11 June 2021
Good people
It was lovely to see (fairly) new dxw-ers Chanelle and Beth meeting up in the flesh in our Leeds office this week. Hopefully these ad-hoc IRL hangs will become a more regular occurrence, particularly when there’s nice weather to share with each other ☀️
I had a couple of conversations this week that reminded me how often being a manager is about helping people discover for themselves that they can do things they don’t know, or believe, they are capable of.
Good work
Wrangling of V2 of the design career progression framework continues. We’re currently looking at a set of core proficiencies that work across all specialisms, the thinking being that a) there are a set of things that apply to you whoever you are, and b) having more common skills makes the framework more “portable” and supports people who wish to make a sideways move into another specialism. It’s time to get the work out of Miro and into something that better supports actual writing, though.
Beth and Ming did a fab job of turning out some pride-ified dxw branding. I was particularly delighted that it was all done without anyone feeling the need to ask what I thought of it 💪
Good stories
Chanelle and Beth teamed up again to host our monthly design forum this week, in which they talked about their explorations into making our design community feel more energetic and connected. They prototyped a couple of activities using our interaction designers as a testbed, and are looking at broadening a few more ideas out to the wider design team.
There’s a nice theme in the activities of people simply getting to know each other a little bit better, which I reckon is a great place to begin 💚
The blue tits in our garden next box have all fledged. Very happy that they grew up big and strong, but sitting in the sun hearing their hungry chirps and watching the to-and-fro of their overworked parents will be sadly missed 💔
Looking forward to a warm and sunny weekend, eating and drinking in the garden, and THE FOOTBALL ⚽️