What’s a sprint if it feels like a marathon?

weeknotes

Jan 14

This week was one of those that felt both short and long at the same time. Lots of R&R, accompanied with short bursts of work, treading carefully outside of burnout. Crotchet has helped, but surprisingly very testing for my ADHD. Maybe I'll stick to Lego.

Highlights, habits and happenings

Whipped up an internal prototype in time for testing next week
Updated an external prototype based on UR findings, for another round of testing the week after
Kicked off a new workstream (a gateway for existing services)
Started my crotchet journey (it's not going well)
(Finally) scoping out my thesis research for my project on death
Tried Cantillon, a Belgian brew
Is it too late to be wishing people happy new year?

UX thinking hat: on

We kicked off a new workstream this week, which will see a new service that helps users locate the exact service they need from our client. It's meant lots of necessary reprioritisation which has thrown some of us off our feet, slowing down work that's already happening.

It also means we're racing 3 sprints at a time until March, which is going to be intense. I briefly touched on the sprint fatigue stuff last week, and a lot of it is feeling like an endless relay. Still, I can't be more grateful for my lovely team, made up of people I can only describe as fiercely resilient and compassionate. It's been a testing time for everyone (not to mention the short and dark days upon us).

I got to play with a lot of GDS this week too, which is seriously honing my Figma skills and working around design systems. As we're getting a prototype refined for a second round of testing, I've been pouring a lot of time into finding justifications/examples of modified components (i.e. merging tags with summary cards) and answers to questions like: if we make one column sortable, do the rest of the columns in a table follow suit?

New week, more beer

My beer update of the week took me to Indiebeer, where I got to try a friend's hardcore recommendation, the Cantillon Rose. It's a rare find you typically don't see outside of the brewery in Brussels itself (they don't even let you take it beyond the grounds). It's like a thick apple vinegar, a little sour for my liking, but memorable on the tongue. Stouts for life (no better sip for the cold nights).