These notes are a tool I use for reflecting, remembering (to counter my SDAM), networking within my profession, and public accountability. Read more here.
Hey you.
Doing monthly notes at the moment. Still preoccupied by work stuff I mostly can’t talk about, which is taking away some of the time, motivation and content for more frequent notes.
You’d think that would make this note shorter, but you’d be wrong!
Work, work, work
A right old mix of doldrums and elation.
Doldrums because there’s a lot going wrong, or slowly, or eluding me. Elation because that’s not how the boss or the Board sees it.
In the wise words of Dave Briggs, you have to find joy in making some progress on some fronts. My talented teams are working hard and making plenty of progress to be proud of. It’s mostly the going that’s tough. But see Billy Ocean for more thought leadership.
I did a little talk this month on product-centric thinking, at a digital leadership development thing for culture sector execs.
Spent a long time prepping for it cos, hey, I’m a prepper, but kept roughly within the one hour prep per minute speaking rule of thumb which (for me at least) is spot on every time.
My slides are here, with speaking notes, if you want a look.
The topic gave me a chance to steal a few of these brilliant slides from Jennifer Pahlka. Plus I (and Gemini) hit upon a phrase I’ll be using from now on: “expectations are set by giants, not peers”. Another way of talking about those pesky raised expectations.
It paired nicely with a talk on the same topic from the excellent Eva Lipárová. So much so that Ash (whose event it was) is pondering turning it into a regular webinar by the 3 of us. I’m well up for trying to unlock things for digital folk in the GLAM sector by building more of this kind of understanding at the top. Plus it’ll give me a better ROI on all that prep.
As external work often does, doing this talk brought internal challenges into focus for me too.
I’ve had some success shifting things from project to products at the BFI, despite straitened times. But each bid for enduring funding has somehow contorted back into finite and milestone-linked money, and it adds up to a lot less than the true cost of ownership for how digital the org already is, let alone wants to be. Which includes fighting the ghosts of multiple previous grant-funded projects, coming back to haunt us with increasing malevolence.
It’s also helped me better understand some recent nervousness we’ve encountered about releasing stuff – in that colleagues have been mistaking the product’s go-live moment for the end rather than the beginning of its development. It’s easy to forget what others don’t know; and I thought this stuff was better understood by now, but it isn’t.
Plus I’ve realised I’m not even transitioning from a 5-yearly capital and waterfall project cycle to continuous product teams – there wasn’t a funded tech refresh cycle to begin with, so everything’s just been getting older and crapper.
Meanwhile lots of good stuff afoot…
The London FIlm Festival ticket on-sale (BFI’s equivalent of a Glastonbury/Oasis/Silksong moment) went perfectly smoothly, with lots of nice feedback. Proud of and grateful to the teams, it doesn’t happen by chance.
I booked my own LFF viewing. Seeing 11 things, mostly galas on official hosting duties.
BFI Player is now on Vizio TVs in the States, and we hit some milestones on long-running backend and frontend refactoring.
We’re making progress on data visibility and policies to de-shadow our shadow IT; and we’re asking ourselves some difficult questions about platform architecture.
With others, I presented to Governors on BFI Player performance, upcoming promotional and content plans, and our cool new cinemas site (currently in private beta). And we sought the input of our external digital advisory board on cyber.
This all went swimmingly thanks to confident presentations and Q&As by my brilliant colleagues, and (as mentioned) the resulting full-throated support of the board and wise counsel of our advisors went a long way to reminding us / me of our strengths and wins.
I met up with High Wallace for the first time, just before the Board so he got me in doldrums and venting mode (sorry Hugh!)
It’s not all work, work, work
I turned 49. Did a Sainsburys checkout attendant press “visibly over 25” a bit faster than usual, or did I imagine it? (Buying non-alcoholic beer, in case you’re wondering if I’ve fallen off the wagon).
I am deriving the most pure pleasure right now playing Puzzle Bobble Everybubble with the kids. They beat me, because I’m also mentally over 25, but I put up a good fight.
Second most pleasure atm is from crunching leaves in the autumn sun.
Son 1 passed his driving test. Now we’re in UCAS mode. He’ll turn 18 next month. 🤯
We spent a fortune this month on a new dishwasher and several car repairs, groan.
I’ve booked a tattoo appointment to get a Black Rabbit of Inlé from Watership Down on my forearm. (The colourful toy robot is still planned but can wait, this comes first).
“Pipe dream” refers to smoking opium, who knew? Probably you.
Thoroughly enjoyed this comment on a TikTok video about 90s rave tune by Altern-8:
🔎 Found, interesting 🧐
A treasure trove of models from John Cutler for understanding your company’s operating system with accompanying webinar (it makes much more sense if you watch).
All policy constrains good action as well as bad – excellent thoughts from Harry M on how to approach company policy creation/review.
Not much out there on Britcard yet but James O’Malley is a good place to start. I’m all for it, it’s been a long time coming.
The lovely king of clear communications Russell (of presentation tips and Powerpoint book fame) is running a free presentation club.
This post from PD on cyber readiness is the first time I’ve seen anyone link service mapping with cyber security – and I like it!
Lots to like also in this post from Catherine Howe, in particular “digital everywhere” and thinking, feeling and doing”.
An easier way to manage vaccinations in schools – excellent work here done with my old GDS running mate Stuart Cullum and his company Good Machine.
There’s a lot of useful clarity of thought in the Ada Lovelace Institute’s strategy.
Plus this haul, all excellent and worth your time:
- Unlocking content potential: a report on organising structures and capability
- The strategy is enquiry
- How to See the Blind Spots That Maintain the Current System, Useful or Useless
- Build vs buy? That’s possibly the wrong question
- DACI, RACI, RAPID, and PANDA: ways of assigning roles and responsibilities
- The unit of delivery is the team
- Immersive Art Exhibitions Are Everywhere and They’re Awful
- Decision making at the right level with Hats, Haircuts and Tattoos
- Where can councils start sharing effectively?
- Psychological Safety: The hard, quiet work of building brave spaces
- Our work so far on service patterns
Listening, watching, playing, reading
🎬One Battle After Another. A thrilling and all-too relevant satire of authoritarianism and the endless unwinnable culture wars; but it didn’t entirely grab me because of its odd Pynchon tone. Thinking about it a lot since though, and Sean Penn was phenomenal. 4 stars? PTA’s third best film after There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread?
🎬 RoboCop rewatch. Way better than I remembered and another satire of authoritarianism. Also a better Frankenstein adaptation than most (I haven’t seen Del Toro’s new one yet).
🎬 The Sting rewatch. Less good than I remembered.
🎬 Brides. Preview at the BFI with director, writer, cast and producers. Really good, incredible performances, and I have also thought about this a lot since.
🎬 Unknown Number, The High School Catfish – WOAH. Properly shocking.
📺 Ink Master season 10. Here We Go series 1. New Taskmaster. Project Runway season 21. Worst season of PR ever but the right person won.
🪦 RIP MTV Catfish ☹️
🕹️ Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure and Puzzle Bobble Everybubble!
📓 Garth Marenghi’s Incarcerat
🎧 Coach Party, Caramel and Herbie Hancock, Sextant. I had no idea this existed and I’m OBSESSED.
Distractions
- RADDLE – my new fave daily puzzle game
- I’m Not a Robot – gamified Captcha fun
- Common Mythconceptions via Giles
Thanks for reading. Bye!
