Max Dunne·Mar 16, 2024Creating a human-centred, design-led product strategyUplifting design to bring product, design, engineering and many more departments together. — Picture an old Victorian house with no underpinning built on London clay. The ground is soft, the house heavy. Great British downpours have battered the foundations putting the structure under scrutiny. The rain causes the substrate beneath the house to shift, the bricks and lime mortar move and the walls…Business11 min readBusiness11 min read
Jenna Edgar·Feb 21, 2024Spilling the Beans: My First MonthHow’d I end up here? Career pivots are exciting and scary, with a bold emphasis on the scary. And what better time to shake up my professional life than during a global pandemic! The world was already turned upside down and thus was my oyster.Product Design2 min readProduct Design2 min read
Max Dunne·Nov 13, 2023How we turned our design vision into an effective strategy…and why we’re going to do it all over again in 2024. — Introduction According to the Oxford English Dictionary, having a vision means attaining the ability to think about or plan the future with great imagination and intelligence. A vision can be created at any scale, be it to become the Prime Minister, to write a book or to picture your living…Vision7 min readVision7 min read
Rosie Dent Spargo·Nov 1, 2023The Designer’s guide to Roadmap planningPicture this: You’re a product designer in a busy squad, working hard on the user problems you’ve prioritised this quarter. You’re focussed on the problems you’re solving now, but what will you work on next quarter? Designers often don’t get a seat at the table when it comes to roadmap…Product Design6 min readProduct Design6 min read
Max Dunne·Oct 18, 2023The Importance of feedbackHow we’ve improved our design standards with better feedback loops — Sharing can be difficult Whether it’s writing words on a page, applying colours to a design or choosing which piece of furniture will compliment your living room, there is always an element of anxiety or self-doubt to accompany the design process; one tends to wonder what someone else might think or say should the…Design6 min readDesign6 min read
Robin Lloyd·Dec 16, 2022How ChatGPT will kill Stack Overflow and make you a better developer… by ChatGPTIt’s no secret that Stack Overflow is the go-to resource for many developers when it comes to answering coding questions and solving programming problems. But what if there was a better way to learn and improve your skills as a developer? …Artificial Intelligence3 min readArtificial Intelligence3 min read
Chris Wood·Nov 23, 2022How We Reduced Our GitLab CI Pipeline Duration by 70% at Student BeansAt Student Beans, we recently created a new Developer Experience (DevEx) team which has the primary goal of making the work life of our developers better. The main way we’re going to be doing this is by improving our tooling and development processes. One of the first initiatives we decided…Gitlab9 min readGitlab9 min read
Ross Bradley·Apr 21, 2022Starting at Student Beans as an iOS DeveloperAs a new member of the iOS engineering team at Student Beans I thought it might be helpful to document my journey to help give an insight into what goes on behind the doors of Student Beans and what will be expected of you during your first few months. As…IOS11 min readIOS11 min read
Hannah Pirie·Jan 28, 2022Coaching a Better Feedback CultureI coach and mentor a number of people, and every so often one of them will come to me with a problem they’re having with a colleague. Someone keeps talking over people in meetings. Someone keeps double booking my calendar. Someone isn’t sticking to a process we agreed on. Someone…Coaching4 min readCoaching4 min read
Jamie Mercer·Jan 14, 2022Books that have made me a better (Product) personHaving a growth mindset has helped me develop my skills both personally and professionally. Throughout my career I’ve leaned into certain areas of weakness and doubled down on strengths and have often found myself picking up a book when dealing with adversity or asked to take on a new project…Product Development6 min readProduct Development6 min read