Week two in the new team. I’ve been working on a product plan for the piece of software. I’ve been very conscious about trying to balance a lot of people’s needs with some pressing legal requirements. We’ve got our last show and tell of the alpha coming up and I think what we’ve got is excellent, but the complexity of what it could be is really a pressure.
This job is reminding me of the virtues of standards and assurance as a discipline in a digital team. The equivalent digital development question that Comms 2.0 are always crowdsourcing answers to from their members: “how do you deal with last minute, badly thought through requests?” is pretty roundly avoided if you have a board of experts shepherding things through. If everything were paired back to the bone, I’d argue that this is almost the most important function a central digital department can provide.
I wish there was more written about it though. It seems to be part of a Project Management Office in other places and that feels like the wrong lens.
Other things
Tom Steinberg wrote this tweet and it warmed my dead heart. Especially as I wrote that blog post six-ish months ago from a place of real frustration with a job, but tried not to do my usual “everyone else is a dick” writing style. There are problems with the piece and I would write it differently today. Maybe that’s the point.
DPhil prep
This week I read no books. Which is bad as I have 6 weeks until my application is due and I need to write a thing, get references and transcripts.
Forward look
This coming week I’m kicking off some procurement work. I also turn 31.
