Weeknotes E21
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
- retrospective with team
- inviting more speakers to next health product people event
- planning
- healthy start gang adding survey onto existing Healthy Start site
- tying up some loose ends before running off for day 1 of Behavioural Insights policy school training(BIT). I am not condoning ‘nudges’ and am open to arguments against it, I did however want to be open-minded and hear about it from the horses mouth.
- first day was mostly intros and hearing about the methodology. It’s very similar to a discovery phase.
- we were put in groups and set a challenge about non-face to face consultations.
Thursday
- BIT day 2 was full of user research. Writing non-leading questions and actually jumping in a room with a bunch of a smart clinicians who had gave up their time. Enjoyed speaking to people very much.
- also went off and delved into the desk research (reading is valuable, not all learnings need to be from qual interviews)
- after a hectic morning for 6 interviews there was a short lunch break then into “ideation”
- tip for next time: we did some good research but sort of cast-aside and was asked to build on pre-existing ideas we’d had even before talking to real users. If we had more time would of been good to not skip synthesis of research.
- ideation session happened. Lots of of it was about fitting a “solution” (tip for next time: they should say prototype) using behavioural insights methods - which felt a bit like squishing creative problem solving through a tiny-specific hole.
- My brain instinctively enjoyed focusing on the problem so had some bold ideas that I wish I would of championed further as in retrospect I think they would of went down v well with judging panel. Instead did the democratic deed and went with majority who wanted to answer the specific question of using behavioural insights for x issue, which is fair enough (note to self: champion further if I think ideas have legs)
- I think what we collectively produced was sound, based on the research and was feasible. So left mostly happy. We were encouraged to use buzz words which I tried to convince team to defy.
Friday
- last day of BIT training. Morning was going through how to measure success. Which I support but sadly we were time poor so while speakers were great we only got a snippet of advice. I hope people felt inspired enough to do more research independently as some good stuff in the presentation. Although it heavily promoted doing RCTs, other methods are available.
- a few hours spare to craft a presentation for the afternoon.
- I chose to go on moqups and crafted 2 prototypes. This was fun being a designer for a few hours and running through insights from research to make something that could solve a problem (tip for next time: i’m not sure the task was a real validated real world problem so will say tbc problem).
- I’m not going to lie, I was having a bit of fun and started turning a bit evil. Employed some dark designs that I categorically do not condone.
- moved to BIT head office. Presentation was to snr colleagues. Including the top boss in the department. The panel were really great. Much credit to BIT/DHSC for investing in people and creativity. Pulling in senior people for training/learning experiences. Their comments were really insightful and honest.
- Team got credited for showing a clear prototype and that we were high energy! “Showing the thing” is a solid-gold-plated bit of advice all should take. My work was massively unexceptional but people seemed to appreciate it - if i can do it, anyone can.
- we didn’t win. I think we came close though. Loved working with a gang and doing user research was wonderful. Great to be given the time to be creative and learn new methods to solve issues. I had caveats but broadly i’m really proud I work somewhere that gives people an opportunity to learn and be creative.
Monday
- had quite a few emails to bash through after days away at training
- chasing and booking chats with CCS and NHSBSA colleagues. Forward planning.
- trying to book canteen in DHSC for bigger than usual product people event!
- check-in with Healthy Start colleague
- pre-supplier chat and discussion about what to say in pre-contract talks tomorrow
- yoga
- case study content crits for colleagues. Still fighting against that damned Oxford comma
- skype chat about our future use of medium or digital health blog. Wrote up some of our needs and sent over a possible agenda for a future event
- emailed Scottish Gov colleagues delivering their version of Healthy Start. Collaboration is beautiful.
- we are upto 42 respondents to our local authorities survey. Help from City Hall and Sustain. Much credit to all helpful kinds people out there.
Tuesday (Ada Lovelace Day!)
- Product People organisation
- helping colleague with event planning and how to arrange materials
- created calendar in Trello for Healthy Start gang and discussed holiday plans for next month
- heard about Madame Zucchini from colleague who went to Food Power event
- announcement at event that ITV are giving £2m of prime time tv space to food power for commercials. Six big supermarkets are going to fund the adverts for £50k each. Lidl, Waitrose, Sainsbury, M&S, morrisons, and Iceland - good stuff!
- helped colleague run through event planning agenda, everyone seems happy with the plan!
- chatted with potential supplier, answering questions, chatting about risks. Good honest input and felt productive. Things looking rosy and we agreed a meetup next week for more chats and prep for beta.
- amazing chat with CCS colleague we discovered after lots of emails. Very helpful, working on prepaids cards, happy to pair up and help us through the future processes. Clear advice and happy to answer my torrent of questions. 10/10 CCS. Great customer service.
- Nayeema 1 to 1 time!
What I’ve been reading
- Long-read on a journos trip to a metabolic chamber in order to debunk the myths attached to weight gain/loss. Really interesting facts, such as physical activity, for most people, only accounts for around 10 to 30 percent of their total calories burned each day - 65 to 80 percent burned through using up the energy needed to keep our hearts, brains, and every cell of our body working.
- A co-op setup to connect healthcare companies/health tech with patients who get compensated for doing so.
- Life insurance provider now requires fitness tracking on all its customers. I have faith that people will create workarounds and just strap their devices to their pets to up their activity count…
- Nice tale of trying to change public services in Nova Scotia for the better and the effort it takes.
- Google guides to research and managing people. Not been through these but imagine there is something useful in amongst all the resources.
- Really enjoyed this article about provotypes! Creating provocative artefacts to push conversation along with stakeholders.
- Tales of a nurse working on making healthcare and digital services better through NHS D programme. He’s not shying away from critiquing the current state of things… “when you go to a hospital it is like going back to the 80s, it is like Dr Who”.
- Nice photo essay on the rise of Apple and what it means for the economy.
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: