Weeknotes E01

Hi, I’m Colin a product manager working at the Department of Health and Social Care. Each week I’m going to keep a running update of the work I’ve done & things I’ve learned along the way.

Wednesday

My first day in the new job.

• After a couple of weeks away I was relaxed and up early to get in to work at the agreed time… but London traffic had others ideas. South London was chock-a-blocked, made the call to ditch the bus after crawling less than a mile in 40mins. Then power-walked to the office, couple of minutes late with a nice sheen of panicked sweat on my face.
• First stand-up done. Said hi to team.
• First of many 1-to-1’s followed. First with the delivery manager
• Got and setup my work laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad) and applied for my pass
• Dharmesh presented at our teams joint show and tell showing off an experience map, comms colleagues also shared some updates
• In the afternoon went to the ARSAC discovery service assessment - well ran and good questions from colleagues, interesting to see how people request licenses for radioactive stuff too. Lots and lots of paper.
• As we left had a quick catch-up with Dharmesh

Thursday

• Glasses broke in the morning so had to stick on my b pair. I now look a tiny bit silly.
• Got recognised by someone at the front desk even with the silly glasses on.
• Got on Zendesk to check tickets
• Had an unbelievable lunch - stottie fest. What a great way to join a team, just in time to have some of the finest Geordie food items one can buy. Shout out to the chipotle pease pudding.
• Powered through mandatory learning so I can jump into more meaty tasks. Unconscious bias and disability training conquered.
• Got on slack, set up calendars
• Read up on measuring public health interventions in prep for a meeting on Friday

Friday

• Setting up 1 to 1 with teams
• Went to Wellington House and participated in my first advisory board all about measuring the success of digital health interventions. The team is at the start of discovery so not much to report on just yet but really interesting stuff and really fun set of people. If you are intersted in knowing more then see here. I’ll be attending more boards, show and tells and i’ve already sent over some suggestions to think about from a digital delivery point of view. Very interested to hear about what users say!
• Nice walk through the sunshine after that. Feels like summer.
• Great chat with Jess and Ben. Mostly about AI, GP at hand, fountains and pipework, what motivates us to work in the health & social care sector, assurance and many other things.
• Ben and I took a walk to find my new pass and getting a bike locker and fob to get in.

Monday

• Tried to cycle into work - got pretty close, cycled into the wrong car park - locked up bike in the lockers for the building next door and then spent 30 minutes asking builders if I was in the right place at 7:40am. Eventually feared having bike locked away in a building I could never enter again so chained my bike near 7 Millbank. By the end of the day I did find the right entrance.
• Set up meeting to hear more about helping out with a data strategy for health. Sounds mammoth.
• 2 more 1 to 1’s
• Became a reverse mentor for a director in the organisation. Just need to meet them and mentor them now.
• Read a lot related to nurses flexible working/bank solutions. More to find out.
• Pre-planned for the next sprint. Lots of stickers and goals.

Tuesday

• I rampaged through a ton of mandatory training. Want it out of the way so I can jump in head first on all the juicy things rearing their head! I think about 12 e-learning courses are now checked as done.
• Emailed invite to my mentee.
• Participated in my first weekly assurance+support meeting. Interesting things popping up and getting assigned to things.
• Caught up with the always wonderful Nayeema, chatted about future work and state of play in the world of Health and Social Care. Planning tomorrow and plenty of things to get stuck in with.
• Wrote these weeknotes. Thought about going on medium, may still make a switch one day. Just not today.

What I’ve been reading

1. A way to improve our current crop of recommendation systems. Vitally important for teams within Government to consider the risks and ethics of using recommendations in their solutions to problems. Should have enough cash floating about for smart people to think about this though.
2. Fascinating case study into how Facebook’s news feed contributed to stirring up violence in Sri Lanka by being a platform where rumors could spread.
3. Economist makes the case for a universal healthcare system
4. Pitfalls of India’s biometric ID scheme.
5. We are going to live longer in the future and likely have longer careers. Interesting take on what children will need to know in preparation for their 100 year career.
6. Why flat structures fail
7. Sea nomads and how their bodies adapt to be able to dive for longer. Beautiful photos too.
8. Great post about public policy in the digital age - “This is a problem, because policies and services are inseparable. In most people’s experience of the state, the policy is the service is the institution.”

Shout out to others doing great stuff

Former colleagues in Parliament write updates on the work they are doing. They are fantastic and if you are interested in anything democracy related then check them out:

• The People team
• The Outputs team
• The Data and Search team