January 2025: Monthnote
I mentioned in my yearnote that I want to focus on impactful writing - I think this means using the time I would spend on bi-weekly weeknotes for other types of writing, and making my weeknotes once a month instead. Plus I already write weeknotes in my paper journal anyway, so it felt a bit redundant to write them out again here. But I do find them hugely valuable for myself so I want to keep them up somehow.
Hence, my first monthnote. Monthnotes will be an overview of the month at work, plus reflections and resources. I'll also make an effort to share weekly updates in shorter form - on bluesky or maybe linkedin, because I want to get better at posting in those places too.
Side note: did I use the time I would normally spend on weeknotes to write something else? No. Will I in the future? Probably also no. If you are reading this, please hold me accountable to this. Nothing motivates me to write like being asked by others to write. People pleaser for life.
What happened in January
January felt very busy for me, which three main pieces of work:
- I wrapped up some interviews for a big piece of work I did on the internal digital enablement services that our Health IT team provides. Then spent a chunk of time analyzing and summarizing.
- I jumped headfirst into some discovery work with our Vital Statistic Agency. This involved facilitating 3 x 3 hours workshops in week with not much prep. It was a ton of work and quite overwhelming but the conversations and overall vibes were top notch. I've learned so much about this super complex service (which is truly a service that everyone uses in some way.) Also some key learnings on how to work with different types of teams.
- I was pulled in on a leadership slide deck task, which turned out to be just a few slides in a very big presentation (9,000+ wordcount to set some context) and my part involved building a journey map without user research on the journey (which I highlighted as a problem.) I spent more hours on this than I think I ever have on any slide deck.
Some other things that I gave my time to:
- Supporting a BC Gov design community workshop with the awesome Jaimie
- Working with some great people (like Marlieke and Heather and Justine and Gord) to plan for an exciting visit to BC Gov from Lou and Sarah from School of Good Services
- I gave my intro to design workshop to one of our lovely health teams
- I haven't as much time as usual for coffee chats but I did get a chance to connect with Polly, one of my old research colleagues at GDS and it was lovely.
And the whole world kind of went to hell. Our international gov design community lost Vicky, a devastating loss that feels so unreal.
On a larger scale, in Canada, our prime minister has resigned while a dictator keeps threatening to either invade or destabilize us. Everything sucks. But there's nothing I can do except take care of what's around me.
What went well
- For the most part, I've been feeling like I am busy doing useful things that are making a difference. Which isn't to say I haven't been doing this in the past, but being deep in 'delivering design and research work' mode, it's easier to see impact.
- I've been doing a better job than usual at staying organized, getting to bed on time and making one on one time for my children.
What was challenging
- I took on too much this week. Definitely not sustainable.
- I needed more clarity on roles, expectations and scope in some of the work I've done this month. This is actually a common challenge in my current team. People don't really know what service design is or does so assume we're only interested in one aspect (like citizen-facing channels.) It's not a criticism on anyone I've worked with but rather a reflection from me on how to establish that understanding and clarity early on.
- I feel like I've been saying this every weeknote for the last year but the world really does feel like a unimaginable nightmare right now.
Some interesting things you should check out
I've come across lots of great posts and wisdom - in no particular order
Jenni Parker
Jeanette Clement
Davis Levine
Public Digital
Jessie Robinson
Lisa Koeman
Polly
Other bits
Reading: I made an amazing discovery - Storygraph! An independent alternative to Amazon-owned GoodReads. I'll be posting all my reading there, here's my profile. I read three books in January and my favourite of them was Tell me Everything by Elizabeth Strout.
Watching: I decided to finally tackle a legendary older show that I've seen bits and piece from but never fully watched: Gavin and Stacey. To be fair, I mostly wanted to watch because I was curious what the big deal was with the fishing trip story, and from that perspective I was disappointed. But it was still a great watch and I loved how it highlighted the cultural differences between the welsh and essex crowds. Also appreciated the ace 2000s soundtrack.
Listening: the Search Engine podcast has had me screaming internally several times in the past month for various reasons:
- Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret - I nearly died listening to this because my actual dad had been in that swimming pool. I thought the episode was very interesting and well done. It made me a bit sad though because I realized how much I wish I had asked for more details about his experiences when he lived at B'ham palace.
- Is it ok to just work all the time? This had me screaming at the audacity of this show to talk at length about the question, "can you do good work and also have a family" but only get the perspective of two white, cis, privileged, childless men. There was even a point where Ira Glass says something along the lines of, "I think you should talk to someone besides me about this." Do they? No. Infuriating.
- But then they came back from that with two compelling and interesting shows: The New Zuckerberg and What it's like to fly when you're fat? - both worth a listen.
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