Weeknote 12, for 6–10 September
It’s back to school and time to kick off some exciting work
Things I’m happy about
Information services goes into pre-discovery
I spent much of the last quarter socialising my information services strategy — which focuses on how we can reduce our content, technical and experience debt by refining how we approach our non-transactional or ‘information’ services that for one reason or another haven’t gone on GOV.UK.
The Digital Efficiencies team, which is being recruited, will tackle this problem, but to prepare them, we’re bringing in an taxonomist/information architect/content strategist to do some initial modelling of our current information services estate. It’s really exciting, important work that’s going to set that team’s discovery up for success.
Getting to know my ESFA colleagues better
It’s been decided that the remit of a Head of Profession is across all of DfE and ESFA (the Education and Skills Funding Agency), which means I have a lot of learning and meeting new colleagues to do. I’ve long known many of our lovely ESFA content designers through community, but I also need to know their contexts, their line managers and their processes. This week I’ve had brilliant conversations with colleagues in the National Careers Service and in Data Science, thinking about how we can bring in profession management so we’re all joined up.
Recruitment again!
We just closed two more recruitment campaigns — for G7 Seniors and SEO Content Designers. I’m really excited by the numbers of candidates we’re getting in — it’s picking up and I’m hoping that’s because more people are seeing DfE as an exciting place to do content design.
I also tried out something new and a little out of my comfort zone… I recorded a video about the role and why it’s great to work at DfE. The lovely folk at Working in Content offered me the opportunity to do it to complement our advert — and I’m glad I did. I really do like to think of this as democratising the ‘informal chats’ that occur when people want to find out more about a role. Take a look, and think about whether that’s something you might like to do for your roles in future!
Things that I learned
2 weeks away feels like a lifetime
Coming back to work after a couple weeks away was tricky. After some lovely but ultimately grey and chilly days in Norfolk, our household was focused on getting our elder child started at secondary and our younger child settled into Year 4. When I logged in, the number of Slack notifications and emails gave me the post-holiday blues and even today I found some things I had missed. But you have to be kind to yourself, and remember, others are still on holiday (or about to go on holiday) at that will be your chance to catch-up!
Offices are starting to get busy, and a bit loud, but it feels nice
I was back in the London office yesterday, and joined a bustling floor when I arrived. It felt really strange to have so many people around — it was actually LOUD — but there were some fabulous scenes of people crowded around walls that made me smile, though it did feel a little like I was watching my favourite 90s movie or something.
Things I read that I liked
Platforms and Services: the gov.uk architecture strategy — not just for techie folks. This strong and clear thinking of content publishing and presentation technology as platforms and services is super important to content design. It will enable us to do the things we constantly feel blocked from doing or only wish we could do.
Things I’m doing next week
- Chairing the x-gov Heads of Content meet-up. We’re all getting together on Monday, and I’m chairing a fabulous line of agenda items, from capability
- Going to Manchester! Each month, Covid-permitting, I’m going to visit a different DfE office. Manchester’s first up! Really excited to meet Pat, Laura, David and Amber IN PERSON for the first time, plus any other fortuitous meetings.
- Service Design in Gov conference on Thursday and Friday. Can’t wait to hear Cyd Harrell’s keynote.
