Author: Gavin
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Design Debt
Most people working in digital teams have heard of technical debt (“tech debt”) in conversations with our software engineer colleagues. And whilst technical debt is often understood by our product management colleagues, design debt on the other hand isn’t. As designers our aim is to make sure we meet user needs by utilising strong user-centred…
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Tech Insight and Rapid Prototyping: The Neglected Game Changers
I’ve spent a third of my life leading tech teams in both the public and private sectors. Some teams were small (around ten people), and others were large (100s of people from many professions). Over the years, I’ve focused on building teams, setting standards, and increasing maturity. After many years of leadership, my eyes have…
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Leadership and Strategy
I believe it’s human nature to want to know where you’re headed. I also believe that when you’re in a position of leadership your team or teams are entitled to know why you’re headed there. Good leadership would state that you should share that information so that you get collective buy-in. The where enables your…
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Experiences and Journeys
For a while now, I’ve been talking about making experiences better and how we can do that effectively using journeys, using the analogy of a nature reserve to explain my thinking. At the very heart of our work in UX Design, we want to enable users, meet their needs and make experiences better for everyone.…
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Managing IC’s at a similar level to yourself
Having been a manager of people for many years now, I often get asked questions to help and support other managers in their roles. There are a few companies now who have duel track frameworks, one track for management and another track for individual contributors. The duel track framework can be a learning curve for…
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User Centred Success Measures
When starting a new project or picking up a piece of work, we may have a project brief or kick-off meeting. We do this to frame the problem we’re trying to solve, understand some user needs, clarify some constraints, discuss opportunities and define some success metrics. I’ve watched teams work together for the last 5-6…
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The one that didn’t get away
Backstory: It was December 2015, and I was on a flight to Montreal. A few weeks earlier, I’d begun chatting to the folks at Shopify, and they wanted to interview me. A day-long experience which didn’t feel like an interview at all. Much more chatting with people I liked. A few days later, I was…
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Managers and leaders
I want to share my thoughts on managers and leaders who can’t or won’t manage and or lead. I’ll explain the effect this can have on people, teams and organisations. TLDR; Managers and leaders who are unable to manage or lead (for lots of reasons) can break delivery, momentum and morale and therefore render people,…
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Measuring effectiveness
I’ve been thinking about being effective a lot lately. Just so we’re clear, the definition of effective is; successful in producing a desired or intended result Regardless of where you are in your professional journey or what role you have, it’s absolutely normal and right to want to feel like you’re achieving something. Being effective…
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The first days
The first days of any new role are always a bit of a whirlwind. The change in my role within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over the last few weeks was one I needed. As I’ve mentioned, the role I started wasn’t the role that it ended up being. There is more to…
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Change and grow
5 years ago I wrote ‘It’s time for something new‘. I’d decided to leave traveljunction and join the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) under Ben Holliday’s design leadership. At the end of my interview with Ben Terrett and Ben Holliday, I made my intentions clear. Ben Terrett asked if I had any questions. I…
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The Rebuild
Over the years I’ve documented changes in my work and personal life. It helps me explore the way I think about things and motivate me forwards in to whatever is next. This, The Rebuild, is no different and whilst things may look a little different around here this piece of writing isn’t about that. That…
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Let’s start from the beginning
People-centred management Over the last 7 years I’ve had the opportunity to build teams (over 80 people) and grow the capability of those that I’ve hired. With no formal management training a.k.a. learning as you’re doing, I’ve had to learn a lot, quickly. Some parts went well, some parts could have gone better. I’ve made…
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Describing things
We’re now a lot more careful of the content we use and how it is designed. More content design and strategy roles are becoming available than ever before. Organisations and businesses now understand that designing content in a way that humans understand has a real effect. Even with all of the work we do on…
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Professional progression
I recently gave a talk at Camp Digital on professional progression. I took the attendees through multiple aspects of what they should be doing in their careers in order to progress. A section of the talk is dedicated to my own working theory about time, skill levels and focus. This theory depends on a few…
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Time
Time. Thinking and stressing about it took up a lot of my life. It increased panic and guilt ten-fold. “What if I’m late?” “What if this isn’t finished by X?” “People expect this of me.” “I need to not let people wait.” “You (whoever you was at the time) need to do something as quick…
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Good product development process
These days I spend my time fulfilling my role as Head of Interaction Design within DWP Digital. Specifically making sure things are joined up and consistent across services. There’s a lot going on*. The approach to consistency We follow an agile method of working. By that I’m describing the real agile, the being agile *not*…
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Impostor Syndrome
This article will be one of the most important you’ve read about impostor syndrome and mental health in our industry. It will cover several points; mental health support what we can do to recognise it how it plays into our personal and professional lives how to deal with it how to begin overcome it Current…
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Proactive instead of reactive product development
Large organisations are often found reacting to the needs of their users or business. A reason but not an excuse for this is that legacy systems need maintaining. Anything ‘new’ is bolted to them which creates significant challenges over time. By doing this they end up in a journey of reactive product development which is…
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So you want to get into web design
This article was originally written in 2010. Facts may have changed. So you’re looking to get into web design? It’s a dog-eat-dog world and below I’ll take you through what the industry is like, what kind of jobs you can do, what skills you need, how you can market yourself, how to communicate with clients…
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How to ask for feedback that may be hard to hear
Recently I’ve been giving a talk on impostor syndrome. As part of that, I discuss strengths and shortcomings. An approach to recognising shortcomings should be a good thing. Without recognising your shortcomings we will never truly recognise our strengths. When we are able to see both, the resulting growth is incredible. Failing to provide vital…
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Creating a mentor programme
The back story Throughout my career I’ve advertently or in-advertantly acted as a mentor for someone. That’s 13 years of caring and nurturing many different personalities. In the last two years I have broken through my impostor syndrome. I finally had room to accept that I had a mentor, even if they didn’t know it.…
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Geek Mental Health Week Newcastle 2017
I am organising Newcastle’s first Geek Mental Help Week event. It will take place at the Mining Institute in Newcastle on 3 October 2017 at 6pm. What is Geek Mental Help Week? It is a week-long series of articles, podcasts and events about mental health issues. We’ll hear stories from those who suffer as well…
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The day that Ben left
Today, Friday, is the day that Ben Holliday leaves the Department for Work and Pensions. In one way, it’s a sad day. Ben will be a huge miss within the team, but also a miss within the wider realms of government. An influential voice with experience to match. His work and effort has had a…
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2-years-ago
2 years ago I started my first day working at the Department for Work and Pensions. It’s been a wild ride with no sign it’s slowing down. I’m enjoying every minute. For the first 10 days of my time in the department, I made a point of posting some thoughts and observations in the form…
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Service goals
A little under two years ago, I joined Government at the Department for Work and Pensions and began work on the Get your State Pension service. The team had just finished their discovery work. Anna had done some excellent user research and clearly presented the user needs for the service. Based on the user needs…
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What is the hardest part of running a design team?
Answering the question of What is the hardest part of running a design team? excerpt: I don’t think anything is ‘hard’ per sè. There are various challenges of running large teams and then even more for running large teams in different locations.
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Complaining is nothing without action
Complaining is nothing without action. If you’re passionate enough to complain, then you have an equal amount of passion to lean in, engage and make something better. Your greatest supporters WILL NOT be the ones helping you to complain or the ones listening to you complain. Your greatest supporters WILL be those helping to channel…
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A letter from the future
Dear past me, You were right, we’re more connected than ever before. We didn’t look for calm in our lives nor did we look to take anything away. You see, connectivity and devices are still everywhere. No longer are they just in our pockets and attached to our wrists. What you had back then was…
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A stand up or retro does not make you agile
Having worked within government for a little over a year now, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve heard from teams who work within Home Office, Land Registry, DVLA, HMRC and my own teams within the Department for Work and Pensions. I’ve found that fellow Interaction Designers, Front-end Developers, Content Designers and a few more roles work…
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Reboot
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by
It’s time. Make no mistake, 2016 has been the worst year ever and as I write this I’m nearly half way through one of the worst weeks. I’ve been managing to write snippets on Medium when I’ve felt able, but there’s been nothing of substance here for so long and I felt like I couldn’t…
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reboot
It’s time. Make no mistake, 2016 has been the worst year ever and as I write this I’m nearly half way through one of the worst weeks. I’ve been managing to write snippets on Medium when I’ve felt able, but there’s been nothing of substance here for so long and I felt like I couldn’t…
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Hello you. Hello you, this is me.
Hello you. Hello you, this is me. That’s how we started every phone call, it was our little game, one which we’d done since I was a teenager. We both used to laugh and get confused on who had to say what. That was my Dad, my best friend. My best friend passed away on…
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Invest in yourself
A little while ago I sent out the following; Don’t forget to invest in yourself. Make time, health and learning an important investment for you. A lot of ourselves goes to other things. — Gavin Elliott (@gavinelliott) July 5, 2015 There were many thoughts behind that message and a bit of a personal story (and…
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Cleansing the soul with honest design
Back in late 2013, shortly after I joined traveljunction.com, I managed to internally recruit Tim Gale on to my team. It was a pretty bold move, Tim was sought after across the company but I was pretty determined and didn’t give up. I’d known of Tim for a while before joining the company and as…
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It’s time for something new
On Thursday I’ll be walking out of the traveljunction.com office for the last time to have a long awaited week off before starting afresh elsewhere. 2 years ago I knew absolutely nothing about travel, although it was one of the verticals I’d identified that I’d like to work in. When the opportunity came knocking I…
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Design team ethos
At the beginning of 2014, I began to build out the traveljunction.com design team beyond a single person (me). I gained an awesome team-mate, Tim Gale, who’s been with me on the journey ever since. We sat down and created a design process as traveljunction never had one previously. We were very particular about the…
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How to move into a more senior role
When I was younger I was always fairly independent, head strong and forthright. I’m glad I still am. It set me up for where I am today and I’d say it has definitely contributed to how I’ve moved into more senior roles throughout the years. Over time you look back and see the things you’ve…
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Normalised design
Here’s a couple of thoughts on ‘normalised design’. A circle doesn’t need to be a circle and square doesn’t need to be a square. Design becomes normalised when you constrain it to proportions and dimensions. Giving yourself an inordinate amount of rules is going to normalise things fairly quickly. Grid, grid width, column width are…
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It’s ok to not have all the answers
I have a very analytical, methodical and logical mind. The certainty of factual information to provide answers has to be very high for me or at the very least way I need to be able to weigh up the odds in favour of being right before I do something. The need to analyse data and…
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Designing with the future in mind
As designers we can often become entrenched in working on tiny details because they matter. It’s far too easy to get wrapped up in the intricacies and become short-sighted on a longer term view. Short-sightedness can cause design challenges which can be ironed out fairly easily when you’re looking at your long term plan. For…
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Understanding the why
When we were learning as children, we always asked important questions. More often than not the main question was, Why? We as adults joke about children getting to that age and how they continue to ask why after the 2nd and 3rd time. Each time a child asks why and receives an answer it generally…