Weeknotes E02

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

• New week, new sprint.
• A Friends themed retrospective with screams of “PIVOT”
• Planned for this sprint
• I sat down with a colleague to talk about a data strategy - some interesting ideas and really exciting to work with people who want to better embrace experimentation into their work.
• Candid show and tell from the start up Our Path. They talked about challenges and life as a health start-up. Also NHS Digital popped by and talked about performance dashboards.
• Sat down with a colleague to discuss a pilot they want to run to get better access to social care data. An initial chat and advice given.

Thursday

• Annual leave day. Visited the Chelsea Flower Show for the first time! Flower-tastic. Bought 3 cacti, girlfriend named them all after Eastenders characters.

Friday

• I had been fighting a cold since Tuesday but this day it really caught up with me. Tried to hide my spluttering.
• Had a great chat with Dharmesh about our budding health product community. We’ve got an event on the 31st of May and talked about broader plans and where to take the community. Loads to think about.
• Nayeema also brought in bday cake, an old fashioned social and a bday card signed by the team! Delicious and fantastically kind!
• Another social care data project is on the cusp of getting on the way. I’ve volunteered to go help it get it off the ground. Lots of work in this area that I need to connect all the dots too.
• Set in motion my first reverse mentoring session. Get the chance to discuss all things digital with someone more senior than myself. Excited by this! Look forward to sharing knowledge.
• Had lots of 1 to 1’s. Always good to hear about colleagues work and back stories.

Monday

• Bank holiday.

Tuesday

• Day off.

What I’ve been reading

1. Fascinating article by Bill Gates on the prospect of gene editing. Will have effects on health and poverty. Lots of work still to be done though. Also did not know that only female mosquitoes spread malaria. Goldman Sachs however might throw shade on curing things as it won’t bring in the $$$ long term.
2. Spend controls in the health and social care family. Chance to also send feedback in!
3. Jamie Oliver warns against further taxation to solve obesity crisis.
4. CO-OP user research principles
5. Monzo prototypes to help those with mental health conditions
6. King’s fund on the dangers of using RoI in justifying public health initiatives
7. PM sets 4 grand challenges. AI & healthcare included as is healthy ageing.
8. Good explanation of what a design system is

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