At the end of every week I reflect on the previous seven days and look forwards.

These are thoughts on work, work adjacent stuff, a little bit of life which I am willing to share (in case maybe it helps someone else out there), any culture notes, running/fitness, home improvements, and looking forwards. Read some or all, it’s your choice.

Yet another two weeks in one note. Feels like I did A Lot the last two weeks.

Work and work adjacent

End of biz year meeting with the accountant. Never The End of the Year, always follow up actions. Promised myself I’d put some time in in the coming weeks to do some medium to longer term planning, as much as one can in An Uncertain Business Environment. Starting ideas of other ways of working. Maybe not a plan B or a plan C, but ways of working. Half fuelled by how work has come to me the last couple of weeks...

Work feels like it’s back to the freelance days of 10 years back, three projects on, each different in nature, all trying to be helpful. I guess a common thread is they’re all about nudging people on, their thinking and their outputs. Really enjoyed preparing and running an alignment session, time with a few people having some sort of “product therapy”, where they all felt they were up to, how they actually felt, how they can work together for their business’s benefit. A stark basic truth: If the business doesn’t succeed there is a strong chance the business fails and if the business fails… It’s nice to work on stuff that leans into my wider experience doing a few roles. Just need to shake this nagging oh am I a consultant? feeling!

Spent all day Thursday 13th at Product for the People (PftP). No checking into work Slacks, just a lot of listening, talking, seeing what other people are doing. General mull following PftP: With increased noises of lower budgets, squeezing value, squeezing team sizes raises all sorts of interesting questions:

Do you really need 6-7 people for a product team?
If we have a very limited budget is it better to have some people keeping a product/service going or just shutter the thing?
Does this present helpful opportunities for T-shaped people — or could it go the opposite way and be damaging relying on best efforts?
With all the fires burning how can we nurture good working practice and also nurture those closer to the starting point of their careers?
How does sustainability fit into this? Is sustainability be another thing that is slung onto the “later” of roadmaps in the name of sudden short terms?

Friday 14th: Agile in the Ether. Notes. Been dwelling since the session on the value of [user/product] research in agile environments.

How many people/teams doing alphas say there’s data but don’t actually look at the state of data they feel is needed for a product? An alpha is an extended discovery, not an we use is gathering ingredients to throw to the chefs. Quality checking, yo.

When did quieter coaches on trains become so noisy? Also, is this just nature’s way of saying get some good over the ear noise cancelling headphones?

Had something like eight half hour chats with people during the week. Continued general murmuring about the state of the job market. I hear all sorts. Know several people who have initiated their move away from The Industry and several more looking into it. Some people have been out of work for something like six months and just waiting, with mixed degrees of patience and impatience. It’s a funny market, it’s a funny environment. It reminds me so much of the great lay offs of 2008 and the ensuing two to three years, where everyone seemed to have a slight air of thankfulness for a job. Also that unhealthy paranoia that makes people feel their job is always vulnerable and they end up putting in more than The Expected.

I openly acknowledged a few weeks back it might appear when I talk about someone I have a grudge with that someone. I felt that wasn’t the case to me, I just seemed to mumble about them. But that’s the perception to others, coming across as leaning to negativity, which seems unfair. I have tried to balance that out being clear I had a lot of admiration for that person’s approach to a few things, like trusting people to do their job.

I had a nagging feeling a few months back I wasn’t on top of my game, the pace of my work had me relying too much on established approaches to work, the regular toolkit, y’know?, maybe too much muscle memory and not enough looking into approaches I hadn’t tried for a while, if at all. I’ve been making a list of things I want to check over, read further up on — and more importantly work through. I’ve done some reading and also some practice, starting with some things I needed a bit of wider thinking on (OKRs of all things) and dipping into some thinking about the overlap/gap of product and service — and getting others to think about these. Giving myself confidence and giving myself some follow up actions are both acceptable outcomes.

General life notes, including some of that culture

I found myself doing daily checks of the NHS App, a window into my GP notes, looking for an update on recent tests I’ve had (a lovely session having electric pulses into a hand and arm; an MRI scan).

Had a Tuesday night watching comedy. Some midweek lolz is good for the soul.

Went to Sushi Nakamura in Leeds for Kristin’s birthday meal. Some of the best sushi I’ve ever had. Watching the chef do all the work right in front of top us was fascinating. And got chatting to a couple of German dudes who were dining at the same time as us.

Took the boy to Manchester to take part in the British Bouldering championship thingie and was super proud he gave a big go.

A lot of time on trains last week meant I finally finished off Forget the Alamo, at last. Enjoyed doing Leeds to Paris by train, except the train back to Leeds standing outside Leeds station for ten minutes meaning I missed my connection and I needed to get back to see off the boy as he was going away from a week and a half and aaarrggghhhh fucking trains eh.

Enjoyed fitting some R and R in while I was in Paris. The Museum of Sewers isn’t obviously there, but if you’re nearby pop in, an hour walking around actual sewers. Petit Palais has a grand Theodore Rousseau exhibition on. Museum of Modern Art is excellent (and not as busy as places like the Louvre), and the size of the Dufy room isn’t something you grasp until you’re there. And it was relaxing looking at the Olympics come together across the city, on my walks or from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Also BISTRO DINING IS THE BEST.

The weekend was in Dublin. Dinners, first time at Amy Austin and again at Pichet, both excellent. Pichet is one of those French style eateries that has food that makes me feel fuzzy inside. Sunday lunch at The Seafood Cafe was sound too.

Went to the Guinness Storehouse and was so underwhelmed by it, like a shopping mall crossed with a theme park. Not really my bag. The follow up “tell us about your experience!!” email (and yes, they did use two exclamation marks) was so obviously a big old nosy into our drinking habits. Whatever gives Diageo consumer insights though. The view of Dublin from the top was alright. Had fun making some whiskey based cocktails at Roe and Co, the Jameson tour was alright (preferred the Teeling one a couple of years back) and we popped into the Whiskey History Museum as a little time killer and had a jolly time. Typing that out makes me aware that was a lot of whiskey.

Also, all those Germans in Dublin for the Rammstein gig was Quite The Thing.

Oh, and Germany reminds me: Euro 2024. Watched France’s opening game in Paris at a bar and everyone was just so chill. A world away from watching it… in a pub in England.

Running and fitness

🏃🏻‍♂️ 3 runs + 4 runs, 18.9 km + 27.9 km, totalling 46.8 km, average of 23.4 km each week. Yeah, that will do. 👍🏼
🚶🏻‍♂️ Tracked 52.2 km of walking over those two weeks (17.6 km + 34.6 km), yyyeeeaaahhh! 👍🏼👍🏼
🧗‍♂️ No climbs, which was fine. Did lots of other exercise.
🏋️‍♂️ No weights or aerobics sessions.

⚖️ Weight up a little to 88 kg, but aerobically I feel pretty decent at the moment. Wonder how much of the weight is more muscle that flab from the last couple of months’ digging in.

Race/organised runs plan. I track most activities on Strava.

Home improvements

Got the keys to the new house on 27 October 2023. Four months of renovation. Moved in start of March. Lots of things left to do.

Over the last two weeks:

Hung a heater in the back yard, because there's always a chill in the air.
Gave the shelves in the bathroom a good going over. We moved in and roughly organised stuff and slung them on the shelves. Now there is Order.

Interesting links (some of them)

Looking forwards

Work / work adjacent

Still looking for a longer term work thing but think it’s a long way off. Got half an eye on something permanent after the end of year chat, but who knows.
Start one of those blog posts I keep hinting at. For real.
More open calendar chats.
Super tired of events being after work on Thursday. It’s like a plague.

Life

Keep reading through those 400-odd browser tabs in my phone. Or dump them.

Health and fitness goals

Try and do 40km of running, nick 100km for the month.
Weight back down to 87kg. 🙏🏼
One weights/aerobic session.

Home improvement

Put up sail in back yard.
Weed the front garden.
Trim the hedge.
Fix the sideboards on by the oven.
Keep finishing cleaning the backyard’s paving.
Touch up the walls in bedroom 2.

The full home improvement log (needs the tasks sizing and prioritising)

Diary management

Say hi if you’re going to be at any of these/are at one of these.

Tuesday 25 June 2024
- Product in the Ether
Tuesday 2 July 2024
- Service Design Mornings (If you’re interested email Marianne: marianne@dxw.com)
Monday 8 July and Tuesday 9 July
- Work in London
Sunday 14 July
- Ilkley half marathon
Wednesday 17 July to Sunday 21 July
- Bilbao
Thursday 1 August 2024
- Give blood. You could too. Book a slot online.
Tuesday 6 August 2024
- Service Design Mornings (If you’re interested email Marianne: marianne@dxw.com)
Saturday 24 August 2024
- Field Day, Victoria Park, London
Tuesday 3 September 2024
- Service Design Mornings (If you’re interested email Marianne: marianne@dxw.com)
Sunday 15th September 2024
- Pudsey 10k
Monday 28 October 2024
- Fran Lebowitz, Barbican, London

Weeknote for 10 June to 23 June 2024