I have been mostly looking after myself by making space.
This has involved keeping my calendar blocked so I have sufficient time to plan and reflect. I’ve also, consciously, waited to ‘do’ things rather than jumping on them as soon as the email/message arrives. I’ve had varying levels of success with this and am finding it really hard to pause before doing. I am, 1000%, a do’er’.
We have welcomed Lorna as a user researcher and Alysia as content support for Eleanor into the project. We also had Alex join us as the product manager. It’s all getting very very exciting.
I got to sit in on some interviews that Eleanor and Lorna were running and it was great. I haven’t been able to do that for a year or so and I really enjoyed it. It’s so encouraging to see just how much you can learn from a focussed, structured conversation with someone. I am very much looking forward to seeing what the team can synthesis once our research is done!
We had a kick off to think about our goals and vision. We articulated what we thought our starter for 10 will be by using a combination of hopes and fears and the worst we could do exercises. I always enjoy the worst we could do because it’s great fun to try and think of ways to actively mess something up! I also learned a tonne about how to use and style Miro to set the session up. I’m still a total novice but I’m better than I was last week so #winning.
The focus for this week is the team. getting to know each other and starting to plan how we will work together.
I had fab conversations with Edmund about how I role model the values I promotes as a delivery manager. It was a lovely moment for me to reflect on that. I am proud that I do live the values I try to promote to teams about self improvement and reflection. It also left me feeling that I do have a lot to offer to colleagues other than just my ability to deliver things.
I also really enjoyed meeting Matthew who has joined us as a policy and engagement officer. Although we talked mostly shop, I got a strong sense that we’re going to work practically and well together on the back up work we need to do.
Another great conversation was with Dan who’s joined us as a product manager too. We had a chat about how a product manager and a product owner are different and how we have worked with each others disciplines in the past. Again, really enlightening and reassuring that I think product and delivery will have a wonderful future together providing we keep those conversations rolling.
