#Weeknotes 91 (13 Sept) — Remote collaboration, dental check-up, and minimising
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Work wise:
This week, we wrapped up the first round of user research sessions as part of a discovery project. Diving into analysis has been tricky trying to collaborate with teammates in a remote setting. Often research analysis is done individually, but when there are so many sessions to unpack insights from, there isn’t the luxury of time for the research team to independently analyse and then review together. A collaborative approach is needed. Thanks to modern technology, many tools enable teams to work together while being physically apart.
So this is what we did that worked quite well: We captured notes around pain points for each session on my go-to online whiteboard of choice, miro, and extracted 680 Post-it notes from 22 sessions. Each note is tagged against the relevant session so we can always pinpoint the source in case we need to revisit recordings and notes captured. For the analysis, we started grouping related Post-its together and created themes as they came up. Having the ability to do this visually and collaboratively was immensely helpful as we were able to move notes between themes quickly, add new or rename themes as we progressed, and quickly gauge the scale of a themed challenge visually based on the number of Post-its grouped against it. We were able to map nearly 200 Post-its in a 2-hour collaborative session so I’d say the pace is quite good. At this rate, we should be able to finish the bulk of the analysis work in less than a day, which is fantastic! Once all the mapping work is complete, there would be no need for any additional review as a team since it was all done collaboratively with alignment from each team member.
I recall doing similar mapping exercises years ago in person with team members in the office space. We’d move the many written Post-its on the meeting room wall against written themes marked by whiteboard pens. It was actually more time-consuming just because physically moving things around takes more time compared to a few taps on the trackpad of a laptop. On the online whiteboard, I can tag multiple Post-its at once, move them across to make space and colour-code them where relevant, and find a particular note by searching for keywords, all within seconds. That being said, and as much as I love efficiency, I also love and miss the tactile feel of writing on Post-it notes and physically moving them around.
Life wise:
I finally had my dental checkup after 7 years. Since I go to a hygienist to get my teeth cleaned twice a year, I haven’t felt the need to do any checkups. Surely the hygienist would nudge me if she noticed anything off. And that she did. She reminded me on my recent visit that I should have a regular checkup. So I booked it with a local NHS dental clinic and the appointment was set up 2 months later.
The check-up at the dental clinic was so interesting compared to my visits to the hygienist. The Dentist fired questions about my general health, checked my teeth while spouting a bunch of numbers and alphabets in quick succession which felt like a foreign language, did an x-ray on my teeth, and did minor cleaning all under 10 minutes. There was barely any opportunity to have a conversation. It was incredibly efficient. I was quite impressed. It was also very affordable thanks to the NHS.
In contrast, my visit to the hygienist, paid through private insurance and not via the NHS, was rather relaxed and personable. It’s always with the same person, so there’s rapport and trust built over time. There was always some friendly exchange and light-hearted conversations in a relaxed environment. From an experience point of view, the latter is a lot more pleasant. And it’s because I can afford it (thanks to my employee health benefit entitlements).
And this is the problem. Because NHS is publicly funded. There’s a need to be efficient in looking after the many people accessing the services. There are never enough health workers. In overfocusing on efficiencies, not only are we putting more burden on the already few health workers to attend to more patients, we risk the quality of care, and safety of patients (eg. due to early discharges), and often putting people already in vulnerable situations at risk. It shouldn’t be that way.
Hopefully, with the Labour Party’s initiatives to modernise the NHS infrastructure, and increase funding and staffing levels, we’ll see some positive changes in the health space in the UK. *Fingers crossed*!
Things that I came across:
I loved the post my colleague James posted on LinkedIn this week on minimising. We don’t need more complex solutions to complex problems. In a world that constantly nudges us to create and own more things, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and mad! We don’t need to know all the current events happening around the globe. We don’t need more processes and admin tasks in our work and life. We need fewer things that demand our attention, fewer things that we need to own and maintain, fewer complexities when interacting with basic services, and generally, fewer problems in our lives.
I’m reminded of one of the key themes from Cal Newport’s Deep Questions podcast, on focus. Focus on fewer things to get better. This means better prioritising and cutting things that don’t add much value or impact. It all sounds sensible and simple, but incredibly difficult to follow.
Photo of the week:
Quote of the week via DD:
“Smart people will tell you to find an expert; dumb people will always have an answer.” — @RickiTarr@beige.party
Humbleness is a virtue. It’s an awareness of our inevitable shortcomings.
Until next week!
