I’m doing a bit of a dive into the world of ‘digital’ playbook / handbook / toolkit / manuals – YMMV. What I am interested in are collections of (web) pages that outline the local expectations of their multi-disciplinary digital teams. How are they set-up, how do they operate, how are they assured…what does good look like.

I am particularly – you will be shocked to discover – interested in how the ‘product management’ profession is referenced in these guides. How is the role defined? What are they expected to contribute?

A number of people have already answered my pleas on Bluesky and LinkedIn so I have a growing list of great examples…but I am also interested in what people like / dislike about them. If you work somewhere where one exists are folks aware of it? Is it well used? Is it maintained and updated?

Does it – for example – offer any guidance on the role of AI in these teams?

I might do a little survey and promote in my newsletter – we’ll see. In the meantime if you have any thoughts let me know.

Playbooks

The Service Manual – the daddy of them all
Test, Learn and Grow Playbook – the new kid on the block
Deliver Good Services – I’m a big fan of this from the Department for Education
18F Guides – 18F might be gone due to Musk/DOGE but their brilliant guides remain
US Digital Response toolkit – this one does tackle what AI era teams might look like in (US) public service
GOVUK Design System team playbook – really focused, clear and practical information about how they operate
Somerset Council Transformation Service Manual – part guide for the team, part internal selling of the offer, all interesting
Shelter’s Digital Framework – another great example of setting clear expectations of how teams should operate…and what colleagues can and should expect from them.
dxw’s Playbook – I’ve always admired the openness and clarity of the dxw playbook. It was something I was very jealous of in my TPX era
Planning Data Service Handbook – clear expectation setting for the team with some pretty detailed advice and guidance on the how and the why of things

A couple of other related things –

Mark D actually wrote a playbook for writing playbooks!
Tom HG wrote this amazing ‘cookbook’ for public sector product people
The GOV Reuse Library should be on everybody’s radar
The Climate Product Leaders Playbook is really insightful