Weeknotes E26
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:
Supporting the Healthy Start private beta.
Wednesday
- First day back after 3+ weeks of leave
- retro and sprint planning
- find out that people are leaving : ( but also new people are joining : )
- read some really nice feedback from our Product People event which Dharmesh and I organised: “Just wanted to say how useful I found the last Meet Up, the speakers were excellent and the presentation of NHS work was very relevant to my own project. The best compliment I can give is that I actually understood the presentations and could follow the Q and A……..which itself is a benefit I feel from being part of this network, I wouldn’t have understood most of what was said only 6 months ago.”
- fighting the cause for service registers again and making ongoing research and dev work in Gov publically available
- improving evaluation of health and care blog. Also making sure the team is in the room for extremely relevant events going on inside DHSC.
- changing my email address. Hello @dhsc.gov.uk
- commenting on a future service manual page
- emailing the Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme. Sounds really cool!
- updated requirements for pre-paid card
- more x-org collab, or trying to do at least.
Thursday
- requesting pa11y, all in the name of automated accessibility testing
- chat with new team member about user recruitment for healthy start beta (when can I start using the new name?)
- planning with healthy start
- catch up with Suzanne
- vitamins catch up with Sam. Discovery is coming!
Friday
- setting up pre-paid card day
- learning about health and benefits service community. The ravages of poverty extends even further than health and benefits.
- discussions with finance team and how DHSC are going to pay for pre-paid cards/keep them topped up
- emailing the Scottish gov user researcher working on best start. Must collab, so much to learn from one another
- emailed the data as culture team at the Open Data Institute. I don’t have anything really to offer but loved the idea we could bring some thought provoking art to DHSC about health/wellbeing and data.
- most of afternoon was sifting through 27 job applications for associate delivery role. Lots to read through but amazing number of applications!
Monday
- Xmas party food booking - team is max-Festive
- long workshop on measuring success
- finally cleaned my locker. This might sound small but now my brain doesn’t hurt everytime I open my locker
- sifting chat about the delivery manager job. Some great candidates
- using this Crown Commercial Agreement to find a prepaid card partner
Tuesday
- commenting on Healthy Start user research plan
- meeting with Lauren, new DM in the team, tapping up for vitamins discovery
- discussion about pre-paid card day plans and trying to setup the day
- went to a child mental health event, showing findings from a set of reports
- went to a discussion about a family/social media/mental health tool. Gave constructive advice
What I’ve been reading
- BBC article on incentivising people to be healthier. I would put £2 on that those that want an Apple watch are already inclined to exercise in the first place.
- The allure of health and social care for apprentices and the North-East lagging behind.
- Opinion piece on the internet splintering into 3 (yes, 3 not 2)… US, China & Europe.
- Instagram’s harassment problem.
- Gritty, an NHL mascot, becomes a meme.
- Buzzfeed reports ‘how we radicalised the world’ especially on the backs of Silicon Valley giants
- Government’s failure to capitalise on open data. Good quote; “The regulation [for open data in the UK] is there but not the checks. It’s like having a speed limit, but no police on the road and no monitoring.”
- Walmart sued for inaccessible self-service machines
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: