Category: Event

FREE online workshop: getting started with user research

Photo by UX Indonesia on Unsplash

This workshop is free for public sector people. Please use your work email address to make it easy to recognise you!

It’s happening on Thursday 16 December, 12pm on Zoom.

Book now!

User research is one of the most important stages of any successful digital project. However it often gets missed, and that’s often because people just aren’t used to doing it.

Involving service users in research and testing is a big cultural change for organisations, and takes a fair bit of confidence to start doing for the first time.

In this workshop, Lizzie Bruce from Cake Consultancy joins me to introduce common user research methods, as well as some less well known ones.

We will also talk through how to arrange user research sessions for the first time – where to host them, how to recruit users, how to record sessions and turn them into actionable insights.

At the end of the workshop you will feel more confident about:

  1. Including user research activities as part of your digital project
  2. Choosing the best user research methods to meet your objectives
  3. Setting up your user research sessions, in terms of location, equipment and practicalities
  4. Finding and recruiting users for your research
  5. Turning your research into actionable insights

Don’t delay, book today!

Book now!


FREE online workshop: quick and easy service discovery

Photo by J. Kelly Brito on Unsplash

Following on from my last workshop on the matching user needs to technology capabilities process, here’s the next one, this time talking through service discovery, based on the ideas and template shared in this blog post. The workshop will be free and for public sector people only.

Book your place now!

The workshop will run on Zoom on Wednesday, October 27 at 11am. I anticipate it will last around 45 minutes, but keep an hour free just in case.

At the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

  • use the process to identify services that are ripe for digital transformation
  • engage service owners in a conversation about how their services can be redesigned
  • begin to think about a service’s user needs
  • identify early technology opportunities within a service
  • document all of this in a nice template, courtesy of me

The running order is as follows:

  • Intros
  • Quick bit of background about when this process can be used and what for
  • Running through an example, using the template live
  • Discussion and questions about taking it forward in practice

Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? So what are you waiting for?

Book your place now!

If it is any consolation for those that can’t make it, I will be sharing a recording here on SensibleTech 😀

FREE online workshop: Matching user needs with tech capabilities

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

A while ago I shared a post with a template showing how you can take a capability-based approach to picking technology by focusing on user needs.

There has been a fair bit of interest in it since it was published, so I thought it might be useful to run a short online workshop running through how it works with a smallish group of people. As I have at this stage no real idea what I am doing, it will be free for public sector people.

Book your place now!

The workshop will run on Zoom on Wednesday, September 15 at 11am. I anticipate it will last around 45 minutes, but keep an hour free just in case.

At the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

  • Understand the benefits of approaching technology decision making through capabilities
  • Understand the core ideas around user needs and how they should impact technology choices
  • Confidently run your own workshops following the process in your own work
  • Come up with loads of ways to improve the whole thing!

The running order is as follows:

  • Quick intro to the session and what we will cover
  • Everyone says hi (and I’ll probably ask a silly question about your favourite something or other)
  • I’ll run through the idea behind the process and template and what it is meant to achieve
  • We will work through the example of the intranet as used in the blog post
  • We will then work through an example or two that people on the session suggest – hopefully real scenarios they are currently dealing with

Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? So what are you waiting for?

Book your place now!

Don’t worry if you can’t make it, I will be sharing a recording here on SensibleTech!

Legends of Low Code online event

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Update 16/7/2021 – here’s a link to the recording of this session.

On Tuesday 13 July, between 2pm and 3.30pm I will have the pleasure of chairing a panel session discussing the use of low code platforms in local government.

I’ve been involved in the implementation of low code in a couple of councils, and in the right circumstances it’s a great fit. In the panel session, I’ll be exploring what those circumstances are, and what some of low code’s pitfalls are, as well as what it is brilliant at.

I’m going to be chatting with the following ‘legends of low code’:

  • Kev Rowe, Croydon Council
  • Craig Barker, Cumbria County Council
  • Clare Evans, Tewkesbury Borough Council
  • Ben Evans, Ashfield District Council
  • Lee Gallagher, Hertsmere Council

Big thanks to Nick Hill for organising the panel – as well as being informative, it should be good fun too.

Sign up for the event