An overview of my time at Script Assist: Design-engineering and zero-to-one start-up experience
An overview of my time at Script Assist: Design-engineering and zero-to-one start-up experience
My first role
My first role
I was hired into Script Assist as a Junior Designer/Developer, where I would fulfil the role of solo designer on the team for the 2 years I was there. I had no design mentor and my experience to date had been a website re-design for a wine bar and a 12-week software engineering bootcamp with General Assembly.
I was hired into Script Assist as a Junior Designer/Developer, where I would fulfil the role of solo designer on the team for the 2 years I was there. I had no design mentor and my experience to date had been a website re-design for a wine bar and a 12-week software engineering bootcamp with General Assembly.
My time at Script Assist involved a lot of self-led design growth and a lot of designing done in code, iterating on the fly, adapting existing component libraries and creating quick concepts that we would test with our users in the same week the idea was borne.
My time at Script Assist involved a lot of self-led design growth and a lot of designing done in code, iterating on the fly, adapting existing component libraries and creating quick concepts that we would test with our users in the same week the idea was borne.
Hitting the ground running
Hitting the ground running
In my first week, the CTO asked if I had ever mapped out a user flow before. I said no, and created my first set that day. By the end of my first 6 months, I had designed and helped build the first iteration of our mobile app and the second iteration of our web app. I had spoken to doctors and healthcare professionals, learnt that cannabis had been legal for medical use in the UK for some time but the grey areas around it made it unpopular, and attempted to put myself in the headspace of someone with a chronic illness whom also somehow needed to track their symptoms so they could keep getting their medicine.
In my first week, the CTO asked if I had ever mapped out a user flow before. I said no, and created my first set that day. By the end of my first 6 months, I had designed and helped build the first iteration of our mobile app and the second iteration of our web app. I had spoken to doctors and healthcare professionals, learnt that cannabis had been legal for medical use in the UK for some time but the grey areas around it made it unpopular, and attempted to put myself in the headspace of someone with a chronic illness whom also somehow needed to track their symptoms so they could keep getting their medicine.
Driven by passion over perfection
Driven by passion over perfection
It was hectic, fun, fast and dirty. It was not orderly at all. I didn’t slot into an established process, we didn’t create systems for our ways of working. It was driven by intuition, passion and grit. What this means is I cannot share hard measurements and statistics. I knew something was a success because, well, the doctors told us they loved it. They would comment specifically on the user experience, having been used to legacy systems that did not care how easily a doctor could use it. I can tell you roughly how many doctors we had as consultants, and I can tell you their common pain points and why we designed what we designed. I can tell you about the days we ran where we got a bunch of consultants on a call and discussed their concerns, and what feature ideas came from those sessions.
It was hectic, fun, fast and dirty. It was not orderly at all. I didn’t slot into an established process, we didn’t create systems for our ways of working. It was driven by intuition, passion and grit. What this means is I cannot share hard measurements and statistics. I knew something was a success because, well, the doctors told us they loved it. They would comment specifically on the user experience, having been used to legacy systems that did not care how easily a doctor could use it. I can tell you roughly how many doctors we had as consultants, and I can tell you their common pain points and why we designed what we designed. I can tell you about the days we ran where we got a bunch of consultants on a call and discussed their concerns, and what feature ideas came from those sessions.
I can tell you, in words rather than numbers, the impact that had on the patients. I can tell you what those patients lives were like, and therefore why the mission was important. I can recount the people who were so passionate about improving others people’s lives and how that was fuel to the fire of the product we worked on. I could walk you through an evening in Parliament, and what it was like being in a room where the concept of Script Assist was spoken about with fire and enthusiasm from aging doctors who had watched the system fail over the span of their lifelong careers. I could point you in the direction of a story about a child whose medical cannabis was the only thing that decreased their obscene daily count of epileptic seizures. I started designing because I liked making things and wanted a flexible job that let me do that, I carried on because I realised that being a designer, even behind a screen, could have real impact on people’s day-to-day. (All without having to have a degree in medicine or law, so that’s a win for me!)
I can tell you, in words rather than numbers, the impact that had on the patients. I can tell you what those patients lives were like, and therefore why the mission was important. I can recount the people who were so passionate about improving others people’s lives and how that was fuel to the fire of the product we worked on. I could walk you through an evening in Parliament, and what it was like being in a room where the concept of Script Assist was spoken about with fire and enthusiasm from aging doctors who had watched the system fail over the span of their lifelong careers. I could point you in the direction of a story about a child whose medical cannabis was the only thing that decreased their obscene daily count of epileptic seizures. I started designing because I liked making things and wanted a flexible job that let me do that, I carried on because I realised that being a designer, even behind a screen, could have real impact on people’s day-to-day. (All without having to have a degree in medicine or law, so that’s a win for me!)
I tell you all of this as a reader, potential hiring manager, or maybe even a recruiter, as my recounts of work from Script Assist won’t be a normal case study. If you would like to read something that follows slightly more order, standard and process, then you should read some of my more up to date work.
I tell you all of this as a reader, potential hiring manager, or maybe even a recruiter, as my recounts of work from Script Assist won’t be a normal case study. If you would like to read something that follows slightly more order, standard and process, then you should read some of my more up to date work.
But if you are interested in hearing about my first job, my zero-to-one experience and start-up anecdotes, then I’d love to discuss my experience with Script Assist with you. If you want more focus and case study work, then I would implore you to check-out (or discuss with me) my work with Finity instead.
But if you are interested in hearing about my first job, my zero-to-one experience and start-up anecdotes, then I’d love to discuss my experience with Script Assist with you. If you want more focus and case study work, then I would implore you to check-out (or discuss with me) my work with Finity instead.