One word to sum up my week. Fast.
A week full of moving projects, rapid prototyping and speedy planning sessions, but also my most productive week of the year too.
Here are my top five stories of the week:
Sketch, design and test.
Me and my team at dxw kicked-off a sprint with Mind to ‘Create a feature that will allow users to have more control over their experience and make better connections on Side by Side — An online community which allows people to share their mental health experiences and connect with others.
We sketched, prototyped and tested within three days. Rapid work at it’s finest. Reminds me of my university days where I always use to submit my essays the day before but still end up with a first. I always find myself delivering my best work when there is little time and a bit of deadline pressure. Something that’s taken me years to accept!
Anyway here’s a workshop top tip: Ever done a workshop where you ask participants to upload something they have sketched on paper onto an online board like Miro? This can easily turn into a living nightmare. The wifi breaks down, someone’s phone dies and then you eventually decide to get bombarded on WhatsApp instead. Why not just get people to hold their sketches up to the camera and screenshot it? Literally a 30 second job. Why have I never thought of this!?
Thanks to my colleague F, for giving us that life-changing hack. 🤝
Heart-warming appreciation.
We have an appreciation channel at dxw where anyone in the business can drop a shout out to show some love, however small or big it may be. My team-mates left me a couple this week, which although made me turn bright red behind the screen, left me in a real motivated spirit. These little moments of giving and receiving appreciation can really uplift the mood and have a positive effect on the whole week 💛
Interview panelist experience.
A new experience for me this week… I was invited to join the panelist for two interviews for our ‘Associate Service Designer’ role at dxw. Finally, I get to be on the other side of the screen! Certainly had my fair share of interviews over the past ten years haha.
One thing I appreciated is our diverse panel throughout every round, making sure we represent different backgrounds, seniority levels, genders and more, which I feel is a really important thing to represent in the first few interactions we have with a potential future employee. So pleased to be given opportunities like this at dxw.
Re-uniting with my cousin.
Me and my cousin, Amber, were always close growing up and then we split off throughout university and lived our own lives. Very recently though, we re-connected and have been inseparable, almost as if that 10-year gap never occurred! We have spoke nearly everyday this week, either reflecting on work or having rants about Love Island. Certainly been more laughs than sleep this week, I tell you that 😂
Breaky with Mum.
Mum’s had a week off for the first time in forever. I took her for a quick breaky before work on Tuesday and decided to do a little Instagram Reel of it which you can see here. Vegan fry-up for mum and eggs benedict for me. YES 🤤
Other than that, I have had a brilliant week full of lots of incredible people and meaningful work. Tomorrow, I have a pamper day planned for myself. Nothing like a good old bit of self-care to end a productive week.
Have a good one all ⭐️
