Hackney Agile Lifecycle discovery phase
In my last post, I mentioned that we are in the Hackney Agile Lifecycle (HAL) discovery phase. “Hackney Agile Lifecycle is our guide for getting things done”.
· We started the work with some user research to find out the user needs for working in a user-centered design (UCD) and Agile way.
· Some of our early findings showed that there is a misunderstanding around what UCD and Agile is and that people want to know how it could be applied to their work.
· In the next phase we will be looking into how we might help people get a general understanding of UCD and Agile. We will also look into how (or if) UCD and Agile work together and how it might be applied to people’s work.
Learnings…
In order to meet the deadline we needed to get quite a lot of work done quickly. This meant compromising on some aspects of the work, such as how many users we spoke with and how the work was presented.
In an ideal scenario, we would have conducted more research before presenting the work to our stakeholder. However, I’m learning that it’s better to share something early and get quick feedback.
E-forms discovery phase
Working alongside HR colleagues, we have just started a discovery phase for E-forms.
E-forms is a collection of forms affecting changes made to employees position and payroll, reporting line, working patterns, as well as starting a post, moving or leaving.
For the discovery we will be focusing on changes made to existing position or the employees working arrangements.
· There is a formal procedure to making these changes. However, there is an assumption there is a gap between the real world situation people are dealing with and the guidance/policies/forms, so it’s not always clear to form fillers what they need to do, when and how.
· Having worked out what to focus on, we are collaboratively putting together a research plan and we are looking to start the research as early as next week.
Learnings…
It can be easy to only focus on creating new forms. However, it’s important to understand people’s needs irrespective of policies and guidance materials.
We need to really dig deeper and learn about their behaviours, what frustrates them and (if) how making these changes can be improved.
Cross-government Meetup
It’s the sixth cross-government meetup and we (digital design team) are really excited to be hosting it with Government Digital Services (GDS).
The meetup is taking place on the 5th December and it’s on ‘Diversity for designing inclusive services’.
Read more about the event here…
We look forward to seeing you there!
