Weeknotes 3: Back in the game

‘Just do it’

I’ve been thinking more about talking and public speaking. Getting out and learning how to project my voice a lot more. It’s something I’ve really struggled with, which means I come across very quiet and unconfident. I have days where I’m so upbeat I have all the energy in the room, then bam, I need 5 minutes to take a deep breath, compose myself and swim in my own thoughts in my own space to get back on track.

I was given a last-minute (and out of the blue) opportunity to talk at a conference on law enforcement and security, about service design and user needs. I had no idea what to expect.

I prepared my slides and just went for it. I stood up in front of 30 men and my heart rate went through the roof; I could feel my palms getting clammy, my eyes darting around the room to find a friendly smile (none), and the sheer eye-piercing gaze from 60 eyes. I was fretting that I couldn’t see my speaker notes properly and conscious, that I was a woman from an ethnic minority in a room full of white men who were seasoned professionals in this space. What is a young, brown girl like me, doing here?

Then slowly, my brain got into gear, and I thought: who actually cares? So what if I’m not what they are expecting, so what if they’re used to seeing the same sorts of faces in the room, so what if they’re all men. So what?

Just do it Gurpreet.

And I did.

I spoke, I explained, I educated and I delivered.

(I needed 5 minutes after the room emptied to take a breath, but still. I did it.)

And it felt good. I felt I could do it again, learn from what worked and what didn’t, and do it again. My story isn’t the same as anyone else’s; we all have different tales to tell and in different and exciting ways. It made me think about how I’d love to hear more stories from those people who squirrel away behind the scenes.

Being Upfront

On this wave of increased confidence, I was attending the London Design Festival’s Service Design Futures conference, where I volunteered to join Lauren Currie on stage through her #upfront movement.

If you haven’t come across it before, check it out.

Lauren Currie (second from right) and my group who joined her on stage.

Lauren brings a few people on stage with her, and invites them to experience what being on stage is really like. No speaking, just sitting on a couch with her whilst she talks utter brilliance. God this woman is something. Not only did she take her time to hear our stories and hopes, she wrapped them up in a lovely bundle and told the audience all about us. She really is a force that I see changing the face of services, organisational attitudes and behaviours towards better design.

It’s a great idea and helps remove the intimidation of thousands of eyes glaring up at you. I would deeply encourage anyone who has the same fears as me, to do it.

Yup, that’s me on stage on a sofa. Fun times.

Bringing girls and tech together

I’ve spent some time recently with Cate McLaurin and Christina Hammond-Aziz on developing something very exciting to help girls into technology careers (not just coding). Watch this space.

My role

My role has very recently evolved into something which I really relish and enjoy, and fits my background in design management quite nicely. As Head of UCD at Digi2al, I’m now building a practice of people, bringing some amazing humans together, and creating the right design and research expertise across our teams. I’m really enjoying it and hoping to make it a lot bigger and better than it currently is. Another space to watch.

I’m also getting back into practice with my design processes, retraining my hand with some service mapping across our law enforcement and intelligence teams. That’s been fun.

Finally, a shoutout to all the wonderful people I’ve met over the last couple of months, who have guided and shown me some new paths, new thinking, and encouraged me to keep going. You know who you are, and I cherish you deeply.

Over and out for now.