Week(ish) notes S01E08
Hello I’m a product manager working on creating a new website for UK Parliament. I work with the utilities team who tackle the big things which impact on the work of the other teams.
This week there’s been a lot of change a foot (is that an expression? I googled it but I couldn’t find any info on it*). So I’ve decided to break the mould and do more of an update on things that have happened rather than my usual Highlights and Challenges.
Changes
Sooo… I’m going to be leaving Parliament in a couple of weeks to move onto exciting new pastures. I’m very pleased about this, but I’m also sad, because I love my colleagues and think the challenge of creating a new website for Parliament is an important one. I’ll talk more about the new job soon.
This means that I was planning on spending the next few weeks trying to work out what would happen to the utilities team after I have left.
On Tuesday we went into work with a rather hmmmmm what is that about….? meeting in all our diaries called ‘Ways of Working’. This revealed itself to be a shake up of the product teams working on the new website (down from four to three, not including utilities).
Ways of working — what do we think?
I’ll be perfectly honest and say, I toyed with what I would say about this in my week(ish) notes. It is probably the first time contemplated the dilemma of being honest and discussing internal stuff/protecting that environment/not saying things online I wouldn’t say in person.
But it feels dishonest for me to not explore how the changes in product teams will impact on the work colleagues are doing. Also, as I am somewhat detached from the situation as I am off — its probably easier for me to be more retrospective about the changes without actually being hugely impacted by them.
Am I being OTT? I think so. Calm down Gemma, its not a big deal.
So the only way I can think to do this is give my thoughts and recognise that these are not the same as other peoples. I’ll summarise in a few main points.
- Something needs to be done. We are at a point where it feels as though we are on the precipice of change. Not everyone is happy for a variety of reasons. Continuing with the status quo is not an option.
2. It is not a bad idea to reduce the teams down to three, but it needs commitment from everyone involved. If this doesn’t happen, then there is no point.
3. People can’t feel undermined. No one wants to feel that they are being chucked around or their work isn’t valuable. There is an option for moving teams — through a transfer window where people give their preferences (e.g you state if which team you want to be in). This has to be handled well. No one wants to feel like they are not cared for in the place they work.
4. Try and frame things as positive. Change is difficult for some people, others embrace it. Making changes happen when people feel it is an exciting and positive step which will lead to something better, is a good way to deliver things. My feelings were muted by the fact I am leaving, but if I wasn’t I think I would have felt a bit like there were so many unanswered questions and not injecting positivity into that would have made me feel a bit anxious and sad.
I personally think this is a good thing. But then again, I’m the sort of person who after planning on going to Thailand for six months before the Icelandic volcano in 2010 was like HOW EXCITING WHERE SHALL I GO THE WORLD IS MY OYSTER. I don’t like chaos in everyday life, but I do like it sometimes when things don’t go to plan…
So what happens to utilities?
I’ve mentioned before that the utilities team is a made up of the leads from each of the disciplines. So in theory, despite the changes to the product team structure, utilities could continue to function without any real change. The problems related to this though:
- who would be managing the team? I have put a lot of time into managing what utilities is doing and without someone taking over, who would be doing this?
- what happens with the decisions? We still don’t have a structure which facilitates utilities actually being able to deliver much, because its more of an advisory body than a delivery group.
These are the big questions I’ve been trying to figure out this week. One of the ways I’ve been doing this is to look at all the ongoing work utilities is doing and work out what could be picked up by other teams, what still needs a dedicated team and what else we need to think about.
The other thing that happened was that because it is August, everyone was on annual leave so I had to cancel the monthly meeting for utilities. This would have been the opportunity to get together to discuss all this stuff. But we didn’t.
Back on the guidelines train
This feels like one of the most important things for utilities. This is because A. any decisions which are made need to be evidenced and communicated to teams and b. most of the stuff in the backlog is about working out what to do on things which really just need guidelines.
I’ve gone on about this loads — check out last week for example. So the decision that I made with some of the team was that we would continue the guidelines work. Stevey is going to set up two sessions — one on working out what success looks like and another on consistent naming of components. And these two sessions will both happen after I have left or in my last week (last day 21 September). So Fred and Stevey will take the lead. I’m excited to see what comes out of it, and will continue pushing in the ways I can over the next few weeks.
Wtf are we doing about the stuff we were going to talk about this week?
This week the team was going to talk about landing pages and navigation. This didn’t happen. Now I need to see when that will happen.
Gem’s gem: My ex-colleague now bestie Sharan is the creator and editor-in-chief of Burnt Roti, a South Asian lifestyle [so much more than a] magazine. They are crowdfunding for: Threads of a British Muslim is a graphic novel that looks into one woman’s relationship with hijab and veiling. Check it out or support something else amazing that Sharan does.
*I discovered by asking a friend is it afoot — makes sense now. But I thought it was funny so I left it in there.
