My first month at Which?
I’ve just finished my first month as Head of Product Design and UX Research at Which?. I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s a fascinating organisation with a long history of consumer advocacy dating back to 1957. Which? does some amazing things for the people of this country — pushing to protect consumers across a range of different areas, from online scamming, to fighting for better food standards.
In this post I’ve tried to articulate some observations from my first month. People often call this the listening phase of a new role. I’ll use my different ‘spheres of influence’ as a lens to frame my experience so far, these include:
1. My direct team of designers and researchers
2. Peers in different disciplines across the organisation
3. The leadership team
4. Wider industry peers
1. My direct team of designers and researchers
The design and UX research team I manage at Which? is a lot smaller than in my previous role at GDS. In a way this has been good because it’s made it easier to get to know people. I received a really good onboarding document from the team when I joined. This included introductions to every team member, outlining their strengths and self-identified areas for development. This was valuable as it immediately gave me a sense of the people within my team and where they sit as practitioners.
Recently the designers on the team have been on a bit of a journey, moving from a UX and Visual Designer model, to a hybrid Product Designer model. I’ve taken over at an interesting point on this journey where we are actively scrutinising the challenges and opportunities moving to this model might bring. A core part of implementing changes like this is bringing clarity over skill and capability expectations. I recognised that this is something I needed to focus on straight away and jump into with the team. We’ve kicked off work to develop a capability framework that will hopefully enable better conversations around career development and pay in the future.
I’ve been really impressed by the maturity of the team so far and I’ve seen some strong ways of working within the multidisciplinary squads. They’ve been on a long journey of content migration and simplification regarding the publishing platforms used across the myriad of Which? websites and apps. From experience I know that this type of work can be a slog — so I’ve been impressed by the resilience of the team in this regard. They’ve been using it as an opportunity to embed the design system, improve accessibility and improve the web performance of the Which? digital estate. This foundational work will enable us to invest more time into greenfield and experimental work in the near future.
2. Peers in different disciplines across the org
My role sits on the organisations ‘extended leadership team’, and lives in a part of the organisation called Product and Technology. This is where all our multidisciplinary delivery teams (or squads) sit. A core part of any design leadership role is building relationships with peers across different disciplines. Thankfully I’ve been able to lean heavily on Kevin (our Head of Product Management) in these early weeks. He’s brought me up to speed on the journey we’ve been on moving towards a squad model and defining (and refining) useful OKRs.
As each week has gone on I’ve attempted to theme the introductions I arrange. For example:
Week 1 — leadership and extended leadership team members
Week 2 — my direct design and research team
Week 3 — Product managers and data analysts, etc.
Obviously it hasn’t worked out exactly like this, but the point is I want to meet a broad range of people and it takes time to do this properly.
Squad check-ins happen on Thursdays and on the whole they’ve been really engaging. What I’ve found particularly positive is that people from different disciplines present at them. From my experience these types of ceremonies are often left to a delivery or product manager to present a formulaic overview — removing the detailed insights that designers, engineers, researchers and data analysts can bring.
A great part of working at a truly unique organisation like Which? is that you get to work with people from a wide range of areas, such as: commercial operations, consumer rights policy, member services, journalism and magazine production. Reaching out and building relationships with folks in these areas has been a really exciting part of my first few weeks.
3. The leadership team
I report into the Chief Product and Technology Officer, Rico, who sits on the executive leadership team for Which?. Having a direct line into the top of the organisation is really important and removes some of the bureaucratic layers I often felt in government.
On my 2nd day at Which? I had an hour long chat with our CEO, Anabel. This was great and it immediately gave me an insight into her passion for the organisation. I was also able to give her an insight into my values as a designer. Some key takeaways from our conversation were that she spoke of the need to improve the accessibility of our content, and of Which? being on a journey of ‘modernisation’ rather than ‘transformation’. Transformation is a phrase I’m glad I won’t have to use for a while.
As my role evolves I’ll undoubtedly become more familiar with the whole leadership team as we endeavour to build a useful, coherent and beautifully designed experience for a more diverse consumer audience.
4. Wider industry peers
One of my key takeaways from working in government is the importance of building relationships with peers working in organisations tackling similar problems to you. They can be great sources of information and inspiration.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been reaching out to a number of designers and design leaders for advice and everyone has been really receptive to my questions. I want to say a big thank you to those folks who I’ve spoken to in detail. I look forward to building an even wider peer support network over the coming months. I also hope that I have useful things to say that can support them in their respective roles.
Another way to influence and engage with wider industry is through being open about the work you are doing and the problem spaces you are grappling with. I’ve been encouraging our design and research team to start blogging more — so expect to see some movement in this space in the coming months. We already have a backlog of great posts in progress.
Conclusion
I was nervous about joining a new org after nearly a decade working at GDS. I wouldn’t say I had imposter syndrome, but the fear of the unknown is definitely real. In Which? I think I’ve found another organisation that I can be passionate about. Luckily the people I’ve met have been really sound as well. As I always say, ‘Come because of the work, stay because of the people’.
We’re going to be opening some UX research and design roles soon, so watch this space. Follow me on twitter @loft27design.
