What I’m celebrating 🎉, learning 🎓, and finding challenging 🚧 this month. — New year, new… well, slightly revised… format! Each section is now a topic. It includes something I’m 🎉 celebrating, 🎓 learning, or 🚧 finding challenging. Or a mix of all three — which is what usually happens. The power of diverse teams 🎉 Celebrating my relatively diverse HMRC team! Last week, we were co-designing our…

What I’m celebrating 🎉, learning 🎓, and finding challenging 🚧 this month. — 🎉 Something I’m celebrating: This being my last post for 2022! I’m celebrating myself for writing and reflecting regularly. And for choosing rest instead of squeezing a mid-December post into my busy schedule. Hitting that publish button still scares me, but I’m enjoying this a lot. Working on my first HMRC client project for…

What I’m celebrating 🎉, learning 🎓, and finding challenging 🚧 this month. — 🎉 Something I’m celebrating: Stepping out of my comfort zone and joining a self defence class organised by Opencast (Yep, we are still hiring!). And enjoying it. A lifetime lived in a body that doesn’t do what others do makes this very much an achievement. Great conversations about design, work, the world. There were…

Why introductions to design don’t work, and how you can better support your colleagues or organisation to get started with design — The problem: Introduction to Design During my time with NHS Scotland, I was often asked to give short introductions to service design. Usually in the form of a presentation, people assume this is the obvious and easy way to start with design. Or to at least increase understanding and approval. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work.

What I’m celebrating 🎉, learning 🎓, and finding challenging 🚧 this month. — 🎉 Something I’m celebrating: Reconnecting with my first love anthropology. I travelled to Berlin and spent the weekend at “Why the World Needs Anthropologists”. I was a little nervous I’d feel out of place now that I am more part of the design world. Instead I realised how much anthropology continues to shape my…

What I’m celebrating 🎉, learning 🎓, and finding challenging 🚧 this month. — 🎉 Something I’m celebrating: Taking a big leap into a new organisation and new sector by starting my role at Opencast this month. Settling in and finding the process of making a professional home here really exciting and energising. Writing and posting about my learnings from working to bring design to health and social…

Why we are not seeing the expected benefits of introducing design and how prioritising building a design friendly organisation over toolboxes and methods can help. — The Problem: Applying a few design tools and methods in isolation Considering the large number of strategies and policies that mention service design, you might conclude its potential is well understood in NHS Scotland and Scottish Government. This is encouraging! I am excited to see my field at the centre of conversations about future possibilities.

Inside or Outside? When I started working for NHS Scotland, I was one of only three service designers in the entire organisation. I joined the newly established National Digital Service in October 2019. Two years later, I moved to Healthcare Improvement Scotland, an NHS organisation with a range of responsibilities including quality improvement…