Work stuff

David, our lead developer, gave me an overview of the technical architecture for GOV.UK Pay, which is really handy. It’s such an interesting platform, really makes it easy for teams and organisations to start taking payments (in 60 seconds flat!).

Tuesday was spent preparing a session to work out some strategic problems and plot some possibilities for overcoming those barriers, using techniques I learned in the IDEO course. And, you know what, I even started to enjoy my job again.

Yeah, it’s sad to admit it, but I really lost the spark and enthusiasm for my job in September last year. I used to jump out of bed in the morning, ready for the day, as dorky as that sounds. So I’m glad that feeling is starting to come back!

We’re using the North Star framework put together by John Cutler at Amplitude. Our North Star is ‘Number of healthy integrations’ which is a clear measure and aims for sustainable growth. The KPIs that make up the North Star are good too, decent key results for the teams for focus on.

Not-work stuff

Finished reading Ghost Hardware, though it is quite short. Three chapters, distinctly 2011 in feeling: a raid on a sports shop organised over social media, digital art, and toxic wastelands. Heading back to start Count Zero now.

Played our first game of Fate, the first tabletop RPG I’ve ever played, and it was great! Took a few turns to get into the swing of things, to realise that we could lead the story as much as the gamemaster, but it’s super fun. Can’t believe we didn’t play this at uni when we were studying creative writing!

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