My first month This month has been my first as full time practice lead for service design at Opencast. Transitioning has been a great challenge. Lots to learn and find out, lots of friendly and supportive people, lots to get stuck into. …

What I’m 🎉 celebrating, 🎓 learning, and 🚧 finding challenging in June. 🎉 My birthday! And making time each June to reflect, to look back and look forward. Two things stood out this year: 🎉🎓🚧 Number One: Opencast Service Designers and looking forward to seeing where this wonderful group of people can go. This fills me with excitement, inspiration, hope, and so much gratitude to be part of the journey. If…

A month of change and new beginnings. What I’m 🎉 celebrating, 🎓 learning, and 🚧 finding challenging in May. 🎉 A Year of Change My birthday is coming up, and each year I make time to reflect, think, and plan around this time. May has been full of transitions for me, and there are more to come in June. It has been a year of big changes for me. I moved house. I started…

A where-did-this-month-go note. With something I’m🎓 learning and something I’m 🎉 celebrating. April has left me with one question. Where did this month go? 🎓 I’m sure I wrote my ‘Goodbye March’ post one or two weeks ago at most. That would explain why I have almost no notes on the whole month! I remember a flurry of challenges and wins, none…

Spring is here! Here is what I’m 🎉 celebrating, 🎓 learning, or 🚧 finding challenging in March. Reading ‘Becoming’ by Michelle Obama 🎓 I have enjoyed listening to Michelle Obama’s autobiography “Becoming” as an audiobook. She reads it herself, and her writing feels like a good conversation with an old friend. Easy, yet full of wisdom. I love the way she talks about the important role female friendship played in her life…

A short month note for a short month. Here is what I’m 🎉 celebrating, 🎓 learning, or 🚧 finding challenging in February. — 6 months with Opencast 🎉 I’m celebrating 6 months with Opencast! I couldn’t be happier with my decision to join Opencast. There are lots of reasons for this, but two stand out to me. Number one, Opencast’s UCD community. Being part of our supportive community online and offline has been one of the best…

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…