In this section I want to share my thoughts on themes that have been common across my career and across data, design and code projects that I have delivered to date.
These themes are information, sensemaking and intentional change.
History, based on written records, only dates back to just over 5,000 years ago, with the earliest examples discovered in Egypt and ancient Sumer. Since then, we have been recording data about our existence for lots of different reasons and using lots of different ways. This data has been recorded in such diverse ways as wayfinding systems, censuses, burial sites, art, religious texts, municipal records, data warehouses and the list goes on.
From earliest times, our survival instinct has meant that people have endeavoured to get a better grasp of what is going on in their environments so they could achieve better outcomes. It used to be a matter of life and death.
Sensemaking is an attribute that helps to understand, experiment and make choices. In our evolutionary journey we have designed and codified part of our existence in ways which have given us more control over our outcomes. We have experimented, designed and codified how to grow our own foods - agriculture. We have experimented, designed and codified how to live together in large groups - cities.
In the modern organisation or business, sensemaking is important because it allows people to understand complex situations where there may be no known rules or policies in place. When there is a better understanding of a complex situation it can unlock the ability to create better intentional change and codify this as a new way of working, a new product or a new service.
The projects I have been involved with throughout my career have shared sensemaking and the desire to create better intentional change as common themes. These themes are also interwoven in data analysis, design processes and the development of code.
Data is essential to our ability to sensemake at scale and to identify areas to explore and target for intential change.
Design is essential to our ability to align intentional change to the needs of people who are most likely to benefit from the change. Understanding needs is informed by good data capture and analysis. Aligning change to needs is an approach that radically improves the chances of success.
Code is essential to translate the intentional change to a digital reality. With good code, informed by good data and good design, great opportunities exist to make new products and services that genuinely fulfil the needs of the people using the thing.
As I continue to explore data, design and code I am challenging myself in a personal quest to be a better sensemaker and innovator, to ask better questions when faced with a new challenge and to be more intentional when it comes to change.
I would like to share some of my progress to date and invite you to check out highlights of my projects.