Working as a user researcher on the coronavirus testing team: fast forwarded learning

When my team was asked to prepare a presentation for the last cross-government meet-up, one of my colleagues suggested the title ‘FFWD’. As it had been a while since I had pressed the button on a VHS I was initially puzzled by the choice. Looking back at the last 5 months at NHS Digital now however, I definitely feel like my work life has gone at at least 2.5 times the normal speed.

Photo by Dzmitry Tselabionak on Unsplash

Below are some of the of the reflections, learnings and outstanding questions that I have identified along the way.

Connection is not just about physical presence

Starting a new job remotely in the middle of a pandemic is anything but normal, or easy. When your role is working on helping to manage the outbreak difficult takes on a whole new level. Having come from a few weeks of standstill in my previous job I was eager to take on some fast paced and meaningful work. What I was not fully prepared for was starting a job where I would not (and still haven’t) met any of my team in real life.

I have found that lack of face to face interaction can sometimes mean a slower start in creating an emotional connection. When all your conversations are through Teams calls and incessant Slack messages the opportunities to ask about how people are doing are inevitably reduced. As an introvert who draws much of my energy from one on one conversations and getting to know people on a deeper level, this inability to discover people’s personalities has sometimes been hard. There must be a reason why I chose a profession that allows me to spend my days asking questions and listening to users’ stories.

However, despite sometimes feeling isolated, what I have found in my team is something that I value more than sharing an office. It is the sense of belonging that comes from working together to achieve a common goal which is important not just to us but to the whole country, the whole world actually. The willingness to learn better ways of approaching the research tasks that get put in front of us, no matter how unrealistic the timescales are. Above all, a team who shares the understanding that users are people and that this service is something that allows them to complete the daily tasks in their lives.

Things I have learned

1. Having a sense of purpose can make it easier to stick to a job even when things get hard. Sharing common values is the basis for creating strong bonds between members of a new team.
2. When working remotely it is more difficult to identify if people are struggling. Being more explicit than you normally would be about not coping can help in getting the time or support you need.
3. When there are too many competing demands, time management becomes key. Being mindful of your own needs in the same way you would be with those of other people can help you to distinguish between what to say yes to and what can be postponed.

Outstanding questions

1. How can we provide each other with the emotional support we need despite being physically distant?
2. When we are dealing with an extraordinary situation that spans across life and work how do we ensure that we carve ourselves some time for reflection?

Research is not just about how many people we speak to

In the first couple of months of my role what felt really different from the previous ones was the subject matter, and the pace. As the team gained more focus on what type of service we were designing, a national service for all, what truly changed were the people who we spoke to. Having conducted research with people with health conditions in the past, I was not new to doing interviews around sensitive topics and bringing findings to the attention of researchers and clinicians in the field. However, given the global scale of this problem, the requirement to speak to the right people so that the service can meet their needs suddenly felt more important than ever.

In the public sector, time and financial constraints are realities that unfortunately we cannot run away from. It is therefore not surprising that when we are forced to develop services quickly we sometimes start by designing for the majority of people. However, when I conducted interviews with people with disabilities who had gone through testing, I was not fully prepared for the number of barriers they had faced. Blind people who were sent paper letters they couldn’t read, people with cognitive impairments who were given complex information they couldn’t process, deaf people who were given verbal information they couldn’t hear. What was most humbling and frustrating to hear was that some people had resigned themselves to the fact that their access needs would not always be met.

Things I learned

1. Hearing people talking about their experience first hand is significantly more impactful compared to reading about the barriers they face in a report. Pushing for stakeholders to take the time to observe some of the research can mean they will allocate resources to research with certain user groups because they empathise with their needs not because of a tick box exercise.
2. Even if it takes more effort, by engaging with people who are from the most vulnerable and at risk groups in research from the beginning we can increase the value of our services by making them useful and usable for those who need them the most.
3. Value and impact are assessed differently depending on people’s seniority. Having more clarity over who makes the decisions and pitching our research outputs accordingly can help us in ensuring stakeholders at different levels have the information they need to prioritise next steps.

Outstanding questions

1. How do we consistently remind stakeholders that numbers don’t always tell their full story?
2. How can we ensure that we always consider the end-to-end experience of using services for people with disabilities, not just the online processes?

Privilege is not just about how much money we have

Growing up in a middle class family in Italy, where I did not have to worry about money, when I moved to the UK for university I quickly became more aware of my privilege. In my first 19 years, I had never fully realised how having access to luxuries such as an owned flat, private education, and holidays had made my start in life so much easier. Gaining awareness of what had been handed to me in my early years, I have often questioned whether I would have been able to achieve the same academic and professional merits if my parents had not paid for my studies. In response to that feeling, I started to put myself in situations that would help me to gain more perspective on the world around me, and over time felt more comfortable in being up front about where I come from and what I do not know (a lot).

It has taken me more than 10 years to take ownership of my economic privilege. In 5 months in this job, I have become much more aware of all the other privileges I have which have made me who I am today. I am White. I have the highest level of education possible. I have high digital literacy and access to multiple digital devices. I speak a second language. I have no significant physical or mental health conditions. Although some of these will change over time, these privileges have allowed me to live a life with access to: reliable information, free healthcare, good education, well-paid jobs and social support. They have also enabled me to live independently, and without being discriminated. These privileges are things that before spending hours talking to people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, people who do not speak English, people who have physical or cognitive disabilities, people who do not have access to the internet I had failed to fully acknowledge.

Things I learned

1. Who we are and the work we do can give us the power to make people listen to the voices that are more rarely heard. Deciding not to give our privilege for granted and making others more conscious of these inequalities is the first step towards starting to change them.
2. Embracing change also means accepting that we are going to make numerous mistakes. Whether it is in the language we use, the assumptions we make, the ways we understand things — we cannot let the fear of making mistakes prevent us from trying.
3. When we are a conduit for a voice that is very different from our own we may be more likely to misinterpret what we hear. Going back to validate the findings with users can help in making sure that the insights are true to people’s experiences and that users understand how their voices have contributed to shaping the service.

Outstanding questions

1. As a White woman, am I the right person to be the voice of Black people who have been through years of discrimination?
2. Who are the right people to represent these seldom heard voices in user centred research and design?