How to lead a growing team well in stormy times? When your government falls apart and parliament skips deciding on a budget for the work your team does? That’s what I’m trying to figure out while in it.
Getting together in the design and user research discipline is vital—to reflect on the year, check in on how we are, and discuss priorities for the coming year. The in-person exchange is essential as we work embedded in multidisciplinary teams across vastly different service areas—from justice to taxes to family benefits. Without it, some people would never meet.
Getting together to reflect on the year
On Monday afternoon, we had a festive onsite. We are a team of 36 people now: Communication, content, service, user experience and user interface designers, and user researchers. The team grew by 75% this year.
That’s the biggest growth so far. At the beginning of 2024, there was 1 user researcher; now, there are 6. We had no dedicated content design expertise in January. Today, there are 3 content designers. Building a connection is crucial to sharing knowledge, offering expertise and supporting each other. We want to work well and sustainably while delivering things at pace.
A recent team health survey showed a high degree of psychological safety. Colleagues feel it’s a safe workplace. And there is a very high satisfaction with work-life policies at DigitalService. At the same time, colleagues think they are too often unable to concentrate on their work without interruption, and responsibilities are not clear enough.
Through a ‘Three Little Pigs’-themed retrospective on Monday, we discussed these and other things in more detail. In these stormy times, what are the things in the house of straw, wood or brick?
Looking ahead, Charlotte facilitated a crafty, fun vision board exercise. In small teams equipped with scissors, glue and printed material, we discussed what matters the most, where we want to go in 2025 and how we want to feel.
We also had another anonymous appreciation read-out. Over a week, I collected feedback for colleagues in our design and user research discipline. People could submit appreciation for other people via a simple form. We did the same in the last two years. Over 90 submissions were sent. I collected the feedback for each team member on a single slide; then I placed them in a random order. Everyone attending on Monday got a folded note containing a name. Once the appreciations for a team member came up, the person with the note containing their note had to read out the appreciations.
The anonymous notes I have received are these:
Thanks for being a thoughtful leader and caring for accessibility. You are really a rarity. I am looking forward to further working with you. It’s always motivating to be by your side.”
You are so dedicated, that it is almost crazy, but still thank you so much for all the hard work.
Your enthusiasm and courage is contagious!”
Everywhere at once, involved and driving so many initiatives, always an inspiring link for any project/ thought/ initiative. Connecting dots everywhere, shaking brilliant presentations from your sleeve…. While ensuring the whole event is videographed at high quality. Staying humble and taking the time to listen. Seriously – How do you do it?”
I really enjoy working with you as I feel I can be totally honest when it comes to visual design or other work-related stuff. This makes me feel very comfortable at DigitalService. Thank you for listening and supporting!”
Over 2.5 years into the role, I remain the only Head of Design—and User Research—in the German public sector. That sometimes makes me feel alone. In the UK, I had a network of other Heads of User-Centred Design from different gov’t departments. In Germany, design maturity in government keeps growing but is not even where the UK was 10 years ago. I’ve been in formal design leadership roles for 8 years. But I’ve never led such a big team.
Blessed, I have 2 principals—Charlotte and Sonja—by my side. We drive decisions together, supported by fantastic people partners Magdalena and Annemie. I report to CPO Stephanie, who supports our discipline, as I have never experienced senior user-centred design support. And I could not be luckier with my colleagues from the other delivery disciplines. I work with the Head of Engineering, Product, and Transformation almost daily.
It’s not been the easiest, but it was undoubtedly the most thrilling and exciting year! Everyone did so much. And together as a team, we can face a 2025 full of challenges and opportunities.
What’s next
Rather little. I’ll have the next couple of weeks off.
We might still be able to publish the international blog post. Kara and I finished it earlier this week. We titled it “Progressing international design discourse in Helsinki, Amsterdam and beyond”. It must only go through some departmental press office in the UK before Christmas. How hard can that be?
While writing, I realised that my English is much plainer than my German. When blogging in German, sentences are more complex and longer. My English blogging is more straightforward and probably much easier to read.
Why does German have to be so complicated? When blogging in English, the readability score matches the complexity of a tabloid newspaper or even a cookbook. When blogging in German, my readability score goes up to the level of a professional journal. I struggle so much more to simplify in German.
— Martin Jordan (@martinjordan.com) December 18, 2024 at 4:56 PM
I did help get another blog post about the Service Standard out. Chiara did most of the writing. I contributed bits and did some editing. It’s our second Service Standard blog post in less than a month. We also created a dedicated Service Standard filter on the Digital Service blog.
What’s next for the German #Servicestandard? In a new blog post today, colleagues from the Federal Ministry of the Interior and @digitalservice.bund.de share how they working on an update in a collaborative and user-centred way (in German): digitalservice.bund.de/blog/kollabo… 5/X
— Martin Jordan (@martinjordan.com) December 19, 2024 at 11:48 AM
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For early next year, I am working on one about how intertwined the digital-ready check and Service Standard are and how they need to be treated.