Weeknotes E42
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…
Service Assessment
Week began with retros and team planning then a cycle ride over to Skipton House. A panel of fantastic colleagues convened and we delved into the world of GP IT Futures Buying Catalogue.
I was lead assessor again so combined asking a bucketful of questions along with being in charge of of all things admin. Mostly kept to time, happy we got through the most important questions and the team overcame a room with no windows and zero wifi.
Presentation was great and I know how tough it is to show all your hard work and expose it to a bit of scrutiny. I always try to make these assessments to not feel like a test and the team did a great job sharing what they’d done.
Throughout the week I was trying to find time to write up the report and collect all comments from the panel and share our recommendations with the team. Report should be out soon!
An image I liked
Image from this blog, other blog posts on the topic about how policy and delivery should not be distinct here.
Medicines supply research
Our team have been supporting the medicines supply team in the department over the last few weeks. This week we were conducting user research with users in the pharma industry.
UR colleague Sophie been working hard putting together and leading the sessions. My role was being in the observation room, teaching the medicines supply team some basic note taking good practice. We also got a ton of help from other digital team legends to come in and help be principal note takers.
Research was fascinating. Unsurprisingly I’m not an expert in the world of pharma production or reporting shortages/discontinuations but loved hearing more about it. Really good we got most of the team involved too, different members of the team popping in to each session. Good sample of different types of user group. Believe we’ll have some good findings.
In our effort to always improve, next time we’d ideally have had 1 observation room (move around less - sadly room bookings in 39VS scuppered this) and guaranteed more time with the team so we could of made synthesis a little easier (their availability made this tricky).
Next up will be to do a bit more research, use the findings to help make the case to invest in improving the service.
Helping Brexit team with analytics
On Friday I wore my customer service hat. Saw a random email I was cc’d into asking about analytics on GOV.UK. Got in touch with the team. Found out what they believe they needed. Set them up with what they need. Got some extra data for them then set them on their way.
Conversely I complained to IT about out of date browsers and credit to them they were trying to call me back pretty quickly. Sadly they tried to call about 8 times over the course of about 3 hours. I am sorry IT support colleague who was trying to be a customer service hero. I never picked up the phone. I blocked you from doing your job.
NHSX website
I’m still involved with giving advice about a NHSX website. Colleagues in comms been hustling behind the scenes to make this happen. Keeping one eye on it.
Health measures of success
Wanna see the Evaluating Health Products prototype, sure you do. Myself and others in the team have been contributing to this and nice to see something out there backed by research. More to do but team always been passionate and squirreling away to make something great for users.
Handover of lead assessor duties
We have a new Product Manager who is more than capable to lead a future assessment. As I’ve already done my duty I helped out passing over the duties and gave a run through of what I typically do pre-assessment day.
My admin before the big day;
- create a shared folder
- stick in all the docs we have about the service so people can independently go off and read them
- add the suggested assessor questions for a beta assessment so people have a reminder of what is supposed to be asked
- add a report template so as soon as the assessment is over an assessor can go put in their comments
- have an agenda ready with contact details in there. This is primarily for me to assign service standards to different assessors and get their initial feedback if they are happy covering those areas in the assessment.
- highlight to other assessors where stuff is and remind them if they need more information then already provided to get in touch or speak directly to the team.
That usually is enough to get people aligned and aware so they can ask meaningful questions on the day.
What I’ve been reading
- Increased availability of Amazon meal kits, Amazon supermarkets are coming. I hold firm with my prediction that London will get an Amazon-food outlet (and not extra Whole Foods) by 2020.
- Did He gene edit or mutate? Semantics are important.
- Voice assistants should “should be able to speak like a person, but it should never pretend to be one.” A very long read about Alexa and our relationships with it.
- Free transport in all of Luxembourg. Interesting that they publically state they need to overcome how to prevent rough sleepers being on public transport. Also right now a day-ticket valid for all buses/trains in the entire country costs just 4 Euros - bargain!
- Revolutisioning how companies are formed and re-imagining what they could be.
- How Monzo conducts its user research.
- Getting clarity and shared purpose with your team.
- Mortality rates around the globe, still “1.6 million died from diseases related to diarrhoea in 2017, putting it in the top 10 causes of death”.