Project on/off-boarding - Home Office User-Centred Design ManualProfessional standards and guidance

Project on-boarding and off-boarding

Onboarding onto a new project 

  When you welcome a new user research colleague into your team, point them to this UCD onboarding list to help them settle in.

User researcher checklist

  • complete the new starter access form
  • run through the UCD induction Trello board (if new to the Home Office – you can get access to this by completing the new starter access form)
  • complete the mandatory UCD induction training
  • learn about working patterns of the team (agile ceremonies, ways of working) 
  • find out about team roadmap and project priorities  
  • book 121s with your manager
  • get access to team Confluence / GitHub / Mural / all the approved tools you need
  • join team Trello boards  
  • get access to team Slack channels and the wider UCD community Slack channels

New portfolio checklist

If your colleague isn’t new to the Home Office but has come from a different portfolio, the portfolio lead or line manager should provide the following, if available:

  • portfolio induction 
  • portfolio org chart  
  • overview of all services within portfolio and key projects happening 
  • guidance on specialist terminology / acronyms used in project and portfolio 
  • guidance on where and how to document things

Line managers should also:

  • invite researcher to portfolio-wide show and tells, town hall meetings, etc 
  • introduce researcher to immediate colleagues and team 
  • pair researcher with an informal buddy from the same profession 
  • arrange mentoring, where appropriate

Offboarding from a project

If an employee is leaving the Home Office altogether, their line manager will need to arrange a session with security to formally offboard them.

Portfolio lead or line manager checklist

Managers must: 

  • remove researcher from all delivery team boards 
  • remove from private team Slack groups and channels 
  • remove from any approved tools and any project-specific SharePoint groups / folders  
  • let UCD Operations know so we can update our records, remove them from our mailing list and, if relevant, remove them from any general Slack and SharePoint groups

User researcher checklist

Researchers must:

  • transfer ownership of any assets such as surveys, etc to your colleagues in your team
  • transfer edit access to any new researchers joining the team
  • save everything in one place, and make sure they refer to it with their handover notes
  • put together a map of the end-to-end journey, if possible. They’re great for quickly getting a bird’s-eye view of a service  

Read more about why you should keep records of service decisions.

If you have any queries or need any help, email the UCD Operations team.