It is currently still 32℃ in Bristol and I have barely emerged from my dark cave for days (all curtains, blinds, doors and windows closed in my flat.)

Since my last weeknote I experienced the Pitbull invasion in Cardiff Saturday while I was there catching up with Laura and checking out the Meeting of Styles graffiti event.

I traveled to London Sunday (thanks First Great Western for the experience of standing next to the toilet the whole way with a view of the first class seat I’d paid for but couldn’t sit on due to the failed reservation system and overcrowding) stayed in a pretty dreadful Ibis Budget hotel but did get to see some new street art and have a nice ice cream.

Tried to watch the England game ‘live’ but ended up instead watching it on iPlayer at 5am (and almost certainly upsetting the neighbours celebrating the goals and result) and then dragged myself to London City Hall to assist in facilitating a workshop as part of London Data Week. Unfortunately from 57 sign ups only 12 people showed up (and four were pretty late). The combo of the heat, the England match and just the Monday morning of it all took a pretty big bite out of our plans but it still went well and Avisha did a super job as the lead facilitator.

Back to GDS HQ at Whitechapel in the afternoon (via the budget hotel and a fresh t-shirt…it was HOT) where the official, formal information about the reorganisation for my grade was shared – including the new job descriptions. Safe to say any doubt I might have had about my decision to resign was immediately dispelled after the most cursory glance at the JD. I cannot agree with the logic of combining Product and Programme Management Office responsibilities under a single person…not to mention the complete lack of mention of anything people related (a product leadership role that does not mention coaching? Not my bag.) I wasn’t alone in my unease and the backchannel was channel-ing 😀

Stayed in London Tuesday for a day of 1-2-1s – which was lovely. Throughout everything the team really has been the best part of this gig and it is always lovely to see folk in person (and get a fantastic Katsu wrap from the street food market over the road!).

It took three hours to get home though (instead of 75 minutes) due to ‘trespassers on the line’. 

Did a couple of quarterly reviews, read a couple of (long) Discovery reports, tried to unpick some commercial knots, talked about a hackathon and tried to work out what I should focus on these last eight weeks (especially as I am on leave for two of them).

I’m in a bit of a weird headspace. It is hard to know to what extent I should be actively intervening and agenda setting at work given I won’t be there next quarter and I don’t have any idea who will. No real idea about what I’ll do next – well not for more than a few minutes at a time. My blood sugar remains a total rollercoaster with a couple of unfun hypos to navigate. The heat is definitely jamming up the gears in my brain as well.

Finished the week as the support act on a Dan Hon 90 minute Zoom-up with a pretty intimidating audience of the great and good – many of whom I was already referencing in my mini-talk and the conversation.

The mini talk was about the fact that so much of my ‘coaching’ is about communication and influencing of the outcomes of product work rather than the actual product ways of working. The PMs I work with are always smart AF and curious about being better PMs but are often a bit blind to the intricacies of how to get things moving in a bureaucracy. Good work alone isn’t enough unfortunately.

I think it went okay – I definitely ended up answering different questions than were asked a time or two but it was pretty fun despite the heat!

What else? I’m reading Lou’s ‘Bad Services’ book – slowly. My brain is struggling in this weather. Oh and I finished my West Wing rewatch. I really didn’t enjoy Season 7 this time.