Here’s what we’ve been up to this week:

  • Kim and Hannah published the annual Welsh Language and Flood Risk Management reports, which took weeks of background work and co-operation with staff from different departments. Sophie took on the bulk of the day-to-day publishing this week, and is making fantastic progress with learning Cymraeg!

  • As phase 2 of the new intranet project kicks off, Jane and Sam chatted with Digital team members involved in the discovery work. The team had done so much detailed work, including user research, audits, recording user needs and getting to know modern SharePoint. Weekly project team check-ins start next week as we move to the content design phase.

  • James met with Laura to discuss approaches to our Insights project. The project is about making better use of what our users are saying to help us prioritise work. He also met with the Data Protection Team to understand more about GDPR in user research.

  • Laura has drafted the Planning project scope following discussions with Shaun, Sam and Heledd. The focus is on improving planning content and enquiry routes. A meeting has been arranged for next week to refine the scope before discussing it with Planning and Development.

  • Laura and Phil met with Species colleagues to confirm the project will continue. They are tying up loose ends and writing a blog about the first phase of the project before agreeing priorities for the next phase.

  • Heledd attended the NRW Leadership Conference, with a chance to hear the latest from our Chief Executive, hear from the CEO of NatureScot. Main theme throughout the day was the role of senior leaders and managers in breaking down silos, building connections across the organisation and creating the conditions that enable our teams to thrive and deliver better outcomess. They also had a recorded message from the new(ish) Minister, Llyr Gruffydd, about the importance of our work and the need to stay focused on the outcomes we need to achieve for the people and environment of Wales.

  • Heledd, Alex and Lucinda joined the first Design System Guild, organised by Robbie Scott. It brought together colleagues from design and development to share where we are now, where we’d like to get to. Great to see alignment on importance of shared standards and patterns, and of aligning with GOV.UK. We’re going to set up a Teams channel to make it easier to connect, share work and build the community.