In February 2022 Ash Roots joined the University as our new Chief Digital Officer. From there, the Digital team were born.
So, what have we been up to since?
February 2022
Ash joined the University and the Digital team was set-up
“Ash’s passion for the ways in which digital transformation, designed by people for people, can improve the way we learn and work, is infectious and inspiring. I am excited to be able to welcome him into our senior team to help drive forward this key aspect of our 2030 Strategy, where he will lead the co-creation of our digital vision and strategy with colleagues and students.”
Professor Lisa Roberts, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Exeter
March 2022
The Digital Team grew, with more friendly faces, and our first home – the Hive!
April 2022
We spent time talking to our stakeholders and users, gathering insight, understanding their problems, and connecting their requirements to our Digital Strategy.
New starters – 3
May 2022
The first iteration of our Digital Strategy was released! Collaboration and co-reaction are two of our main principles, so sharing at this early stage was really important and felt like a big step.
Digital held an Empathy Lab to mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day. At our first student and staff event, we learned a lot, met great people and collaborated with AccessAbility, the Library and external companies. Watch this video to understand an Empathy Lab and what we did.
We also held a 2-day Hackathon with Ancoris. This is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time. Find out more about the Hackathon here.
New starters – 1
June 2022
Digital Team Day 1 – We went to Dartmoor Zoo to learn about agile! We applied the agile way of working to clear a leopard enclosure. Watch us get to work here!
Our Digital Advisory Network (DAN) was also formed in June, allowing us to build a network of experts from all different sectors to enable us to share knowledge and tips! See our DAN introduction video here.
Our Students As Change Agents joined us for the summer. They carried out research into creating a new chatbot for the University, helping to name it and create its personality.
New starters – 2
July 2022
The first release of our Digital Strategy was approved by the University Executive Board (UEB). This board is made up of the internal leadership team, the decision-makers for the University!
We had a visit from Atif, a DAN member, who came to help us begin our new Digital adventure. Meet Atif Here!
Our first squad, working on creating a new app, completed sprint one! For the app’s minimal viable product (MVP) release, the squad are focused on making it easier to view timetables, book study spaces and access help and support (find out more about our new app here).
August 2022
Fearless came to discuss our Digital Strategy, sharing their expertise and support. Read more about what we got up to with Fearless here.
Digital ran a workshop about agile ways of working with some local school children. Watch this video to learn more about the agile workshop.
New starters – 3
September 2022
September was a busy month for Digital…
We officially launched our finalised Digital Strategy! This felt like our biggest achievement so far and a huge milestone for the team. Read a summary of our Digital Strategy here.
Amelia and Scarlett visited our Penryn Campus during Freshers’ Week to get user feedback on our app prototype! Watch the highlights of their visit to Penryn here.
We held a Digital Fair in the Forum space on the Streatham campus. This was our second event and aimed to excite students and staff about the world of Digital. Find out more about the Digital Fair here. As part of the Fair, we created a 2D top-down game based on the Streatham campus, to help students get to know their way around and settle into life at Exeter.
The Digital Hub had an update! The Streatham campus Digital Hub was remodelled. To date, the Digital Hub is helping over 2000 people each year.
New starters – 2
October 2022
Another busy month in October…
A month after launching our Digital Strategy, we launched our Magpie Society game! This game encapsulated our Strategy into a fun story-led game and aimed to help people recognise the importance and strength of the Strategy. This was a different approach to standard strategy release processes, and it did drive engagement and conversation.
We held our first ever Q&A session with 187 people from around the University. It had some live engagement for students on campus whilst we streamed the session in the Forum.
Digital Team Day 2 – We volunteered on the Streatham campus helping clear six tonnes of soil for the Estates Team – and got to play around with the cool gear the Tree Surgeons use on campus! Watch us up in the trees here! Our Product Owners then led a workshop to help us understand the role of a Product Owner
The ‘New Tech Framework’ was created! It is a collaborative technical approach – between IT and Digital – that will support iterative development, while not compromising on our security and regulatory obligations. More on this in an upcoming blog post…
Vivienne Stern (CEO of Universities UK) and Vice-Chancellor, Lisa Roberts, came to visit us in the Hive and see all the cool things we had been up to.
One of our UX researchers, Amelia, spoke at a Ucisa webinar on user research to share her journey and our goals in Digital.
New starters – 4
November 2022
Scarlett and Rebecca played Mario Kart with a stranger to encourage students to engage with and embody our Digital Strategy. Find out more about Mario Kart with a stranger.
Our culture community was created to help encapsulate the Digital Strategy into our everyday way of working
New starters – 3
December 2022
Amelia and Jamie were back down in Penryn to get some student testers using our app! Learn more about the app visit to Penryn here!
Digital Christmas Day – This was an opportunity for us to look back on the year in Digital and all the incredible things we have achieved. We also set some goals for the next 3 months – stay tuned!
Talking of Christmas, we also held a DAN event to help create and maintain connections and share what Digital achieved in 2022.
New starters – 2
January 2023
Digital Team Day 3 – Setting out what our next hill to climb is! Read more about our 3rd team day here.
Stacy Holland from the DAN came to visit us to talk about her work and how she could help us! Stacy is a “soul-led leadership and team coach, mentor and changemaker”, so she is going to be invaluable to the evolution of our team and we look forward to working more with her.
New starters – 2
We want to hear from you!
Tell us what you think about our first year in Digital!
Have you worked on something similar in your line of work? How did that work out for you?
What was your biggest achievement in 2022 and what have you learnt from that?