Week 18 - A Secondment Story
Hi, I’m Narelle.
I joined Made Tech this week as a User Researcher.
A secondment story
I’ve been seconded to Made Tech from Essex County Council. Here’s how that happened…
Back in March, I contacted a few organisations about a secondment but struggled to find the right fit. I shared a list of ‘secondment ideals’ with Ben Unsworth, Service Transformation Lead at Essex County Council. Here’s the list of ‘ideals’ I shared:
Somewhere focused on digital transformation
An organisation with a strong focus on social impact
Somewhere I could support a project from discovery through to Beta.
After carefully considering these ideals, Ben suggested I contact Made Tech. After some discussions with Made Tech, followed by formal interviews, it felt like a really good fit and secondment arrangements were put in place. It was all pretty painless!
Secondments from the public to private sector don’t seem very common in our field, at least, I haven’t heard of many; if you know of any other ‘secondees’ please let me know, as I’d love to hear their experiences. Over the coming months, I’ll be a ‘guinea-pig’ for this type of placement. If it's successful, we can learn what made it successful, and it may become a more frequent way of working.
So, what’s in this secondment for Made Tech?! Well, I hope I can share my experiences of how research and design works in local government, and use this to inform my work at Made Tech. I’ve met so many strong minds at Made Tech already - I hope I can add value to what Made Tech do.
We’re growing!
This week, I was welcomed alongside fellow User Researcher Mieka Webber - welcome Mieka!
Mieka and I join the User Research Lead, Spyri Oikonomou. Needless to say, our User-Centred Design team is growing fast; you’ll be introduced to many more of us over the coming weeks.
Now the real work starts!
So, it’s the end of week one for me...
Next week, I’ll throw myself into Made Tech ‘for real’, starting my first projects.
I’ll write again once I’ve found my research feet.
Happy weekend all! 🌞
Narelle