Tuesday 25th July 2023
These Away Days happen every quarter and are highly anticipated in our team as they are a chance for the whole team to get together (as we usually spend a lot of time talking virtually), reflect on what we did in the last quarter, and plan what we are going to do in the next. We reflect on the quarterly goals and our achievements, have a chance to refresh our knowledge on the Digital Strategy, and review our ways of working as the team has grown by 19 members since the last away day in April!
Importance of User Research
We started the day with an interactive research session held by our three UX Researchers – Amelia, Ben, and Callum. There were high-energy games – such as a rock, paper, scissors tournament – that displayed the importance of user research and how small changes can impact the end product.
Followed by an introduction to Dovetail, which is currently being set up as our first research repository. This will not only help us to tag, search, filter and manage our research insights but also allow us to export them to where they are needed and directly link them to our Strategy and roadmaps, as well as the day-to-day products that we currently support. It’s an exciting step for us and marks a shift in the maturity of our user research, as well as improving the usefulness of everything we do.
The three outcomes from this session were:
- Don’t believe the hype
- We can’t make any assumptions – asking users what they wanted was better and safer
- Our job in Design is to make sure we solve the right problems with the best possible solutions that align with KPIs and strategy
- Ask and share
- It takes effort to find out more information, but it is worth it
- Insight shared amplifies the value exponentially – we can learn from each other as well as users
- We’re here, and we’ve got feedback
- We’ve got insight – use it or tell us what you need
- We’d love for you to be able to filter and find it yourself, but it’s early days as we trial Dovetail
Quarterly Planning Time
We then swiftly moved on to the next session, where we reviewed our July outcomes to see what we had achieved and how far we had progressed. As our team has grown massively since the last away day, we decided to change the way we ran this session, meaning the priorities for each product were set in advance by the Product Owners and Scrum Masters. This gave us the opportunity to have enough time to ask important questions, have valuable discussions, and set our targets as a team for the next quarter – all with the Digital Strategy in mind!
CultureAmp Launch
Simon and Emily introduced the team to a new online platform called ‘CultureAmp’, which will be used to create personal development plans (such as objectives, goals, PDR’s), facilitate regular 1-1’s with line managers, and drive quality people conversations. After discussing the benefits of CultureAmp, we each wrote a postcard to our 2024 selves saying what we want to have achieved by then – this was a lovely activity to really reflect on how far each of us has come, and where we want to be in a years time, both in work and in our personal life.
Net-walking or Yoga?
We finished the day with a choice of two social outdoor activities, yoga or net-walking. The aim of these sessions were to get everyone outside, moving and having relaxed social time together after spending a long day working very hard indoors! The net-walking involved a campus tour which was led by one of our student ambassadors and gave the team the perfect opportunity to view some more of the beautiful Streatham campus whilst being able to get to know each other. Whilst the other half of the team went and did a 45-minute yoga session held by our very own Head of Agile, Capability and Planning, Mina!
If you would like the opportunity to work in the Digital team at the University of Exeter, then check out our recruitment page! Search the key word ‘uoedigital’ to view all of our vacancies, we are constantly looking for new talent so keep checking the site for updates!
-Written by Rebecca Jeavons, Performance Analyst for UoE Digital