June 2025

Posting this one a bit early because I’m going on holiday tomorrow for a couple of weeks. Feels needed, I’ve been starting to feel a bit like a zombie by the time the evenings rolled around this last couple of weeks.

Building two planes whilst flying them whilst wondering if we actually need a plane let alone two

I’ve had a couple of ‘strategy’ documents open in my browser for the last month that I’ve been working on alongside one another. One’s looking at how to communicate our programme’s strategy in a way that makes sense to the teams within it. The other is looking at the product strategy for one of those teams.

In a way, it should be a good test of how both of these things live together and make sense to their respective audiences. But it’s also a bit of a nightmare because they have very different time horizons and team dynamics to deal with. I’m a designer, so I will naturally try to make all the parts structurally and logically coherent within the greater whole, but this is tremendously easy to overthink. I feel more and more like the task is just ‘come up with something simple and sensible and say it over and over again’.

Time well spent

I’ve probably spent a good 2–3 working days this month struggling to get things done with new internal HR software after the departmental move. This is not good use of time.

One of the few things that makes me feel optimistic about AI is the possibility that it could navigate around the Big IT Hellhole and do things like request leave on my behalf. But then again, I’d like to think I’ve personally achieved general intelligence and I still can’t do it.

Brand

The first signs of the refreshed GOV.UK brand will start to emerge this week. I’m sure there will be strong responses to it in lots of different directions. Be kind and considerate of the people who worked on it and did their best with a difficult brief. The most useful reflections probably won't be made on day one.