Weeknotes E38
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
Some interesting and shareable things that happened this week. Other more mundane things also happened…
Paris
I was in Paris for a few days. It was fun.
Survey findings
New survey findings from Healthy Start research (2000+ participants)! Blog post coming…
Chasing NDAs
A lot of this week has been about being bang in the middle between suppliers, Gov legal team and our team discussions. It’s interesting, in that it’s complicated and sort of messy. I’ve got a little temporary Trello board going on so I can track all the questions and am being principled in recording the answers. I’m also right in there with legal colleagues trying to unpick bits and bobs.
Random drivel/side thought time: I wonder about the idea of being a shield/umbrella for the team, I take on a few unsexy roles on occasion because I know I can do them, teams are often so small nobody else is better suited to do them and they would drag others down. I guess that’s part of my philosophy in the role I do/taught that I should be doing this. I want the team to maximise their talents and not be bogged down by noise but I am also aware that processes need to be sustainable and it isn’t a long-term solution me being the glue. Will raise at a post-trial retro me thinks.
Vitamins discovery report
I got to read the draft version of the Vitamins discovery report. It’s a beaut. I can’t really take any credit. I am proud, because I helped make a team from nothing and let them fly off and the results look great. They also sound like they learned new things which is as important to me.
I need to reflect and have asked for feedback from the team if I did enough in my role. I wanted them to feel empowered but also supported but never ever neglected. I can’t answer that yet but will see what extra things I need to learn from this experience (I have a few already).
Lead assessor
Signed up to be a lead assessor again. It’s been a while but always good to be a part of them. Get to dedicate my brain for a day with something from NICE. No trip out this time, will be in DHSC towers.
NHSX help
More comments and suggestions.
What I’ve been reading
- Staff turnover in the civil service and recommendations to prevent the churn.
- Make services good citizens of the web.
- Seven deadly paradoxes of cryptocurrency.
- $30.8 billion sold on Alibaba singles day, Prime day bringing in roughly $4 billion. Number 1 sold is health supplements.
- Experience of PrEP and the hurdles to overcome in fighting aids.
- The accuracy of location data and the market for it. We know it happens but rarely think through its implications.
- Japanese pensioners turn to crime as they struggle to afford daily life.
- Excellent long read about the American Healthcare system and Atul Gawande’s potential approach to fix it.