Category: Digital

  • Roadmap what you’ll do, and sometimes what you won’t.

    Roadmap what you’ll do, and sometimes what you won’t.

    I’ve read two (unrelated) things about roadmaps in the last 24 hours, and they’re both great in different ways. Firstly, James Higgot posted some gratitude about a reference to the NHS app roadmap he is rightly proud of: And secondly, Dave Briggs shared a post linking to the Local Stuff for Local Gov People blog,…

  • Saving webpages to notion.so on an iPhone

    Saving webpages to notion.so on an iPhone

    I use notion.so for a lot of things. It’s a great dumping ground for notes, links, lists and all sorts. There is an excellent webclipper for your browser of choice, which can save the contents of a web page into notion as a note/page to read and refer to later. But on a phone (or…

  • If I blogged, it might look like this.

    If I blogged, it might look like this.

    The demise of Twitter for digital people in the sector I work in has led to a mini resurgence of blogging (or publishing weeknotes if that structure works better for you), and using RSS feeds as method of collating and consuming content (Steve Messer offers a great pace to start). I’m currently trying out the…

  • A problem with mapping a process

    A problem with mapping a process

    A lead designer at Made Tech, Vicky Houghton-Price has written about the relentless desire for process maps. She shares her frustration that the request is often disparate from the artifact’s true purpose and value, instead, it becomes something that only shows work has been done: Do you need another map? Probably not. An aspect of…

  • What do you do if you don’t know why you’re doing it?

    What do you do if you don’t know why you’re doing it?

    I enjoy recognising overlaps between different industries and careers. Here’s a quote from an unnamed TV show about the SAS (though I suspect it’s Rouge Heroes). “What happens when something goes wrong? (And something always goes wrong.) What do you do if you don’t know why you’re doing it? How do you find another way…

  • You’re new, but the product isn’t.

    You’re new, but the product isn’t.

    UX collective published an article on effective habits for product managers. But it’s actually a checklist of activities for product managers to undertake when they start working with an established product. Of the ten “habits” there’s three common themes – do your research, get your hands dirty in the product and talk to people. Do…

  • Order without authority

    Order without authority

    Charles Lambdin writes about the science of agile, using Jonathan Rauch’s book “Kindly Inquisitors” as a guide of the history of philosophy, politics, and science of agile’s evolutionary mindset: The thread running through all of this is the deemphasis of central planning and privileged positions, of pretending we can know the future or declare immutable…

  • Accessibly whimsy

    Accessibly whimsy

    Elise Hein writes for uxdesign.cc about missing the fun in accessibility. Much of the whit and whimsy of the internet is restricted to those who have the pleasure of browsing with whatever browser they like, with no need for ever changing the default settings. Instead of keeping easter eggs and bonus content neatly tucked away…

  • Use the right tools

    Use the right tools

    Matt Gemmell writes about the tools to facilitate his writing. These tools have been selected to meet the specific needs for the three phases of his writing process (which loosely match the GDS agile phases of discovery, alpha and beta). Just as Matt has specialist tools for each phase (GoodNotes, MindNode and Ulysses), my own…

  • Recruiting a team

    Recruiting a team

    I’ve been reviewing job descriptions for roles in my team, and some are dreadfully out of date. Thankfully there are a few resources out there which make updating them so much easier than I feared. LOTI Digital, Tech and Data Job Description Library The London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) have a library of…