Leadership Flashcards
What was the situation/task?
UKRI’s international working group requested an interactive data tool to provide evidence for ID’ing collaborative R&D opportunities overseas.
Given lack of conventional solution, I recognised a proactive mindset was required to form a functional output.
What did you do first?
As the original concept was vague I sought to clarify the key success criteria and set out structure.
How did you build success criteria and set out structure?
I used the group’s team meeting to discuss what data output last were crucial to have and agreed on fortnightly updates.
Data used was research volume, quality, and propensity to collaborate generally and with the UK.
How did you think to design the tool?
Simplicity while maximising functionality was key.
Implemented drop-down menus to act as filters which sifted large volumes of data.
How did you present updates to the group?
Live presentations worked best as the nature of the project was interactive.
How did you handle questions when presenting?
I had researched alternatives to ensure I could support my stance.
This covered data sources, alternative presentation tools (R shiny), and requests for more functionality (shutting down requests such as more granular data - data limits).
You formed relationships with UKRI councils, why?
They had unique expertise dealing with different countries (offered insight into data bias).
They had done similar work on smaller scales so had ideas for optimisation.
Also were a second set of eyes.
The task wasn’t done when you switched roles - what did you do?
I volunteered as a key contact for new owner.
I hosted informal meetings with them to provide a low-pressure environment to discuss improvements to the tool and ensure they’re managing the work well.
What was the result?
The tool was deemed successful and went on to provide the baseline for the overall prioritisation framework.
