can i post in the past? Friday weeknote on Saturday. 3
obviously I’m always banging on about pensions in terms of civil service benefits but do we mention on Civil Service Jobs that the Cabinet Office VPN allows you to watch iPlayer when abroad? we do not. is that an open goal missed? it is.
Lauren Currie mentioned You’re Doing Great in her opening talk of the Service Design Fringe Festival. apparently it’s an example of service designers levelling up! Funny that 1. a tiny thing me, Sam and Iso started to get Iso feeling better about freelancing is now being mentioned as…well, something bigger than hanging out with a couple of your fave morons 2. oh how we don’t acknowledge our achievements - I spent some of the first half of the year berating myself over lack of progress on side projects, but YDG keeps bubbling away as a useful thing to have put into the world - so I should take some credit for that eh.
a designer at GDS shared the slides for an “intro to service design presentation” by Kate Tarling and Ben Holliday. it’ll be from a few years ago as Ben was still at DWP according to the slides. it’s a very good set of slides and I imagine the talk was equally excellent. however because it is so good, I have a (slightly tongue-in-cheek) suggestion: a single deck for these talks that all service designers in gov use - communism for service design talks basically - because how much human capital is spent making new, slightly edited versions of the same talk? Sometimes I feel like I spend half my life making slightly different versions of the same deck (your mileage may vary)
yes, someone in a meeting this week said human capital - more pleasing than human resources I thought, but maybe that’s because it sounds a bit like Das Kapital and clearly that’s where I’m at right now.
stories from a plane: I had a connecting flight this week. the first flight was late leaving Heathrow and I nearly missed the next plane. but I didn’t, because at the connecting airport they put me straight in a lil minivan, like the kind we had at school to go to hockey matches at other schools, and drove me and the other two passengers for the next flight straight to the plane. how do I get more of that Taylor Swift airport treatment cos I am very here for it.
on the way back I got berated for not having a red tag on my hand baggage. I used the electronic check in machine so I didn’t have to queue at a desk and had no idea I needed a red tag. “I didn’t know” I said, “you have to read” in response. here’s an idea: don’t offer electronic check in if you need to see people’s luggage to put a tag on it. Austrian Airlines, you build me up then you bring me down. I thought you loved me but it seems you just don’t care.
Congresswoman
Congresswoman
Congresswoman
one last service design moan (if a service designer moans, is it always a service design moan? almost inevitably): we’re off to the Royal Festival Hall tonight to see Hannah Gadsby. obviously when I bought the tickets I said we’d pick them up cos what’s with £3.50 or however much it is? I have been known to use the postal service and I don’t believe it’s that much for a stamp, an envelope and some human processing time. anyway. Catherine went to pick up the tickets on Wednesday cos we’ll both be a bit squeezed for time tonight. “oh, there’s been a process change, we sent them out last week. it takes 10 working days for them to arrive. we can only reprint on the day of the show.” 1. 10 days means the tickets arrive after the event 2. ain’t no one told me they were posting the tickets 3. srsly if that’s the policy, say so and then busy people won’t waste their lives getting off the 68 before they have to.
lest this turn full moan, our plumber texted us the fix for our broken boiler this week, so now not only has my girlfriend shown a natural aptitude for plumbing, but it means we have TWO yes TWO qualified people we can text about house repairs and renovations. it’s a far cry from choosing people based on the latest East Dulwich Forum posts like I used to. do you need a plumber in SE London? call Dave from McHow, you’re welcome!