Sprint 1
What we did during our first sprint.
Goal 1: finish refining and prioritising our scope, questions, assumptions and gaps
During our first 6 days together, we familiarised ourselves with the problem space. This included the output of the previous onboarding grants discovery.
We noted questions, assumptions and gaps as we went along. We then held a workshop to refine and prioritise them. Our prioritised list informs the scope of the work we will do.
We also agreed how we would investigate each question, assumption or gap. The methods we’ll use include:
- user research
- fact-finding and analysis
- content analysis
Goal 2: finish our research plan
We now had a prioritised list of questions, assumptions and gaps that we wanted to explore through user research. Our user researcher used this to create a user research plan, which details:
- what rounds of research we will do
- the key questions we hope to answer in each round of research
- who we will do research with
- what research methods we will use
Goal 3: identify our users, and plan for how we will recruit policy colleagues who design funding
We’ve identified we need to conduct research with colleagues in the Funding Policy Implementation, Operational Excellence and Service Delivery divisions. These teams are all in the Funding Service which made it easy to get lists of names and roles to use for sampling and recruitment.
We also need to conduct research with policy colleagues who design funding. The previous onboarding grants discovery project found it challenging to identify and recruit these users. Some of these colleagues are in the Funding Policy Unit. But others are in different teams all over the department, and there is no list of who these people are. In this sprint we planned a strategy for recruiting these users.
Initially we'll be conducting focused interviews with key participants across both policy and funding service teams to help validate our early assumptions and answer some gaps we currently have in our knowledge.
Following on from these, we’ll be carrying out a co-ideation workshop with a focused group of users to ensure that any recommendations we make are in their best interests.
Goal 4: write our vision and mission
We held a team workshop to draft our vision and mission.
“A vision describes what we want to achieve, it is the clear, concise and inspirational description of the long-term change resulting from your work." (DfE Product management manual).
Our vision is:
Shared understanding of grant complexity means that funding is efficiently operationalised and delivered, enabling the funding service to provide more grants to education providers.
“A mission is a clear, meaningful and motivational statement that describes what you're currently seeking to achieve and who it is for.” (DfE Product management manual).
The vision is “where we want to go” and the mission is “how we want to get there.”
Our mission is:
We're understanding how funding design impacts complexity, and how teams collaborate when designing or amending grants. We’ll provide user-centred recommendations that enable the funding service to empower and support policy colleagues to design funding that is less complex to deliver.
Goal 5: complete first iteration of our stakeholder map
We’ve completed a first draft of our stakeholder map. This will be an evolving map that we will add to over time.
Goal 6: complete an audit of what content currently exists
Our initial goal was to do a full content audit of relevant guidance and documentation in Sprint 1. We started by mapping out known documents used by teams involved in funding design and delivery. This exercise quickly identified gaps and questions to explore with each of the teams. To maximise efficiency and ensure shared understanding, we’ve agreed to integrate these questions into our meetings with key contacts in sprint 2. We'll continue to update the content audit and prioritise key gaps as the project evolves.