Weeknotes E03
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:
Talk to teams who have requested help & see which is the most valuable and viable to help first.
Wednesday
- Organised time for reverse mentoring later in the week
- Wrote for an internal blog/email update, was chastised because I was 100 words over my word limit. Waffle.
- Been chasing and setting up trips/chats with lots of individuals who are all interested in creating some things.
- Chatted to Ben about spend control forms and if they have changed in the past 2 years since I’ve been out of civil service land. In short, they’ve changed very little.
- team got together to go review if we are hitting our objectives. We are halfway through quarter 2. Setting direction in quarter 3 is upcoming and i’m trying to find a suitable space for it (help?)
- Nayeema 1:1
Thursday
- Added finishing touches to a DHSC template/canvas to be used when meeting teams/people for the first time that want our help or to do something new. It’s essentially similar to this and among other things is trying to help define what is the thing they want to improve or opportunity to grasp and who is it for. Going to pilot it and see if it works. Will help the team think about the work in a new way and help me to prioritise it.
- Helping Dharmesh pre-event
- Doing my first Health product people event. Really great gang and lovely open discussion about discovery. Lots great questions and enthused for our next one which is probably next month and about alpha. Dharmesh also did a great job leading the discussion.
- 2 more 1:1’s with new colleagues
Friday
- Went and visited the PHE team working on a discovery on measuring public health interventions. They were holding a show and tell on the work they’ve done so far. Great to see progress and they are learning new things as they speak to people.
- Sent feedback to the team
- Added to post-Product people correspondence
- Had my first reverse mentoring session! Cool to do and lots of things I think I can help with.
Monday
- Annual Leave, enjoying the Netherlands.
Tuesday
- Found out I didn’t get paid so hassled HR
- Great 1:1 thinking about the opportunities ahead and how to steer the department there
- Watching and giving feedback with the team on a practice run of a presentation to senior people about the current state of tech and digital in healthcare and hopefully which areas should we grasp and improve first.
- Weekly assurance meeting and updating where we are at with different strands of work
- Booking trains, volunteering to help at an event teaching prioritisation techniques
- Volunteering for a show & tell next week. Might be a recorded show and tell. Expect lots of effects that are entirely superficial.
What I’ve been reading
- One of the very first NHS nurses reminisces about its foundation.
- Time is complex. Fascinating and brain melting all at the same time. There is no past, present or future - slow moving humans create it.
- Open Data being used to get more people out doing exercise. Should be supported as lots of positive health benefits! Also guidance on how to create open standards for data
- Over pricing at hospitals, WHSmith ‘sorry’ for Pinderfields Hospital £7.99 toothpaste
- Wellcome collection doing great things to make their resources available
- Re-reading this about bringing health and care into the Internet age and nodding my head in agreement
- Digital standards for the NHS & product manager manifesto for those in the health & social care space
- Why the team responsible for registering for a gp decided to stop
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: