A roadmap for my life 

Roger on 30/07/2017

I’ve created a public roadmap for my life.

Keeping it to the simple ‘To do, doing, done’ format, the roadmap shows some of the things I’ve done including past jobs, educational achievements and experiences, things that are current in my life such my job, voluntary work and books I’m reading, and things I want to do including places I’d like to visit and doing another university course.

Seeing all of these aspects of my life in one place, what I’m doing with my time now and what I’m thinking of for the future, will help me to focus and encourage me to do things to move each card along.

A hitchhikers introduction to mountainboarding 

Roger on 29/07/2017

I saw a hitchhiker standing on the side of road, and as I drove past I thought I should pick them up. A couple of miles down the road I remembered the quote that “we are all just guiding each other home”, so I turned around and went back to pick them up. 

Younis was a German masters student studying Quantum Physics and was in the UK to attend a lecture on his particular area of study. I told him about mountainboarding and that I was going to a Mountainboard Centre to practice the procedures we use for running competitions. He’d never heard of mountainboarding but asked if he could come with me.

At the Mountainboard Centre the other mountainboarders welcomed Younis without a moment of hesitation, mistrust or doubt. As soon as he stepped into our world he was immediately a brother of ours and was treated that way. He was given food from the barbecue, taught how to mountainboard, and given a place to sleep for the night and the promise of a lift the next day. 

That’s what I love about the mountainboarding community. 

Practice makes perfect 

Roger on 29/07/2017

Today was the ATBA-UK’s first event practice day. In previous years we ran six events a year and so we kept our event management skills sharp, but now that we only have one competition a year we get rusty and we only have one chance to get it right. So we decided that we would practice. 

It was the first time that we had the whole team together and spent time talking through how we manage safety during the competitions, the process for registering riders to compete (which is now paperless and much faster), how BoarderX qualification and knockout rounds will be run, how we time runs in the Downhill competitions, and how Freestyle judging works. 

It really helped us all learn a bit more about what each other does, which reduces single points of failure, and just as importantly it helped us all feel like a team. 

Hereford Board & Bike Park Downhill Track

Roger on 29/07/2017

Weeknotes #51

Roger on 28/07/2017

What happened this week…

  • Launched the Summer Sale, which has performed far better then expected.
  • Started developing the product range for the AllStars schools programme.
  • Customer Contact Centre solution design workshops for RMSP.
  • Another successful user experience testing session.
  • Met with our Magento agency to talk about making project delivery more efficient.
  • Reviewed a Data Integration Platform for RMSP.
  • Had the Ecommerce Monthly Management Meeting to discuss projects over the next few months.

Read this week…

Doing next week…

  • RMSP Inventory, Buying and Merchandising, and Interfaces Workshops.
  • Reviewing Events marketing from this year to inform planning for next year.
  • Setting up Christmas cards on the Online Shop.
  • Marketing planning for Christmas cards.
  • Reviewing Facebook advertising for June.
  • Making changes to Magento to improve the site SEO.
  • More user experience research 

Interesting stat of the week…

  • Traffic to the Online Shop this month has had some ups and downs throughout July. Our issues with Google meant the number of sessions from Organic Search dropped 39% compared to last year, our Summer Sale email meant that Email traffic increased 1,710%, and Social traffic increased 751%. Overall, traffic was up 72% compared to last year.

In the not too distant future….

  • Selling CPR Training Kits for Restart A Heart Day

Join in with BHF AllStars!

Roger on 26/07/2017

Weeknotes #50

Roger on 21/07/2017

What happened this week…

  • Reviewed the new range of clothing that we’ll be launching soon.
  • Started Key User Familiarisation with our new Retail Management System.
  • Tested Hourly Order Export files and new email designs.
  • Went to a really interesting RMSP interfaces design workshop.
  • Visited a retailer who is using the same system as we will be using.
  • Prepared email and social and advertising marketing activities for the Summer Sale.
  • Talked about selling CPR mannequins on the Online Shop.

Read this week…

Doing next week…

  • Launching the Summer sale.
  • Writing Christmas card descriptions.
  • RMSP Contact Centre Solution Design workshops.
  • Meeting our new Project Manager at iWeb.
  • Working on Products Data Feeds to support advertising.
  • More User Testing sessions.
  • Ecommerce Monthly Management Meeting

Interesting stat of the week…

  • Of all the visitors we had this week, 86% of non-convertors were new visitors with only 14% coming back for another look, but for the convertors 43% were new visitors and 57% returning visitors. 

In the not too distant future….

  • Developing a new range of products for Schools.

Tim Ferriss: “How to Cage the Monkey Mind”

Roger on 20/07/2017

Weeknotes #49

Roger on 14/07/2017

What happened this week…

  • RMSP Key User Familiarisation for Buying & Merchandising.
  • Had our first of many User Testing sessions to find out how people use the Online Shop.
  • Began setting up Christmas cards.
  • Made some small changes to the improve the customer experience on the Online Shop.
  • Created marketing materials for the Summer Sale.
  • RMSP Solution Design for Inventory & Warehousing and Interfaces.
  • Meet with the Finance Team to discuss how to automate importing sales records into the finance system.
  • Began to tackle our Google Organic Listing issue.

Read this week…

Doing next week…

  • Working through the AX Business Process Catalogue to best standard functionality.
  • More user testing to build up our knowledge about how people use the Online Shop.
  • Interface Workstream workshops to design the interface between AX and Magento.
  • Begin testing Qubit for personalisation and testing on the Online Shop.
  • Visiting CountryWide to see how they are using AX.
  • Preparing to launch the Summer Sale.
  • Starting product development for the new range to support the Allstars Games for Schools programme.
  • Meeting with PS&S to discuss selling CPR Kits.

Interesting stat of the week…

  • Throughout July so far, 42% of visitors to the Online Shop used mobiles, but these visitors only viewed 35% of all the pages viewed, and placed only 27% of the orders.

In the not too distant future….

  • Single Sign On between the Online Shop and the main BHF website.