Lakes - 19 to 30 October

Published: 4 November 2026
Tagged: weeknote

Finishing off the weeknotes for October, which itself finished with some days off for half-term up in the Lakes again. So this really covers 19 to 27 Oct.

Developing framework content

We finished and then sent out the draft for the new role description of information architect for feedback from experts around the public sector.

There are some tricky questions we’re hoping this feedback can help with, but I’m optimistic we’ll have a version ready for publication at the end of November. (Side note: I’m starting to see people unconnected to the work sharing these new ‘project’ pages on social media and weeknotes, which hopefully indicates they have value).

I also ran the first of 2 co-writing sessions to update the role descriptions for content designer role levels. Next week we’ll aim to finish these off and then start a highlighter testing process, similar to how we tested the skill descriptions earlier this year.

Discovery on the online experience for the profession

The team has done lots of work in this first sprint, despite illness and leave reducing capacity. We’ve focused on sorting our engagement approach, and prioritising user research plans on the problem areas, assumptions and user groups we are least certain about from previous research.

I ran two sessions for the team looking at our outcomes and potential measures. I was pretty under the weather but we had plenty of enthusiasm across the group to keep things productive. Next is testing and adjusting these ideas with senior stakeholders.

I also started one of those ‘big maps of everything’. This one is everything that’s currently out there to help people in our profession, and those who manage it, with ‘capability’ related-tasks. These are tasks like sorting out training or getting in apprentices. I’ve also put together a draft list of services that our wider team seems to be involved in, so we can think about where some sort of central thing could best help.

I didn’t get to mapping the various groups outside of our organisation who also provide offers or constraints, so that is for first thing next sprint. With such a broad potential problem area, it looks like defining our effective scope is going to be critical to testing ideas that are valuable and viable.

The internal ‘discovery wiki’ I set up is also proving useful, especially our little relational database of hypotheses and assumptions. As ever with new documentation efforts, it does require constant reminders to everyone (including me) that the info they need is there already or may need adding. Over time this should get easier.

Sheffield X-Gov meetup

On 22 October we ran the latest edition of our breakfast meetup for public sector folk around Sheffield and South Yorkshire. Once again, a really diverse turnout: people from MoJ, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, NHS App, Home Office, Barnsley Council, GDS all turning up to chat… a key theme was finding a widely accessible way of keeping the discussions and connections going outside of the meetups, so I’m looking into some options, like the Local Gov Digital forum.

There are 2 more meetups this autumn, on 17 November and 15 December. If you’d like to join us next time, find out more and sign up.

Other good things

We’re getting somewhere with recruitment to bolster the design capabilities of the team. We’ve had some good options for contractor service designers, so hopefully that role is sorted soon and can get involved in this part of the discovery ASAP.

I finished designing the cards and rules for our away day game. It’s great to have something at work that is properly outside the normal. While it’s pitched as the “fun” team session during the day, I’m hoping that the game gets players thinking about making allies, how much conditions dictate options, and how unexpected events mean you have to stay agile (even if ‘mutated badger raiders’ are not usually announced in all staffs). Next week we get to play it!

Harder things

Due to leave, I’ve been covering parts of our cross-government governance and engagement process again. I don’t mind too much as this does feel temporary this time.

But it adds to the mental context switching load… recruitment and HR, framework content, away days, governance, meetups, plus the usual organisational glue work… in particular, feel I’ve not yet been able to properly dive into the discovery, where there is so much potential good stuff to learn. Still searching for that elusive ‘quarter of focus’, I guess.

It is also proving impossible to write up and publish these notes at the weekends. But late notes are better than no notes, and that’s usually because we’re doing fun family things instead.