Weeknotes E41

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 & assisting the formation of NHSX

Some interesting and shareable things that happened this week. Other more mundane things also happened…

Non disclosure agreement for trial and updates sent

My quest to dot the i’s and cross the t’s with suppliers has concluded for now. I don’t usually get too deep into contract management land or going into the legal world. It required a lot of emails + discussion. Good to be exposed to another world. I’m optimistic that the effort over the past few weeks will help later down the line. We now have a few extra colleagues more aware of the service when we convene again in the near future.

We also wanted to keep all suppliers on the trial updated so we compiled our plans and sent that over. It’s an ongoing exercise but good to keep all aware of what’s about to go down. Closer to the trial actually kicking off now. So close I can whiff it!

Eulogising why policy and delivery should be the same team

I sent a tweet this week which got a lot of love.

Lots of people were asking about how this setup came about which I should write a blog post about. A lot of the reasons are the fine work of many others (it takes a town to raise a child and all that - people before me and around), necessity (we don’t have teams to outsource to so people have to roll their sleeves up and be involved) and passion (people want to work in this way).

NHSX website

On Friday I gave my opinion about a future NHSX website. I’ve suggested, among other things, we do one thing well, use existing patterns and components and start small. Will continue to help comms colleagues who are leading the charge.

Royal Wolverhampton hospital visit

The department runs something called ‘connecting’. It’s basically a scheme to get civil servants out and visiting real life care settings. A very good scheme I believe which helps build empathy with healthcare colleagues and users of healthcare services. It also, I would hope, helps people design better interventions the more immersed they are in the world they are trying to affect. Sadly, despite my enthusiasm for a scheme like this I’d never actually been on a trip out. Shocking I know but I finally did it.

The cyber security team helped to put together a trip to the Royal Wolverhampton and it was really great. Some reflections:

• the staff are amazing. They get given some pretty torrid software and tech but still make healthcare function with amazing enthusiasm and kindness. It filled me with confidence.
• I really want to design my own hospital (one that is radically focused on rehabilitation and serenity). Note: nobody would be mad enough to let me design a hospital from scratch. I have Theme Hospital for that.
• the NHS could do with speaking as one voice on some matters. Colleagues do a great job on coordinating patches of their own worlds but in some areas it would be beneficial to speak as a bloc.
• Wolverhampton has a quite pretty canal, the station could do with a refurb
• I should do a show and tell about it.

Better notetaking slides

We are helping a team do some user research. They’ve not been exposed to research before so I’ve signed up to help them. Firstly, we are getting them involved because as you already know… user research is a team sport. Secondly, I’m going to be in the observation room. My duties will be to coach them into notetaking and be a guide on what’s happening and why. For the notetaking I’ve knocked up a quick 101 on what makes a good post-it note within user research and will go through with colleagues. Many have already wrote on this subject but it’s always a good reminder to myself on the anatomy of a good post-it-note in research sessions.

What I’ve been reading

1. NHS long-term plan explained by the King’s Fund
2. Article supposing that technology advancements could support tyranny, kill off democracies and dumb down humans.
3. I liked the honesty in the this post about the 3 lessons learned of a being a product manager at a startup
4. 3D printed steak and chicken. Non-meat alternatives good for the environment.
5. Diversity is good and living abroad can help creative thinking.
6. Great practical guidance on how to do design reviews.
7. The importance of a grand vision even in agile teams.
8. When workers prefer entertainment over wages.