Your persona
Your responses indicate you’re very well-versed in putting users first. How much of this is part of your role? You might be working in a team or on projects where you’re already being pushed to centre the user. Or perhaps this is an area you’re interested in but don’t get much opportunity to implement. Either way, you’re in a strong position to keep building on your skills.
As a Trailblazer, ask yourself where you could make a difference and make things happen. How can you bring others together, or support people who are interested but not as confident as you? You might not be in an official leadership position, but that doesn’t mean you can’t lead and influence others and support a move towards improving outcomes for the people you serve.
Build your skills and knowledge
Share this assessment with your line manager. Discuss your outcomes and strategise which priorities align with your departmental objectives.
Who’s working on user research at the moment, in your department or beyond? How might you get involved? Perhaps you could contribute by helping in user calls or pulling out and compiling insights. How might you work on feedback into your department’s strategic objectives?
What digital services are your department responsible for? Have you ever mapped a user journey?
Play around with tools like Figma or Miro and have a go. It might help you and your colleagues identify how the public engages with the services you work on. Good to remember: tech tools often come with the option to auto-populate with templates.
What’s going on with accessibility? Do you have an accessibility champion? Is this something you might be interested in? Having someone actively advocate for accessibility within your department can help ensure it’s not a ‘nice to have’ but is taken seriously.
Create a community of practice
Who else is interested in developing their user-centred working skills? Getting a group together can be a fruitful way to turn theory into practice. Can you identify a piece of user research that you feel is worth conducting? Put together a business case outlining what might be done, and consider how this would run. Do you have all or most of the skills and capabilities you’d need to make this happen?
The Apolitical Q&A pages bring together diverse opinions and community members. Topics such as What is your biggest learning from working on service design? could inspire you to hone in on an area of user-centred working you’d like to learn more about.
Keep exploring
Carve out time for professional development. Diarise a chunk of time each week where you can take an Apolitical course, explore community articles, or anything else that aligns with your motivations.
How design thinking changes lives is an inspiring case-study article to start with. Got something to say or share? Find out how to submit your own article: Post an article on Apolitical.
Catch up on event recordings such as How to put citizens at the heart of your policy. And keep an eye on what’s coming up!
If you’re looking for inspiration for structured skill development, take a look at our Learning Plans where we have stitched together disparate educational resources into rich, diverse, cohesive and enlightening learning journeys which can have a transformative impact on both professional and personal lives.
What's next?
Not sure if this is the right persona for you? This diagnostic and its suggested outcome have been designed for illustrative purposes and may not reflect your level of awareness or competency.
Find a guide to the statements covered plus the scenario questions here: User-Centred Working Self-Assessment and Scenario Summaries.
Explore the other personae using the links below:
Leadership:User-Centred Working Explorer, User-Centred Working Consolidator, User-Centred Working Trailblazer
Non-Leadership:User-Centred Working Explorer, User-Centred Working Consolidator, User-Centred Working Trailblazer
⬅️ Government Skills Impact Tracker | Digital and Data Skills Hub ➡️