A belated weeknote on a bitty week, mixing up all the different things.

Monday/Tuesday

I finally wrapped my (nearly) my professional doctorate exploring service design prototyping. I took some time off on Monday to prep for the Viva Tuesday morning and then relax for the rest of the day. Thankfully I passed with ‘minor amendments’ which is very common, and I’ve got a fair but of time to make some small additions, which should all be manageable.

It was a fully remote viva, which was convenient, but a bit weird as it was just like any other teams call – in fact I’ve definitely had many more challenging teams calls! The combination of my prep, examiners asking sensible questions and the ability to use my copious notes on two screens made it go relatively smoothly.

Overall I’d probably describe it was an anti-climax, but definitely a relief that the end is in sight. Maybe a factor was that my son was off sick from school so I ended up watching Star Wars and playing Lego with him for the rest of the afternoon. He had not real idea what it meant and was much more interested in lightsaber battles with me.

Weds/Thurs

Back into work on Weds and I had some admin to tidy up, with a new quarterly check-in’ process at work being rolled out. That’s been piloted with the people I line manage and has meant the usual gathering feedback, having development conversations (not much new there) but a new structured process and form meant a bit more admin to capture it all.

The rest of Weds and Thursday working on NHS Digital prevention work, actually in the office on Thursday with some of the team. ]

It is still relatively early days, and the team is continuing to change and evolve over time, but I do feel like we’re getting to the point where things should be starting to solidify – and where they are not, then maybe we need to accept that, acknowledge it and continue to make progress.

I’m splitting my time (or trying at least) between ‘Managing my health’ (looking at bringing prevention services into the app) and a wider cross-cutting team (aiming to improve delivery conditions within the org amongst other things). Both are slightly struggling with what is approaching ‘analysis paralysis’. Both have some strong hunches about what would be good to make progress on, but both also know that they have many blindspots and know that nothing will be easy. This kind of situation tends to make people want just that little bit more information, just that extra bit of data to confirm something. I’m increasingly feeling that we maybe need to recognise that the situation is ‘complex’ and best resolved by probing, sensing and responding. We’ve got prototypes and we can use them to learn, even if it doesn’t result in us developing the prototype further.

Thursday evening I went with some colleagues to the premiere of a new documentary about Margaret Calvert who is responsible for the design of many of the road signs we still see across Britain today. Sadly I could only make the first hour, before I had to dash for the train, and unfortunately a lot of this first hour was spent with the venue trying to resolve audio, video and lighting issues. This probably didn’t give the best impression of the documentary, but it did serve as a usual reminder that you should test things properly in the place you expect it to happen, using the tech that you plan to use…sound familiar!?

Friday/Saturday

I always feel shattered the day after being in London, and was especially so this week after staying later. My Garmin watch also confirmed this, putting some data to my feelings! I just about managed to squeeze out a 5k and then a bunch of life admin for my day off. I didn’t head up into the loft to start installing the loft stilt kit I picked up on Ebay (for £1.50!) because it was so hot. I also need some time to recover after fitting the new loft hatch last weekend. So much dust!

Saturday I got the kids out to the local bike park and tore up (gently) the pump track and even hit a green trail, which much to their displeasure actually involved having to pedal their bikes uphill very briefly. Watching them ride trails gives me so much joy, and I think it does for them too…in between moaning that their legs hurt.

I was a bit disappointed to not make NHS Hack Day in Cardiff, its literally around the corner from me, but in the end it was a conscious decision to spend time with the family instead with my wife being ill. Lots of respect to all those who go from day jobs in NHS straight into two solid hack days as well.