My Best Life

Image

The Importance of Clear Communication

Gregor Thomson

Clear communication is an important part of design sprints and any collaboration between organisations. Communication needs to be clear and effective so that everyone involved has a clear understanding of the process and can get the most out of the sprint.  Within software development, we run daily stand-ups. They are so named as each member of the team will stand during them. Why? Because this means that we talk directly and don’t waste time with superfluous communication. The discomfort of standing up encourages us to be direct and short with what we want to say. Stand-ups give each person in… Read more “The Importance of Clear Communication”

Co-design needs to give back to all involved

Kathryn Dingle

The My Best Life project is working with young people, to create digital solutions for young people. Throughout the project young people have been at the centre of work and involved in key decisions. Young people have taken part in the focus groups, throughout the design sprints and in user testing sessions with our prototypes. The ideas, challenge and support from the young people have given us ideas that we would never have had otherwise. But we wanted to make sure we give back to the young people for their time. We have covered their time and expenses throughout the… Read more “Co-design needs to give back to all involved”
2

Introduction to Miro resources

Kathryn Dingle

The My Best Life team have been running virtual design sprints. We decided to use online software Miro to run the sessions. Miro is the online collaborative whiteboarding platform that enables teams to work effectively together, from with digital sticky notes to planning and managing agile workflows. The software was new to the team, so we have created some resources to help everyone get up to speed. We wanted to share these resources, so that others can benefit from them too. Below are some quick resources that the team have created as an introduction to using MiroX. If you have… Read more “Introduction to Miro resources”

Remote Design Sprints: The Developer’s Perspective

Jamie Carter

The first two weeks of My Best Life were altered to deal with the situation around COVID-19. Working out how to guide the participants through a design sprint, with the added challenge of doing so remotely, was a learning curve for us and allowed us to discover some really useful online tools. Designing the exercises for both the design sprint itself, and also for onboarding young people and youth organisations to using Miro and Zoom was a group effort. Through collaboration, feedback and evaluation we are proud of having produced a series of effective workshops and learning tools. Moving from… Read more “Remote Design Sprints: The Developer’s Perspective”

Top tips for running remote workshops

Kathryn Dingle

The My Best Life team have swiftly learning about running remote workshops using Miro and Zoom. Below are a few top tips on running sessions online. Top tips for preparing for a remote workshop Preparation is key: You need clear objectives and a clear process for the work. The layout of your work is crucial. Layout out the software as clearly as possible as you have less chance to see people struggling with something, especially if you are in breakout rooms or doing independent work. Include clear instructions: Include task instructions where possible, so people can refer back to them… Read more “Top tips for running remote workshops”

Introducing the team to Miro

Kathryn Dingle

The My Best Life team are running remote design sprints! So here is what we have been up to….. Last week, we ran our first design sprint session, using Miro, alongside a video chat using Zoom. Next week the real sprints start! Below I have captured some of my reflections/learning so far: Remote design sprints can work We are not the only ones to do this. People have been running remote design sprints for years. Whilst face-to-face is preferable, it can be done online using software like Miro and Mural. My Best Life is testament of this. Keep checkign back… Read more “Introducing the team to Miro”

You are running remote design sprints, are you mad?

Kathryn Dingle

Running remote design sprints My Best Life is going virtual! That’s right… remote meetings, remote design sprints, remote user testing for the next 6 weeks. In light of Covid-19, we have a contingency plan, My Best Life is going virtual. This is an exciting opportunity and challenge for the team because it is an unfamiliar way of working. So it all starts tomorrow…. Day 1 of our first sprint will be a day to test the process and our ideas. The team will be running our first sprint day as planned, but with a twist. We will be running it… Read more “You are running remote design sprints, are you mad?”

When facilitation met the Sprint!

Alex Mckell

On Friday 28th February, I made my way to NPC to attend a pre sprint meeting, looking forward to learning more about this mysterious project my manager had signed me up for. Such as what it would involve, who and most importantly, what my role would be. You see, I’m someone who likes to have structure. AKA knowing what my role is in something so I can plan the hell out of it and be organized. The thought alone fills me with sunshine and rainbows. Whilst the meeting gave me the who and some information regarding the what and some… Read more “When facilitation met the Sprint!”

Code of conduct

Bethany Scott

We devised a code of conduct to shape the process of our design sprints so that we were on the same page about working together and the needs of our team. As we will have young people involved along the way, we wanted to make sure we had a good structure for approaching discussions and workshops. Our code of conduct is adaptable to the changes that will evolve during the process. In smaller teams we mapped our inputs on post-it notes and collated them together into this set of guidelines: We will be mindful of the airspace so that everyone… Read more “Code of conduct”