Last week felt full but spacious. I had time to really think about things and reflect on them as well as doing them. It was a great feeling. Also, our ‘new to us’ tent upgrade arrived so I spent time admiring that too which brought me joy.
Work wise, most of the week was spent in interviews for infrastructure engineers and preparing for the next delivery manager to join us.
I have really enjoyed being able to support Sukh with his recruitment campaign this round. I really enjoy interviewing people. I think I brought an interesting angle to technical interviews that, hopefully, helped identify the best folks for the roles. I can’t say I’m disappointed it’s over for this round (because I do find it very mentally tiring) but I would happily help out again. I’m also looking forward to seeing the successful candidates join Sukh’s team and bring their valuable skills to the table.
I went to a couple of show & tells last week that I thought were excellent. First was the housing transformation team that Dan is the Product Manager on. They did an amazing job of laying out how they are going about the work and giving some really interesting insights into the differences in approach we see from two very distinct groups of residents we call ‘leaseholders’. Their user research to date has been really interesting to get a glimpse into and I am looking forward to the next one.
Then there was the intranet team. That team also laid out how they were approaching the work really clearly and engagingly. The audience was really engaged here with a lot of their research participants, almost proudly, announcing themselves to the room. It was wonderful to see what a sense of ownership this team is already starting to foster with the rest of the organisation that their work is happening with them, not to them. Very very well done.
I had a couple of catch ups with Philippa last week where we diligently planned for our new Delivery Managers arrival. To say I am excited is an understatement. I sorted the Trello board adding in links and descriptions where there was previously placeholders and archived bits that we felt weren’t really relevant right now. I also created a ‘who to meet’ list and realised just how big Digital & Customer Services at Royal Greenwich is getting! Then I wrangled calendars and managed to get a good smattering of introductions into the diary. I have probably totally over planned and prepared but that’s what excitement does to me.
And that was my week. Bring on the next one where the delivery manager team will, at long last, be two people!
