Third week at GDS/GOVUK and I am feeling really good about things. I spent two days working at the White Chapel building (why is it The White Chapel building and not Whitechapel? It bugs me more than it should!) after collecting my GovPass – which made me feel legitimate.

It was lovely to meet up with some people in person – including Kuba who wrote this brilliant post on working in the open earlier in the week which I only realised at the end of the chat – and it just felt like coming home being in an office decorated with It’s OK and Service Standard posters, walls filled with roadmaps and product brainstorms, stickered Macs as far as the eye can see and still some bunting. Hiding the toilets is an interesting choice though.

Actually I realised that other than meeting people downstairs in reception I’d only ever been to this office once before – to the now abandoned 6th Floor. I was a regular visitor to Aviation House back in the day (and even Hercules House before that) but this was all pretty new to me – next week I’ll be checking out the Bristol office as well. For all the additional distractions I really do miss the energy of being in an office – we’ll see how long that lasts but for now I’m excited about splitting my time between Whitechapel and Temple Quay.

Caught up with a passel of product people at a community session which was lovely (also lovely that I attended this kind of session with no responsibility other than to show up!). Learned a bit more about the work to ‘Design a Digital Centre for Government’ in a couple of sessions – it is a very interesting time to be back inside Government (digital)…maybe the most interesting since Alphagov and the birth of GDS. It is a very different time than 2011 though so who knows how things are going to land.

Had some chats about OKRs (I’m being good!), roadmaps and quarterly planning in general. I’m mainly contributing by asking a few questions and making a few suggestions about how things might fit into other initiatives I’m learning about while thinking a lot about just how much I should intervene as a Lead, especially a new one to the team(s), and how much I should keep my own counsel and quietly influence from the edges. Still pondering.

I’m still being too quiet/passive in some meetings – it is less the topics being discussed stopping me from contributing but more needing to get to grips with the various group dynamics before I stick my oar in. I’m getting a feel for things now I think – I’ll test that a bit next week – start getting a little more opinionated where appropriate.

In work related action there was a House of Commons debate on technology in public services Monday which Gavin Freeguard did an amazing job covering on Bluesky. It was an interesting read (and the full transcript is here on TheyWorkForYou) – it is great to have a Secretary of State so passionate about digital/technology for public service and like I mentioned earlier this contributes to an interesting and exciting moment in this community…but…I do worry just how much it feels like a Silicon Valley-esque technology will save us all kind of narrative sometimes. Especially with all the AI ‘magic’ being espoused. Also the myth that the private sector is better at digital being rolled out again makes me grind my teeth.

On the whole though I remain positive and think there are going to be some opportunities to really make a difference.

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I completed my binge of Bones. 246 episodes. Ask me anything.

Actually don’t – I am already plagued by dreams of grotesque corpses and movie UIs!

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I spent last weekend boosting Bluesky to some success – a bunch of new people joined and I find myself with a 1000 followers (and following a 1000 myself). One of the big reasons I was so keen on it to success – at least for a while – is the demise of my version of Twitter has made my jobs newsletter much harder. I get almost nobody getting in touch to suggest roles, spot hardly any on the timeline in the course of normal scrolling or get much feedback on what does go down well. Some of this is just because it has been around a long time I suggest but hopefully a vibrant Bluesky, full of internet of public service folks will take some of the stress out of it each weekend! Especially as I am going to add a ‘tip-jar’ this week now Ghost has added it as a feature. Selling ads – even cheap ones – didn’t work so I’ll see if the tips help move the newsletter to a more financially sustainable footing!

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Right – back to this weekends mission – some light reading!