I just finished my first week at Made Tech. Starting what is a new role for me, Head of User-Centred Design.Ā
Also this week Iām moving house and getting wedding invites ready for printing. In doing the latter I discovered G.F Smithās beautiful online paper catalogue.Ā
Public services are my jamĀ
I love working in public services. This affection has steered my career decisions since first becoming a designer. So when a chance to join Made Tech, which works exclusively on public services came up, I went for it.Ā
The company has a big emphasis on building real services and multidisciplinary teams. Two things I care about. This made my decision to join easier. A big factor too was that Made Tech has a Bristol office. Meaning I can finally achieve a personal ambition of walking to work; a glimmering prospect as infection rates go down and offices open up.Ā
Warm welcome, usable tools
Starting a new job remotely is surreal. My new teammates have made me feel welcome and supported getting set up. Itās been a relief using Slack, Google Workspace and other collaborative tools at work again. I didnāt realise how much of my mental energy in the past was spent on tools with lots of usability issues.Ā
Depth of skills, breadth of work
My first task is to build a picture in my head of the work Made Tech does and how it does it. The two ways Iāve gone about this is:
Start meeting designers and researchers at Made Tech
Go along to show-and-tells
Iām struck by the user-centred design experience already at Made Tech. For example, Kimberley, a user researcher, was previously part of the team at the Office for National Statistics, who built the impressively usable and coherent census.gov.uk.Ā
Another thing is Iāve been reminded of how broad the public sector is. Just in the handful of teams Iāve met so far, work has ranged from support for people in court cases, tracking opportunities for UK exports to communications with carers and green energy funding.Ā
Where should I focus first?
This is my first time formally doing a Head-of role. I want to be strategic and understand what is wisest to focus on first. As I meet more teams and see more work, hopefully, this will become clear.
Great first week Harry, welcome, a pleasure to have you in the team