Week 3 - Being comfortable talking money 💸
Three weeks in and I’m feeling a bit clearer on what to prioritise with User-Centred Design at Made Tech.
Also, my partner and I got ALL our house rental deposit back. Credit to Anna for focusing our efforts of packing and cleaning on this shared goal. I was pleased to find the service to claim back our deposit was really simple. Clearly, the team at Deposit Protection Service has worked hard to design for the messy and stressful reality of renting.
Being comfortable talking money 💸
Much of my week has been getting salary bands set for the first designers and researchers Made Tech hires. Setting these we can advertise permanent UCD roles, including being open about what we pay. It’s been really interesting working with Yusuf, Lee, Michael, Chris and Luke on this. Making sure we use data to set salaries that are fair, open, competitive and scalable as we grow. Setting the wrong salary for the first hire can have a big impact on everyone who follows.
This is a reminder to me, as a design manager, I must be comfortable talking about money. My ability to do so will impact the financial health of who we hire and the business.
Just-for-fun chats 🦜🦜
One small thing I’ve missed in the pandemic is casual chats with designers and researchers I don’t work with. So I’ve been contacting people I admire but never had the chance to meet in person. It’s been really enjoyable having these just-for-fun chats with the likes of Vicky and Heldiney. It’s made me realise how much I miss listening and talking with new people for no particular purpose other than fun.
(Message me on Twitter, if you are interested in chatting. My DMs are open)
Work is always ready to share 🏗️
One of my three goals is:
We [Made Tech] have shared habits for regularly sharing and improving design work
Part of achieving this goal is to normalise that it's ok to share work-in-progress. This is two-sided. One, people share the principle that design (especially in the Internet-era) is never finished and can always benefit from feedback, whenever and whatever state it's in. Two, people being shown work, understand what to focus feedback on and what details aren’t important just yet.
When design work is shared early, little and often, teams reduce risk when building services.
Same ritual, new place 🏛️
We had our first UCD community weekly catch-up yesterday. I ran these meetings at the Red Cross too. I lifted the idea from GDS, from when I worked there. Focusing on delivering services in teams, it was a time of the week I really looked forward to. A protected hour to catch-up, share work and joke about. It was a great space to see, grow and spread the design culture of the organisation.