Weeknotes 24 Jan, 2025

This week felt quieter on the surface, but fuller in terms of judgement, decision-making, and leadership craft.

I made some steady progress on the error message workshop. Error states are where trust is most fragile, and improving how we handle them is ultimately about reducing confusion, support demand, and user stress. Progress was slower than I’d planned, but for good reason.

Payments work took priority — a set of emails and an unexpected landing page. Payments is a high-risk area, so it made sense to pause and focus on getting clarity and accuracy right where the stakes are highest. It was a useful reminder that progress isn’t always linear, and that good prioritisation often looks like restraint rather than speed.

Alongside delivery, I spent a fair amount of time this week investing in my own leadership skills. I’ve been thinking about difficult conversations — the different kinds, when they’re needed, and how they can be handled with clarity and care rather than avoidance. A webinar and some deeper reading into frameworks helped give language and structure to instincts I’ve already been developing.

I also started early conversations with the People team about a UX Writing onboarding resource. No outcome yet, but it feels like an important gap to address. Helping new starters build confidence faster is one of those things that pays off quietly over time.

Next week, I’m aiming to bring the error message workshop closer to completion and start socialising it, while also feeding into spring planning. The goal is to surface content risks early, when they’re still easy to address.

Not a week of big launches — but a solid one for building confidence, clarity, and longer-term resilience.

Footnote: This week’s post was drafted using voice input and AI prompting as an experiment in thinking out loud and reflecting in a slightly different way.