A day in the life: the diversity of my role

Unbelievably, it's been over 4 years since my last post. How times get away, and how micro-blogging has really taken over.

I've been working as CX Design Lead at Officeworks for a couple years now and I thought I should put together a bit of a 'day in the life of.' Whilst I've dedicated time to putting together some of my highlights in my portfolio, we know that can't cover everything done every day. There are literally hundreds of projects, requests, workshops, meetings and other work that have been carried out over the years.

On reflection, I recognise how diverse this work has been - from standard web design efforts, to launching new loyalty programs, creating new services and redesigning entire journeys. It's important to highlight this and take note of the incredible work done across all the teams I work with.

Additionally, my role can fluctuate day to day. Not unlike others in similar positions, I find my role moving between hands-on lead designer work, to people leadership, to studio management. This diversity in outputs can be hard to show and articulate. Whilst a company title and position description tells one story, the actual work tells another. My role a mix of lead, manager and principal. By that I mean that I'm not only on the tools in certain aspects, or providing design guidance in another, I'm also planning and estimating work, uplifting the design practice and creating a strategy on enhancing our measurements and outcomes.

Some of the work I've been involved in

From designing on the tools, to running strategic design thinking workshops, and supporting designers as a lead. These are some of the pieces of work I've had in my time at Officeworks.

• A redesign of the checkout payment screens
• The launch of a new loyalty program, OnePass, liaising between different divisions and brands
• Creation of a new cart slideout
• Redesign of the shopping preferences feature
• Launch of a brand refresh
• Launch of a new offer, Officeworks for Business
• Launch of an Australian-first Apple subscription service, Officeworks Upgrade+
• Redesign of our key components and assets across the Officeworks website and app
• Refresh of our corporate pages

Some of the activities I carry out daily

• Estimations of work and projects
• Stakeholder sessions and collaboration
• Design critiques
• Copy reviews and enhancements
• Onboarding and offboarding
• Mentoring and feedback
• Design and CX uplift and education
• Clarity between projects and initiatives
• Heuristics reviews
• Process enhancements
• Support research and usability testing
• Refactor our systems, templates and libraries

What I aim to achieve every day

That's a great list I hear you say, but what does that actually mean? Ultimately, my goal as a leader in the design space is to empower my team and provide business value and customer delight.

• Drive down costs by enhancing processes and simplifying our experiences
• Reduce risk of underperformance and over investment in products and services
• Influence for great customer outcomes married up with goals of the business
• Make my team feel empowered, included and happy
• Make our customers feel valued, delighted and inspired

(Some things) I've learned

• Team culture is critical, and it's a fine balance. I've learned much more about cultivating a great internal culture, but trust and openness must be balanced with professionalism and inspiration
• It can be lonely sometimes. Sharing what's on your mind or being able to converse about options and challenges need to be done with the right people who can offer the best advice
• Variety is great, but it needs to be balanced with expertise when considering the right person for projects.
• Giving and receiving feedback
• How to estimate work and assign the right people and make the right considarations early
• Where to balance the team independence and manager direction
• HAVE FUN