Weeknotes S03E11
A curious week. Short weeknotes as had too much else to do.
Some things I’ve been doing and thinking about this week.
The future
This week saw quite a few conversations about what’s coming up. Some from a work/project perspective and some from people’s individual perspectives. What are the aims, the options and the next steps. Plus what might be the problems when we arrive.
I had a good long chat with Jason this week. About a load of things. Hoping I can help with some bits and bobs. I discussed measurement with Ed with a view to a blogpost and chatted with Pete about the user-centred data design community.
We are putting plans in place for activity next year to continue to improve technology capability and access to data. Aleks and I talked through machine learning capability — not just in an analytical context but in a service design context. Daniel and I talked through microservices, Google Analytics, pros and cons.
It feels like most of the early bedding in and orientation into Health Digital is complete now from the data side of things. There are still some important questions to answer. Mainly around the producer consumer dynamic of a distributed architecture. But Stu C and I have been working through our thinking on this.
Priorities — doing the right thing — at the right time
We just completed the 6th of 10 week-long sprints on the platform. The work has been coding-with Microsoft colleagues. It is going very well and we’re slightly ahead of where we’d thought we’d be at this stage. We have been focused on reviewing our priorities. This week saw a significant step with moving data between different cloud-hosted environments. This was a labour of love for Shane.
I reviewed some 2–5 year business outcomes in terms of the data work required. Discussed with Alyson about activities we need to prioritise soon.
Momentum is gathering. Over the recent period our focus has been on tech, processes and foundations. This week saw some good conversations about product and people strategies. This included good conversations with policy analysts about working more closely with them.
Value
My recent work with the central data part of the department has focused on value measurment. This has rekindled some of the considered thinking Rich and I did a little while back.
Aaron asked me if I had time to support work in a new team. It’s exciting and important work. The conversation did turn my imposter syndrome up. My trepidation levels also went up a notch because of the potential time commitment. However I think/hope it will build on and take much of what I’m doing anyway in working across teams.
The week ended with team drinks which was great. The people I work closely with are brilliant humans.
Thankfully this season’s weeknotes process isn’t too bad. Jot some notes through the week. Triage into categories of activity/problem space — and if I have time — dive in a little deeper. This week I didn’t.
