‘What is it you actually do?’ is a series of blogpost ‘interviews’ that ask interesting folk working on digital products in and around public service the age old question — ‘what is it you actually do?’. Shamelessly copying from Lifehacker’s ‘How I work’ series and ‘The Set Up’ blog.

---

Who are you and what do you do and where?

My name is Sharon Dale and I am a facilitator, trainer and coach. Since January 2014 I have facilitated the Service Manager Induction and Development programme at GDS and from September 2015 at DWP both in London and the spin off Digital Foundation Day through Civil Service Learning in cities UK wide including Cardiff, Belfast, Sheffield and Newcastle, nothing in Scotland yet (ahem). Through this I have met over 100 service managers and around 300 other people working with digital teams in Government.

What software do you use day to day?

Trello, Google docs, Gmail, Twitter and the Post-it Plus app.

What is your favourite stationery?

Post-it notes and sharpies (obv)

What do you like/dislike most about your job?

I love the variety of work and meeting lots of diverse, passionate people working in government who really care about the experience of citizens using Government services. I love seeing participants get something out of the experiences that we create. I get frustrated on behalf of those people when I hear about some of the blockers preventing them from being able to do the best they can back in the office. I dislike used Government issue blue tac!

How did you become a ___________?

I have had a varied career working in IT support, project management, operations management and then training. I decided to work independently in January 2013 and since then I have been able to focus on building capability in user centred, design led teams who are developing digital services primarily using approaches such as Scrum or Kanban. I also volunteer as a Camp Maker for UK GovCamp and Global GovJam in Leeds where I meet more great people in Government.

How do you manage your backlog (i.e. cards on a wall, Jira, Trello, Sprintly..)?

Trello — as it is flexible enough to work for whatever I am planning.