Weeknote 2019:7
HMPPS
I’ve been tidying up the Receptions work and preparing for what are (effectively) sales pitches next week — one at the weekly Show the Thing, and the other for a group of around 10–12 people who would ultimately be delivering the service we’re recommending within an already existing product.
Although we think this is the right thing — minimising the creation of unnecessary new products in favour of expanding a service that just works — this is definitely not the easy thing! It will involve asking for this thing to be prioritised before other items in their backlog — and likely stepping on toes of those in the team who may want to take a different approach, and being a bit annoying. It’s all for the users, tho…
Service design approaches are infinitely more interesting to me than transactional ‘hero’ products. I mentioned in my last weeknote that navigating these ‘as is’ constraints is the real work on the way to delivery.
A few things that inspired me to keep going this week:
- Audree Fletcher’s tweet thread likening the slow burn success of the Macarena to service design
- A gorgeous, meditative reader on the enduring relevance of Ursula le Guin’s Carrier Bag of History
- The role of ‘Boundary Spanners’ in government collaboration
I also gave a talk at the revamped ProductTank Yorkshire.
I took the ‘What is Product’ theme fairly literally, starting off with some definitions, and thinking about where the term ‘product’ came from. Products are built primarily to solve problems — but as we know, the framing of those problems is critical.
In the criminal justice system, we can of course think about solutions to fix some of the pain points experienced by our users, but it doesn’t take much zooming out before bumping into some hefty systematic injustice. A hyper-focus on solutions makes it easier to ignore the bigger picture.
By making prisons more efficient, just what problems are we solving? This is where work such as the Prison Receptions project is so important — by understanding how things join together through the end to end user journey, we can think about opportunities rather than solutions. I am personally much more comfortable with this language — and wonder if others agree.
I haven’t given a professional talk for a while and was quite nervous beforehand, so thank you to fellow speakers, organisers and attendees — a lovely bunch.
Maintenance
Two weeks to go! Apart from some mad logistics and lists of lists, things feel very happy at the moment — we’ve a super programme, enthusiastic speakers and a lot of goodwill behind us. People are good.
I am also EXTREMELY proud of my pal Justine for getting the Non-Pavilion in the V&A’s Sackler Courtyard off the ground in a matter of weeks. Inspired by discussions of degrowth, the space will host discussions inviting visitors to engage with what the good life looks like with less.
I’ll be speaking there on behalf of Maintenance Festival as part of London Design Festival on Sunday 22nd.
