The last couple of times I’ve prepared teams for service standard assessments, I’ve put together a presentation to help explain the process. This has covered the background to the service standard and the main areas that I’ve seen cause confusion or problems. I don’t intend to cover the background here [1] but I thought I’d list the areas that can cause issues, in case that’s …
Prologue A meeting room in a UK government department. Being discussed is the integration of a vendor’s system into the digital service managed by the various people on the other side of the room. A number of questions are raised about the approach to the integration and the user experience of the service once the new flow is included. The head of the vendor team …
Have you ever jumped off – or even out of – something that existed rather higher up that you’d have liked? I once got to climb to the top of a telegraph pole, stand on top of it and then jump to catch a trapeze swing suspended above and a little way away from it. This experience came with two negative aspects. The first of …
A product person [1] is… The Digital, Data and Technology Profession role description for a Product Manager is: A product manager is responsible for the quality of their products. They use their knowledge of user needs and business goals to frame problems and set priorities for their delivery teams. Product managers: form the vision for their product and engage their teams and stakeholders in the …
If you’ve ever worked as a product person [1] then you’ll have had the experience of a family member, or someone at a party, asking you what you do. Unless you’re more articulate than me, there will be some awkwardness whilst your mouth opens and closes and you try and fail to explain what you do. Sometimes this will be followed by your audience saying …
The siren call of the BIG IMPORTANT THING It’s easy for a multidisciplinary team – and everyone around them – to become myopically fixated on one BIG IMPORTANT THING and forget everything else. In my experience this looks like the team working hard, delivering the BIG IMPORTANT THING and making everyone happy. Shortly after the celebration party, the team discovers that determining what happens next …
What defines a user story? The typical answer to this is syntax. As long as you have written something that is formatted “As a… I want a… in order that” (or “Given… When… Then” if you use BDD) then it’s a user story. I’d like to suggest that syntax isn’t a good definition. The clue is in the name: stories. We tell stories because we …
Discovery is the first phase in the government service standard. “Discovery” is also used to refer to exploratory, speculative work undertaken regularly and regardless of lifecycle (alpha/beta/live) phase. Using this second definition, Jeff Patton suggests that development and discovery work are two, equally important, tracks in the work of a multidisciplinary team. What’s the best way to help your team succeed in undertaking regular discovery …
Around the turn of the millennium, I ended up working in some random jobs to try and make enough money and gain enough experience to get onto a journalism course. This included a spell as a part-time, sometimes paid, sometimes volunteer council youth worker. I won’t name the exact location for obvious reasons, but I worked/volunteered at a youth project based in an area that the …
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