The learning never stops!

As 2020 came to a close, December also marked 2 months for me at Haughton Design.

Despite continued uncertainty with regards to Covid 19 and, approaching a final Brexit negotiation, December was yet another incredibly insightful and busy one at HD (so much so that this post has been split in two parts!).

Last year saw a period of adaption for everyone. In an industry where attending events, networking and gaining insight from others is incredibly important, we decided that it would be a good opportunity to experience a virtual alternative. Therefore, I started the month by preparing for and attending the Journey to Success Through Innovation Virtual Conference, hosted by The Business Innovation Centre for Staffordshire, on behalf of HD.

The event was enjoyable and a great opportunity to experience the transition to virtual exhibiting. It was great to see such a good turn out where our MD, David Mills spoke on the topic of Design for Production amongst other insightful speakers in the area of design and innovation. Of course, there are pros and cons but, these arguably more accessible, virtual alternatives pose the question if they will remain the way for global industries such as drug delivery and pharmaceuticals moving forward?

For me, December consisted of a breadth of further training. A two-day Marketing Masterclass webinar series, hosted by Paul Heasman at Expert Webinars, saw speakers with a wealth of background and marketing expertise. Some of the topics discussed consisted of Marketing Automation, Standing out Online in 2021 and Google Ads for Growth – topics that an awareness of has been very useful during Sales & Marketing discussions.

Later in the month, I attended another interesting webinar titled, ‘How to Navigate the UK MedTech Landscape’ which discussed the support available throughout all stages of medical device development. The information shared will be useful for us internally and for helping advise future clients when developing new medical devices. The session concluded with a fascinating panel discussion on the impacts of Brexit in relation to a number of aspects within the design industry. From here, I was instantly able to make considerations and adaptions to the research pieces I was working on. Hearing about the support available for gathering user research and undertaking clinical trials was particularly useful.

In addition, I participated in an Engineering Drawings Techniques training session. I have to say, it was extremely useful both as Engineering Drawings are an element of design that I’ve not previously learned about and, because I was able to explore LinkedIn Learning as a potential resource platform for the wider team at HD. Even over the following weeks, having a better awareness of the detail and key purposes of Engineering Drawings was useful around the office.

When restrictions allowed, consultant, Mark Chipperfield revisited the office to undertake another session in understanding more about the needs of pharmaceutical companies – everything from global regulations and the challenges they bring to developing new devices and solving issues after a device or product has been released to market. From here, we were able to begin mapping our priorities and plan for enhancing our offering at HD. I look forward to working with the team on updating HDs marketing collateral to reflect this in 2021!

By Amber Davies, UX Designer.