Reading Time: 4 minutes I’m in this nice phase where I’ve left a role and haven’t started the next one yet. My old laptop is packed, waiting to be picked up by a courier and the new one will arrive this week. At this point in time, I don’t have to worry about the… Read More »In between
Reading Time: 5 minutes I had an end of year review at work yesterday which prompted me to think back about my professional journey. 10 years ago I wasn’t in a good place. I had worked hard to build up my classes where I was teaching French to various groups. I was self-employed but… Read More »Looking back
There is a lot of recruitment going on at the moment for the Public Sector: Service Designers, User Researchers, Content Designers and Interaction Designers.
This is good! But they are struggling to get people because they want candidates with previous experience in the government. Or what recruiters and hiring managers often call “GDS experience” when in fact what they mean is more like “experience of the Service Toolkit“.
Read More »How to start working for the government and the public sectorLooking at job ads, your value is usually judged by number of years on the job + tools you know and have experience with, but really… it should not be.
The idea: developing a website where people can fill in forms which look like the real ones but simplified to learn and become more confident. This is Jumana Almusawi‘s idea: she contacted me about it back in February on LinkedIn.
A lot has happen since my last blog post about this. Work is nearly completed and we tested with learners on Zoom recently.
Read More »Improving digital skills – a tool using the GOV.UK prototype kit – part 2A green doughnut started a big reflection this morning. This wasn’t on my to do list for today.
Lately, I’m doing a lot outside work, all super interesting but all competing for my time. A little bit of all this has always been there but it’s growing a lot lately.
About 1 in 7 people in Scotland can’t get online. This is about 800,000 people (more data at the end).
Read More »Improving digital skills – building a tool with the GOV.UK prototype kitThis week, I attended a participative event to explore how Liberating Structures can shape Scottish public service change work. It was a really good day, great atmosphere, very relax yet productive. Most participants had been experimenting with Liberating Structures in their work and could share this experience, but it was also about reflecting, as a facilitator, how it can feel for the group we are using it with, especially when they are new to it.
Last month, I was involved in a User Research session for the GDS team – as a participant. Since 2017, I’ve observed, facilitated or took notes in many UR sessions, but it was my first time as a participant. It was a bit strange to be on the other side. This made me reflect and realise how important the GDS has been in my career journey.
Read More »What I’ve learnt from GDS (Government Digital Service)- and what you could take from it tooI’ve never been too sure about what I wanted to do “when I’m older”.
I’ve worked in banks, in an airport, in a research lab, in schools, in a shop counting money with a “gangster style” machine, in video games (testing and support), teaching French to kids, to adults, and worked as a software developer. After all these years, I’ve finally got the job that’s the best fit for me: Service Designer.
Read More »When I’m older, I want to be a Service Designer — says no one ever