Recent employment
The Scottish Government
Senior Content Designer
October 2021 to present
Building on my previous experience, I have:
- lead on content work
- been a co-leader on a pod of expertise
- provided line management, support and advice to colleagues
Whilst in this role, I have worked on a number of high-pressure, complex and fast-paced projects, with a variety of stakeholders including policy, legal and product colleagues. Despite some challenges faced, I am often able to find ways forward which enable a better outcome for both stakeholders and those engaging with our content.
As a co-leader on a pod of expertise, I’ve led on a number of initiatives to improve processes and the support given to staff to equip them in their roles. These have included reorganising and refreshing our guidance documentation, creating new checklists, and introducing a more robust way of documenting meetings. I’ve additionally led a workshop to identify ways of improving efficiency within this area. This work was subsequently taken forward by more senior managers for a strategic review.
As a line manager and senior colleague I often provide support and guidance. I take a coaching approach to help colleagues grow and develop in their roles.
Public Health Scotland
Senior Digital Content Designer
April 2020 to October 2021
My responsibilities included:
- acting as lead content designer on the staff intranet
- supporting the development of junior content design colleagues through training and informal mentoring
- line management
As lead content designer for the intranet I:
- developed an approved prioritised content development approach, drawing on Top Tasks data, current user behaviour and research on what matters most to staff
- advocated for a more structured approach to recruiting, training and supporting staff within the organisation who publish content to the intranet
- designed, implemented and analysed an internal communications survey to find out from staff how they like to engage, what matters most to them, and areas to improve
- wrote a strategic paper for senior leadership based on the internal communications survey findings which evidenced why a strategic approach was needed to meet our users’ needs
NHS Health Scotland
Senior Digital Content Designer
September 2019 to March 2020
In this role I:
- led on coordinating legacy sites for migration, archive and closure
- worked with content owners and leads to develop user-focussed content for the new staff intranet
NHS Health Scotland ceased to exist on 31 March 2020. My employment was transferred to Public Health Scotland which came into existence on 1 April 2020.
Senior Improvement Officer
May to September 2019
This role was specifically focussed on supporting Public Health Scotland’s future customer relationship with its corporate services provider. As part of this I:
- provided project management support, including facilitating workshops and drafting papers for discussion at senior management meetings
- produced a comprehensive but simply presented literature review summarising how to best manage the supplier-customer relationship, which was well-received and used in strategic decision making
- demonstrated effective communication, listening and negotiation skills within a highly complex, political and tense context
Digital Content Designer
February 2018 to May 2019
As Content Designer my main areas of work were two major projects around Public Health Reform:
- Public Health Reform website, a site to encourage buy-in and engagement from key stakeholders
- Change Hub, a new internal microsite to communicate organisational change to staff
For both of these, I:
- was the main content designer on the project
- carried out extensive user research
- proposed a prioritised approach to developing content
- developed the information architecture
- implemented a content governance approach
- provided training on content design and using the Umbraco CMS
Whilst working on the Public Health Reform website I:
- worked closely with colleagues in the Public Health Reform team at Scottish Government
- carried out a full content audit, leading to a number of recommended actions to improve the user journey and increase engagement
- re-evaluated our different audiences’ user needs through a comprehensive survey
- proposed, implemented and maintained a new enewsletter to increase traffic to the site and allow us to measure engagement by audience segments
The Change Hub was a success due to:
- significantly improved measurements in staff engagement and satisfaction
- it being opened up to staff outside NHS Health Scotland who were also joining Public Health Scotland
Due to the Change Hub’s success, it was runner-up in the 2019 NHS Scotland Internal Communications Award.
Digital Production Coordinator
December 2016 to February 2018
As the most junior member of the Content Design team I:
- provided internal digital support and advice, including training colleagues how to add content to the intranet and how to prepare accessible documents
- managed the Digital Services’ team helpdesk, including the design and implementation of a new ticketing system with custom categories, and supporting the team to adopt a consistent approach to handling requests
- coordinated the migration of the team’s shared drive files to SharePoint, which involved proposing agreed inclusion criteria, custom tags and information architecture, as well as training team members to use the new platform
- prepared Google Analytics data for content reviews by Content Designers