Never half-ass two things

One alpha and one discovery

I've finished my first sprint of being split between 2 services this week. I'm already feeling like it's not the most efficient use of my time, but I'm trying to remind myself that I did make progress on both sides.

One service is in alpha, and on that side I created a prototype search page that was used in user research (that I observed remotely). And I iterated on some other pages following the previous usability testing sessions that happened earlier in the month.

On the other service, that's in discovery, I started to get my head into the initial work that's been done already. And started to do some UCD (user-centered design) discovery planning, exclusion mapping and problem statement framing.

That feels like a lot in hindsight, but I do have the feeling that it would be better to focus on the side that's in discovery for a few sprints just to get a handle on it. The other side will still have a dedicated interaction designer during this time.

I'm reminded of the Ron Swanson quote from Parks and Recreation…

"never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing"

I've made a case for moving over to the discovery team 100%. I'm not really sure what the outcome will be yet, let's see what next week brings.

Travelling for PI planning

I've managed to avoid any travel this sprint. This was the first one since I joined the new department where I was able to do that. That probably explains why I was able to make decent progress on both services.

Next week I'm heading to London for PI (Program Increment) planning for the alpha team as they head into beta. I'm preparing myself for two pretty full on days of active listening.

I think the prototypes I've created so far will be end up being quite useful artefacts to talk around and help bring some of the service features to life. They also present a lot of unanswered questions though, so I expect I'll have to say things like "we don't know yet" quite a lot.

Bookmarks