New blog. Moving away from ermlikeyeah stuff. Will move posts from ermlikeyeah.com over to here over the coming weeks. Time to get back to some good, healthy reflective practice/habits.

Work notes

At the moment I am mainly a product manager (PM) working for Create/Change on a service at HMPPS, for the next seven weeks until we “off board”/the team’s contract ends/my contract ends. We’re a “lean team” for these final weeks. I am splitting my time between PM and delivery manager (DM) stuff, the emphasis less on the product thinking, more on the service gluing. It’s nice to be in the weeds more. It feels a lot like DMs — accidentally or deliberately — create a zone that PMs can’t pass. How much of the relationship is crafted, as Matthew Solle gets at in his piece from 2016. I’ve promised myself I’ll write separate more focused blog posts on work.

Interesting chat about content design versus information design. 

Popped into Product in the (A)ether, a remote hour session for the product community. Over the last couple of years with all the life stuff and keeping my head down at work I’ve not been to many community sessions. Last few months I’ve been going again, wished I’d started back sooner. But onwards.

I heard “do more with less” three times this week. Feels a mantra for the modern times of working, at least since 2008, more-so the last 12-18 months as budgets have been slashed (but again like things felt in 2008 and then through the 2010s).

  1. Feel: How much have teams lost the knack of designing with the limits of what they know and then making something? (Versus spending time and time designing but not “delivering”.)
  2. Another feel: How much earlier shipping the thing to learn, but never learning from it as teams just move onto the next thing. LEAN abuse: The promise to be LEAN but failing too fullfil the promise?

Strong ways of working feel from this week: Video calls with more than four people that have the video on make me feel more fuzzy headed. Video calls with more than four people that have the video off I tend to process better.

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.

This week:

  1. Hung the last curtain rail (at last), in bedroom 2.
  2. Made a shelf to go on my side of the wardrobe and fixed it in.
  3. Built a frame to the side of the dishwasher, cut and fixed on a sideboard.
  4. Cut the sideboards to go either side of the oven.
  5. Weeded the front garden for the first time.

The home improvement log [Apple Note] (needs the tasks sizing and prioritising)

Running and fitness

🏃🏻‍♂️ Just two runs, totally 13.2km 😞

  1. Wednesday: treadmill, 7.9km
  2. Saturday: towpath near home 5.33km, heavy legs

❌ Was supposed to do Brighouse 10k on Sunday but dropped a knife on my toe on Saturday, so decided not to chance it.

👍🏼 Tracked 17.8k of walking (had Rosie most of the week).

🧗‍♂️ Didn’t climb on Thursday despite taking the son. Did some research/reading instead.

🏋️‍♂️ No weights or aerobics.

Weight: 88.6kg, up from 86.2kg two months ago. 😬

I track most activities on Strava

Race/organised runs plan [Apple Note]

That culture

  • Listened to Hawaiian Air, Friendly Fires and tried the most recent Sneaker Pimps album. I tried.
  • Weekly new Taskmaster (hello John Robins and your Half Man Half Biscuit T-shirt) only goes so far so started X-Men 97 to go.
  • Monday night trip to the cinema to watch Civil War. Really really good, really really interesting. And getting out on a Monday felt like a good start to the week.
  • Started watching X-Men 97.
  • Read about 10 pages of Forget the Alamo. 🙄 
  1. Wales: funding arts versus health and social care
  2. “Crime as a service”
  3. Flood prevention and digital sensors in Wakefield
  4. Matt Ballantine on NPS

Looking forwards

Health and fitness goals

  • Run at least 25km.
  • Going climbing.
  • Beyond a bagel a day (tops) avoid carbs.
  • Weight down to 88kg.
  • One weights/aerobic session.

Life

  • Need to plan a longer break.
  • Try and read some of those 400-odd browser tabs in my phone.
  • Accounts / taxes.
  • Post a weeknote — and on Monday.
  • Properly start looking for a new role for the start of June.

Home improvement

  • Sort the leak in the bathroom.
  • Fix the sideboards on by the oven.
  • Look into replacing the inside door locks.
  • Start clearing the backyard.
  • Touch up the walls in bedroom 2.
  • Hang some pictures.

Diary management

  • Giving blood, Tuesday 7 May 2024
  • Camp Digital, Wednesday 8 May 2024
  • Weekend in Dublin, 10-12 May 2024
  • Interesting 24, London, Wednesday 15 May 2024

Weeknote for 15 to 21 April 2024