I started the month off with Product for the People in Bristol and the release of my chat with Russell about working in the open (though it seems to be the slight sidetrack into the importance of communities that people clicked with most) and finishing at the National Data Library. I covered all of that in Week 36 though.
Since then I’ve been having a mini-sabbatical I suppose. It is a bit longer than a vacation but not as long as a career break 😆.
On the work front I am in the final paperwork stages of signing up with three clients for the next few months. I have lined up ‘coaching’ engagements with two organisations – one in Health and the other in Justice. Ticking a couple more off my Pokemon list (Gotta Catch ‘Em All).
I’m also doing a little bit of product strategy advisory work for a local Govtech company I’ve been friendly with for longer than any of us want to admit.
For the coaching stuff I wrote a blogpost about how I see my ‘Practice’ shaping up. What I think I can offer and how that differentiates from some other practitioners in this space.
I also did some noodling with the help of Claude and wrote up some analysis about what you can learn from a dataset of 10 years worth of ‘public service digital’ vacancies. I guess the main insight – which is hardly a shock – is the extent to which the salaries have failed to keep up with inflation or the wider market.
My other side-project is also an attempt to get over my distaste for AI and try and explore its capabilities a little. So I have Claude helping me build a Bluesky Bot that will (hopefully) publish a different street art photo from my own archives every day – including the location of the art and the date it was taken – to an account called @graffiti.photos (eventually – at least I’ll use that domain for something!). So far all I have really achieved is moving a couple of thousand images to Flickr Pro and dusted off my old MacMini to get everything downloaded and updated there. Hopefully I’ll summon up the will to try and get it working this weekend.
Enjoyed the Transformers event in Cardiff (TransformingGov + Transform Wales). Some really interesting talks and loads of old friends and colleagues to chatter away with. In fact I enjoyed it so much I volunteered to help organise one in Bristol!
Also had some lovely chats with people about their careers – particularly about what it means to be a product person in public service. Whether I was helpful or not you’d have to ask them but I had a nice time!
Oh and I managed to get to London for my delayed ‘leaving’ drinks – which was lovely as people actually showed up (never a certainty!).
It has also been a fun couple of weeks away from work-adjacent activities.
I Eurostar’d to Cologne – a city I really enjoyed. Loads of graffiti, a spectacular Cathedral (it genuinely felt like something dreamed up by a Hollywood set designer), one of the best toy/comic shops I’ve ever visited (outside of France), brilliant galleries/museums, a great public transport system and some nice AF beers!
Then I hopped on a train to Paris to see JAYZ at the Stade de France. This was an amazing experience. Perhaps in part because I’ve never been sober at a gig before 😂. We were in the ‘premium’ standing section, right in front of the VIP area (waves at Kerry Washington) and JAY played almost all of my favourite tracks, Pharrell and Justin Timberlake made appearances and the vibes were immaculate. ♥️’d it.
Even got a new tattoo to commemorate the experience.
Did a lot of graffiti/street art exploring. Visited multiple spots in the aforementioned Cologne but also a few of my favourite places in Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham and London. Plus a trip out to Southend for the first time. Still haven’t made it to Weston – maybe tomorrow.
Other than that I watched a lot of TV (Lanterns is 💚) and enjoyed the NY Times Top 100 TV shows of the 21st Century. I don’t know why people get wound up by these things. Sure there are loads on there I disagree with – isn’t that the fun of it? I only really like two of their Top 10 (you can guess) but there are plenty on the list I love. This was my Top 10 of their choices.
Really enjoyed reading Slow Gods and have started the Puff Daddy expose – Bad Boy for Life.
My health remains fine. I suspect I’m just getting better at managing my own expectations (and dealing with the life admin of it all) and planning accordingly rather than things improving significantly. It is now six months since I had an alcoholic beverage which I suspect is good news in the broader sense of things but god I miss beer and wine!
…and on that note.
See ya.
