The Sunshine by the Sea

It’s a sunny morning in West Sussex. The birds are chirping and a bright, warm sun has melted a thick frost that formed overnight. It’s a small space, this caravan, this roulotte. But it’s toasty and roomy enough.

I’ve come here for rest and recuperation, as mentioned last week. Somewhere different, a slower pace, a change of season. And the seasons will change soon, the daffodils on the table tell me that. The brighter evenings let you know. The sun’s getting higher in the sky.

Despite spending all week blindsided by a common cold, the week has ended with inspiration. Research by the Sea was one of the best conferences I’ve been to in yeeeeeears. So many good, useful, inspiring, thoughtful, provocative talks. Much more about ethics and power and possibility than I’d expected. None of the ‘utopian bullshit’ you usually get at a product or digital conference, to quote one of the speakers!

Nicole Aleong’s workshop on applying futures orientations to UX research was fabulous too. It brought a nascent framework into life, and helped me realise that I’ve done this sort of work before only through intuition. Having this framework then might have helped us handle uncertainty better, but it’s a blessing to have it now.

These talks, these provocations came at the right time too. I’m thinking about what it is I want to do. My locus of my work is the here and now plus the soon after, but as a person I’m excited much more by probable futures. Heck, it’d be nice if the soon-after were two-to-three years away rather than one or two quarters ahead.

So I need to figure out what to do. Perhaps I need to change my discipline. I use methods from various skillsets but people know me as a product person, which I think leaves you tied inherently to delivery. It doesn’t afford me as much space to play in the discovery space, to tease out and collect signals, to shape and mould those with others.

Or does it? Maybe I’m just tying myself to the delivery end when there are others who can handle that. I can see and spot gaps in delivery and operations, but I can’t fix it all.

I’ll continue to advocate that we shift gear, slow down, take a step back and take stock. It’s a good time to do some ecocycle planning, employ creative destruction renew perspectives and refresh focus. A spring cleaning of the mind and our energy.

Like Cennydd posited in his talk and like Anna and I discussed over breakfast, it’s a time to be opinionated and redraw boundaries. To know when to say no, not always ‘Yes, and’.

Dydd gwŷl Dewi Sant hapus!

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