Irregular week notes s01e00 - the pilot
I enjoy reading peoples week notes. I first saw them crop up when Matt Jukes and Simon Wilson started sharing them.
It is a great way of being open about what you are doing and tracking your own progress.
I’m not sure I’d generally have enough to talk or the discipline to write them. I thought I’d go with a different perspective and do regular irregular week notes.
Monday to Thursday
I tend to work in two-week cycles (this will not surprise anyone who is a developer working in government).
This week has been focusing around finishing a refactor of a service. I wouldn’t normally refactor a whole project in a short space of times as the risk involved is high.
The main two goals of the refactoring was;
- removing angular js
- reducing coupling in code
- creating a more module code base
Friday
One of the best parts of my job is that I am able to attend cross Government design meetings. This was the 18th meeting, it is great to be able to catch up with other people working in different locations/departments.
The day was broken into four parts;
- Head of design from each department Updates
- Talks from Ben and Charles (see links below for slide deck)
- Workshop of what is preventing/helping create a ‘Design Culture’
- External speakers from Jonny Burch talking about design culture at Deliveroo. Nicolas Roope was talking about well, most things.
Charles’s 3 minute lighting talk well great. Well delivered with a great reminder about why it is users and not customers. Also that Government has goals, not business needs.
I also enjoyed hearing about Deliveroo and design culture. It is a refreshing reminder that common themes happen in all product based teams.
Some slide highlights;
Links to presentations from the day: