Weeknotes E14
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.
My current priority:
Helping to procure a team capable of delivering the Healthy Start private beta.
Wednesday
- back from holiday
- on a job panel for PHE for a senior service designer role. Good experience, lovely panel and great candidates. Job offered and accepted already I believe.
- had extra tasks for our DHSC product management job to do
- double-checked some ministerial submissions for a colleague
- caught up on emails
Thursday
- crit’d our teams capability offer. Inspiration from network theory of power/influence came flooding back as to who we should target. Hunt for the most influential not the highest in the organisation.
- another day, another job panel. This time for our DHSC product manager job.
- sent sift scores for suppliers. Collective sift next week.
- came up with reverse mentor agenda
Friday
- spent most of the day trying to help a colleague with the tech vision strategy doc.
- had my third reverse mentoring session and it was great. Gave my summary of what life has been like with a new secretary of state since we last met, a bit on roadmaps and snuck in some advice about where other training is available. Really nice to hear when your advice or suggestions go into practice. Rewarding!
Monday
- Worked on the tech vision strategy doc once more. Plugging away at it, a tiny bit in the blind but hopefully making incremental improvements.
- tried to answer a tricky question on how much Healthy Start will cost over the next 5 years. TL;DR: we cannot know. I tried listing things that we need to take into account and reiterated that live doesn’t mean finished.
- mini-team planning and advice about surveys.
Tuesday
- deadline day for tech vision strategy doc. Moving deadlines but got some extra help from colleagues and worked on it for 60% of the day.
- made the deadline. People seemed pleased with progress from where it was on Friday.
- read the an interim report from pilots around flexible working. Some interesting findings.
What I’ve been reading
- Good deep look into the worlds of Alibaba and Tencent and how their businesses are beginning to overlap.
- How Wakefield tackled Childhood Obesity. Very interesting to read more into the context around Healthy Start. Need to make sure they link together.
- Enjoyed reading the agile comms suggestions. Hi, I’m Colin and i am naughty and failed on one of the blogging tips. Plus, Agile and comms in NHS Digital!
- Sharing data for research (relevant to healthcare), highlights that we need to get better at explaining why we are collecting it in the first place and what the results are. Quote: “People really do want to know the results of research they participate in, he said. But sharing results isn’t a normal part of how scientists deal with human subjects.” Organisations exist to push for more healthcare data to be shared.
- How to Foster Psychological Safety in Remote Teams
- Move fast and fix things - how to be a public entrepreneur
- Why one doctor is returning to the NHS after time off.
- Professor chats to wealthy gang contemplating fleeing, suggests we should be putting our efforts into building a better world.
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: