Good People
The biggest thing to talk about this week has to be the fact that dxw is now owned by us, its employees. ✊
There isn’t a lot that I can say that hasn’t already been said elsewhere. My favourite piece of reading would be our founder Harry’s piece on his aspirations for the future of dxw.
We also got some lovely things said about us on social media.
This week saw the launch of our Design Community Champions initiative — a group within our design team brimming with youthful energy, who know what they want their experience of life at dxw to be, and don’t feel as though they need permission to make it so. Fearless. Diverse. Self-organising. The challenge for our design leaders is to make sure they have the right environment to thrive and grow 🌼
I took my second visit to our new office space on Tuesday. It was brilliant to meet Chanelle and Dawn IRL for the first time, and to see a whole bunch of others for the first time in ~18 months 👋 I had a nice walk to get coffee with Dave, and some of the design team even managed a nice sit-down lunch in the nearby Turkish restaurant. Bliss!
We said farewell to our Directer of Client Relations Adam, who’s off to become a coach amongst other things. Ta-ra, Adam! 👋
I also had a lovely catch-up with former dxw-er and current Public Digital-er, Stacey. If you’re reading this Stacey, next time we talk I need to meet your doggo 🐕
A thing that’s been brought to mind a few times this week: it doesn’t matter how good you think you are at listening to others; you can always do more to listen actively. Silence the urge to think of responses when the other person is talking. Don’t feel compelled to fill gaps in their conversation with your own words. People will tell you so much more when they know you’re listening and truly hearing them 👂
Good Work
The main piece of client work for me this week was a return to the Yorkshire & Humber Care Record improvement project. I was observing and taking notes during some testing of prototypes in sessions facilitated by our Principal Researcher, John. There’s a good chance if you’re reading this you either know John or have worked with him, in which case you’ll know what a pleasure it is to watch a veteran of the craft gently coax thoughts and observations out of a research participant. A great way to spend a Friday 💚
