Weeknotes E09

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.

P. S. Job alert for product managers & user researchers. Come join the gang! 24th and 27th of July deadline.

My current priority:

Helping to procure a team capable of delivering the Healthy Start private beta.

Wednesday

• updating people about flexible working. Shared my summary of what I think the situation is right now from my perspective.
• attended a chat about procurement plans that affects flexible working. Very interesting world.
• Q3 planning session. We shared our objectives, had a crit of each others then went through planning for the next sprint.
• plans were made for the next Health Product People event.

Thursday

• worked on our advert to procure a team for Healthy Start beta. Added a few bits and bobs and looks to be well on its way.
• chatted with new Healthy Start colleague Toni who is up in Mansfield. Great chat, everyone keen and excited to get into beta
• finally got a spare few mins to read through the alpha assessment report for Healthy Start. Gave me a few ideas.
• Final measuring success of public health interventions advisory group meet-up. I chipped in with comments, got invited back for the alpha advisory group so obviously my input wasn’t entirely silly.
• went to the theatre and cried quite a bit at A Monster Calls.
• saw our new SoS set his ambition for his tenure at DHSC. Flexible working mentioned and lots of other positive stuff for our team.

Friday

• in early. Office looks a different place at 7:40am on a Friday.
• good post on testing accessibility. We get this question a lot so nice to see a write up!
• going through Healthy Start stuff and plotting unanswered questions pre-beta and making sure the recommendations from the alpha assessment are captured. Working on this is genuinely exciting. Feel like I can help the team get in a good place with a bit of work upfront.
• chatted with colleague Isaac about which parts of Healthy Start he can help out with. Very kindly signed up to join the mission.
• next health product people event up on eventbrite.
• applying for the future leader scheme.
• wrote a draft memorandum of understanding for the Healthy Start team - basically made explicit what I think my support will be for the next few months and set a time when we can review my support.
• first draft of another blog that I’ve been meaning to write for aaaaaggggesss…

Monday

• I went to OneTeamGov Global
• I attended chats about how to embed AI and data science in the civil service, how to push back against policies that hurt vulnerable citizens & mandatory open gov - what would that entail. Also took a break over lunch and learned how to knit. Very very very happy to get a copy of Digital Transformation at Scale: Why the Strategy by Andrew Greenway et al.

Tuesday

• wrote up a review of OneTeamGov Global
• our advert for Healthy Start went live! Woah amazing suppliers please bid now.
• added more to our Healthy Start to do list. It’s bulging.
• chatted about flexible working
• read up on Talk To Frank for an assessment
• finished the first draft of a memorandum of understanding. Dharmesh always a great help who shared his draft MOU.
• finished the blog about how to co-create a vision statement. Out soon!

What I’ve been reading

1. This account of the past and present of the NHS is beautifully written (perhaps unsurprising due to the author being a poet).
2. The future of GOV.UK, wise thoughts. Design system also released for teams across Government to use.
3. When space travel and healthcare collide! New fund to refit space tech into healthcare. Will think long and hard about my pitch.
4. In-depth look into what we mean as “privacy”. Spoiler - we are inconsistent.
5. When team interactions go wrong and how to avoid them. We’ve all been in these situations before.
6. Bees understand the concept of zero as a number.
7. The idea of incremental small wins and slow government. Good read. Part of the Government fix series.
8. Very thorough guide on digital inclusion in healthcare by NHS Digital! Sooooo many interesting links.

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:

• The People team
• The Outputs team
• The Data and Search team
• Utilities team