The Best Away Day Ever
No weeknotes last week as I was away with friends all weekend, so consider these two-week notes – or tw’eeknotes. It’s that or fort-notes, take your pick.
Still tired. In fact, I was so run-down by Friday I had to take the day off with a stinking cold. But I’m pretty sure that’s due to poor sleep in the week, spreading myself thin at work, and a couple people having the sniffles. I’m feeling much better now – and I can feel work easing up, so that’s really good.
Yes, the product manager we hired to replace another who left has been gradually taking over directing one of the teams, meaning I can go back to being product lead instead of working in one team and across the rest. It’s such a relief! They’re a great hire, looking forward to working with them more.
So what’s been happening at work? There’s not loads of detail I can cover as we’re still in the pre-election period, but I’ve been
- reviewing Q1 key results with team leads
- prepping Q2 objectives for the teams
- forming some lines for our product strategy, so we can hit Q2 with gusto and direction
- editing the copy on our website to talk about our capabilities
- preparing for a presentation at our away day
- preparing for a check-in with our leadership team
- assisting our tech lead on defining a tech strategy for the next 6 months
- co-ordinating some alignment between squads, so that they can deliver the end-to-end service efficiently
- feeding in to some themed working groups we’ll run with the Open Digital Planning community
- sorting out some screen recording software and the necessary privacy and cookie notices, so that we can collect more data on user behaviour
- talking about cross-programme prioritisation (aligning the interests of policy, local planning authorities, and people building planning services)
- thinking about data quality frameworks
- thinking about liabilities
- exploring the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act
It feels like it’s time to get stuck in to the big risks of cross-programme prioritisation, legal liabilities, and how our product world interacts with the policy world. That’s going to be a big portion of my time over the next few weeks, I think, as a new government comes into play.
I need to start defining our ways of working in a playbook too, but I think I can rely on the product and delivery managers to help me with that. Those ways of working are past genesis but in their infancy, and they’ll be iterated and refined as the squads collaborate more.
It’s been good but scary thinking about tech strategy: namely, how we get software out the door quickly while allowing the platform to migrate to a new infrastructure. We’re being mindful to note down where we’re creating tech, design and operational debt – so that we can come back to it as soon as possible.
The away day
On Thursday, the programme gathered together for an away day. It was really good to see what other teams were working on. Although I’ve had a good amount of exposure to that from a couple of teams, I haven’t been able to go as deep as I’d like in some areas.
I gave an overview of what we’d been up to the last 6 months and how we’re delighted to be forming three main capabilities: designing data for different use cases while considering the needs of multiple stakeholders; providing data for a range of use cases in planning and housing; and managing data quality in partnership with data providers. (There’s a fourth capability for data consumers, but it has taken a back-seat while we focus on supply-side problems in the planning data ‘market’.)
Then we moved on to the main draw of the day. Jamie, Emily and psd created a board game about the planning system. The goal was to create a local plan for a town, balancing the needs of residents, planning constraints, budget, and the mayor’s wishes – all while connecting and collaborating with other people on the programme. This is by no means an exaggeration, but that game was fucking awesome. We had so much fun! I also learned about aspects of the planning system I hadn’t known before, thanks to being on a team with Stef and Natalie.
psd did a great bit pretending to be a mayor, giving out dosh and making requests to the towns in his region, while wearing a very cool outfit. It was such a good day, much mirth, learning and connection. Which is exactly the sort of energy we need going into a new parliament with a new government. Onwards!
Was great to meet Will properly and share thinking on common platforms. Looking forward to speaking more over the next few weeks…although it’s a shame he’s a Baggies fan (up the Wolves!).
Food
Headed to Lupins for my partner’s dad’s birthday on Wednesday. Had some delicious food. Grilled squid with fennel and shaved green beans. Monkfish with pink fir potatoes, tomatoes and aioli. Rolled lamb breast with anchovies. Baked aubergine with goat’s curd. All washed down with a Domaine Pey Blanc rosé, heavenly. We popped to the Globe theatre afterwards to watch The Taming of the Shrew, where the rosé wasn’t so good.
Yesterday I went up to Stoke Newington to see Owen and we had Keralan food at Rasa. Stupendously good, everything was perfectly spiced.
Successfully barbecued some lamb chops in the week, they were damn good. That’s inspired more barbecue this evening. I’ve quartered a chicken and it’s marinating in a homemade jerk marinade, alongside some pork belly. I’ll have to get the Weber fired up now as it’ll take a few hours for it all to smoke and cook slowly.
The barbecue inspired by a visit to Salt and Fire at Dark Revolution last weekend. The passion fruit and mango sour from Vault City went perfectly with the BBQ, but I have to say that the frozen sangria afterwards was much needed on that hot day!
Running
This week I managed three runs and the hip is holding up well. No pain, but I can feel some inflammation. Nothing a few ibuprofen and good sleep can’t sort out.
The main change I’ve made is to pull my hips forward when running, which feels like it’s doing a lot of good. My running feels more efficient and it’s taking impact off the hip joint. Strength and conditioning work, to build up my glutes, core and hip strength, has been aiding too. I was silly for stopping, it helped me out so much last summer.
Bike
The bike should be ready in about a week. The shop had some issues getting hold of wheels, so I’ve got some DT Swiss wheels coming instead of a set from Halo. But all the reviews say they’re more rugged for gravel, so that’s all good.
Can’t wait for it to get here. I’ve bought some bikepacking bags from Restrap and will plot a local overnighter on some south London gravel routes. So hyped for it to get here!
Bookmarks
Really haven’t been doing all that much reading because work is so busy.