Cancer Research UK Tech Team Podcast Cancer Research UK Tech Team

In this special episode we speak to Christina Cornwell, Director of the Health Lab at the charity Nesta, about the work Nesta are doing to champion ‘tech for good’. We hear about how they’re aiming to tackle social isolation through their ‘Tech To Connect’ challenge, and also highlight some of the work that Cancer Research UK is doing in the ‘tech for good’ space. As Nesta is an innovation foundation, we discuss the tools and techniques they use to test ideas, how they measure success and how their approach compares to what we do at Cancer Research UK. Christina also offers advice and resources for any organisation looking to do more in innovation and ‘tech for good’.

Follow Nesta on Twitter https://twitter.com/nesta_uk

Related links

Cancer Research UK:

360 video - Oesophageal Surgery
https://youtu.be/Teq-DS47UIU

The life Garden
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/get-involved/donate/guidance-for-executors/welcome-to-the-life-garden

My Alcohol tracker
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cancer-Research-UK-Alcohol-Tracker/dp/B076HP287V

Nesta:

Tech To Connect challenge information
https://www.nesta.org.uk/project/tech-connect-challenge/

Nesta’s compendium of innovation methods
https://www.nesta.org.uk/feature/innovation-methods/

‘Nesta Challenge Prizes: A Practice Guide 2019’
https://www.nesta.org.uk/toolkit/challenge-prizes-a-practice-guide/

Nesta’s DIY toolkit on how to invent, adopt or adapt ideas that can deliver better results
https://www.nesta.org.uk/toolkit/diy-toolkit/

Nesta’s open book of social innovation
https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/the_open_book_of_social_innovation.pdf

GoodSam
https://www.goodsamapp.org/

GoodGym
https://www.goodgym.org/

If you’d like to hear more from the Technology team at CRUK you can find us on our LinkedIn showcase page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/cancer-research-uk-digital-and-support-experience

Read the Technology team blog: https://medium.com/cancer-research-uk-tech-team-blog

See what roles are going within the Technology team: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/charity-jobs/technology-jobs-at-cancer-research-uk

And if you’d like to get in touch with the podcast team directly you can now send us an email to techteampodcast@cancer.org.uk

What is working flexibly? Who benefits from flexible working? How do you ask for flexible working? In this episode we’re joined by home-based workers, Andy Punter and Jessica Higgins, to discuss the benefits and challenges of flexible working. We talk about the positive impact on physical and mental health, and work-life balance that flexible working can bring, as well as sharing advice for managing remote-based teams. Andy and Jess share tips on how to stay disciplined, how to switch off and the importance of adopting a flexible mindset. We also discuss why more organisations should offer remote-based roles and how to forge good working relationships with office-based workers.

Find Jessica and Andy on LinkedIn:

Jessica: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-higgins-4b839891/

Andy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-punter-3356011a/

Follow Eleanor on Medium: https://medium.com/@contacteleanorgibson

Follow Steve on Twitter: https://twitter.com/regularpodder

Read Andy’s blog post on managing remote teams: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-i-have-learnt-managing-remote-teams-cruk-andy-punter/?trackingId=wWzquXEnWx5FIjmD91g61w%3D%3D

Read Jess’s blog post on running remote demos: https://medium.com/cancer-research-uk-tech-team-blog/5-things-we-learnt-from-running-remote-demos-c1acf67bb62e

Remote working tools:

Mural https://mural.co/

Slack https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/

Microsoft teams https://products.office.com/en-gb/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software

Trello https://trello.com/

OneNote https://products.office.com/en-gb/onenote/digital-note-taking-app

If you’d like to hear more from the Technology team at CRUK you can find us on our LinkedIn showcase page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/cancer-research-uk-digital-and-support-experience

Read the Technology team blog: https://medium.com/cancer-research-uk-tech-team-blog

See what roles are going within the Technology team: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/charity-jobs/jobs-by-team

Get in touch with the podcast team directly at techteampodcast@cancer.org.uk

In this episode we’re joined by CRUK’s Head of Innovation, Rob Green, and Innovation Coach, Eleanor Gibson, who talk to us about the newly formed central innovation team. We discuss how the team came about, the tools and techniques they use to move fast and keep up with the changing needs of supporters, and how they operate differently from other innovation teams. We also talk more broadly about how charities could be doing more to innovate on the way they operate, as well as harnessing the power of their supporters.

Follow Rob on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Robertmgreen

Follow Eleanor on Medium: https://medium.com/@contacteleanorgibson

Rob and Eleanor recommend using the following tools and resources:

Mural: https://mural.co/

Zoom: https://zoom.us/

Trello: https://trello.com

‘New Power: Why outsiders are winning, institutions are failing, and how the rest of us can keep up in the age of mass participation’ by Jeremy Heimans https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeremy-Heimans/e/B079Q5QV2Y/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

If you’d like to hear more from the Technology team at CRUK you can find us on our LinkedIn showcase page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/cancer-research-uk-digital-and-support-experience/

Read the Technology blog at https://medium.com/cancer-research-uk-tech-team-blog

See what roles are going within the technology team: http://www.cruk.org/techjobs

Get in touch with the podcast team directly at techteampodcast@cancer.org.uk

In celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, we sit down with Cancer Research UK CIO, Tiffany Hall, to talk about women in tech. Tiff talks about the importance of having a diverse organisation, the barriers facing women entering the technology sector and her own experiences of being ‘the only woman in the room’. At CRUK 40% of tech jobs are filled by women, compared to the national average of 17%. So we also discuss how CRUK are improving the gender balance in technology, and her experience of winning CIO of the Year at 2018’s Women in IT Awards.

Tiff recommends the following resources:

The Tech Talent Charter (TTC). A commitment by organisations to a set of undertakings that aim to deliver greater inclusion and diversity in the tech workforce of the UK, one that better reflects the make-up of the population: https://www.techtalentcharter.co.uk/

Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing (History of Computing) by Marie Hicks https://www.amazon.co.uk/Programmed-Inequality-Discarded-Technologists-Computing/dp/0262035545

Bloody Brilliant Women: The Pioneers, Revolutionaries and Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention by Cathy Newman https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloody-Brilliant-Women-Pioneers-Revolutionaries/dp/0008241716

Follow Tiff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tiffanymhall?lang=en

If you’d like to hear more from the Technology team at CRUK you can find us on our LinkedIn showcase page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/cancer-research-uk-digital-and-support-experience/

Read the Technology blog: https://medium.com/cancer-research-uk-tech-team-blog

You can see what roles are going within the technology team: www.cruk.org/techjobs

And if you’d like to get in touch with the podcast team directly you can now send us an email to techteampodcast@cancer.org.uk as we’d love to hear from you.

Ahead of this week’s Brighton SEO conference, our Senior Search Strategist, James-Charles Connington (aka JC), joins us to talk about what charities can do to improve their search engine optimisation (SEO). In this bumper-sized episode, JC shares practical advice that charities can implement straight away to improve their SEO. We discuss the challenges charities face in organic search, what is ‘good SEO’, why it’s important, and dispel some common search and SEO myths.

JC’s Twitter handle is https://twitter.com/bighouseburning if you want to follow him

JC recommends using the following websites to for help with your SEO:

www.answerthepublic.com – a great resource to find out questions around topics and long tail keyword opportunities

https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/ - a really good free keyword tool from SEO guru, Neil Patel

https://validator.w3.org/ - a great tool to use to see if your webpages are W3C compliant

Hear more from the Technology team at CRUK on our LinkedIn showcase page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/cancer-research-uk-digital-and-support-experience/

See what roles are going within the technology team: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/tech-jobs

Read the Technology blog: https://medium.com/cancer-research-uk-tech-team-blog

And if you’d like to get in touch with the podcast team directly you can now send us an email to techteampodcast@cancer.org.uk as we’d love to hear from you.

In this episode, we hear from System Administrator, Samuel Udoh, and Software Engineer, Simeron Taak, about how they got into the technology industry after attending a technology academy. They talk openly about their experiences of the academy route they chose, how to stay resilient when job hunting, and offer advice to anyone who’s looking to get into the industry but doesn’t know where to start.

Find out more about graduates and internships at Cancer Research UK: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/graduates-and-interns

If you’d like to hear more from the Technology team at CRUK you can find us on our LinkedIn showcase page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/cancer-research-uk-digital-and-support-experience/

You can see what roles are going within the technology team at cruk.org/tech-jobs

You can also read the Technology blog: https://medium.com/cancer-research-uk-tech-team-blog

And if you’d like to get in touch with the podcast team directly you can now send us an email to techteampodcast@cancer.org.uk as we’d love to hear from you.