to showcase what I actually did and drop some of the humbleness I used (thanks to my mentor!).

Yes, it sounds self-centred, but upon reviewing them I came across like I just did the screens, completely bypassing the moments of presentations, leading rooms and workshops, taking the lead within stakeholder meetings to assure the room that:

“Everything is on track and going to be OK — here is the proof.”

So bear with me whilst I dust down my memory banks and try to write as a 40-year-old instead of a 30-year-something!

Plans for the weekend


Sleeping in the tent with the kids tonight/tomorrow, so dinner will be hot dogs (no complaints ever for that), no doubt my daughter will need to update her summer collection and prep for autumn clothes and my son will certainly need to update his camping gear.

He’s already eyeing a waterproof coat.

Weekend camping with the kids

Roll on next week! ✌️