Dan’s Weeknotes s07e17
Week ending 2020–11–20
Published in
4 min readNov 23, 2020
Writing these on a Monday. Can’t seem to get into a rhythm. Or maybe I want to separate work from non-work at the weekend more than I used to. Not sure.
Last week was alright.
What was good?
- I caught up with Jo for the first time in a while. Great stuff.
- ‘Unicorn Hour’ is where I take time out on a Monday to do something for my mental wellbeing in order to combat the fairly significant slump I was experiencing at the start of each week. This week I walked to a nearby park and did my French practice.
- We had some really nice feedback from Jo about the weekly, open invite, data trends sessions we run. It makes a big difference when colleagues tell you they value what you do.
- And speaking of the dashboard session, this really is a great thing that Tom and I put together. I am so happy about it. It is a practice I would repeat if I find myself in a similar role in the future¹. We record it on Zoom now and post it on Workplace from Facebook. I watched it back this week I am that much of a fan. If it was on YouTube I would hit like and subscribe. The most satisfying thing is how the members of the team have grown in confidence talking about the data they are responsible for, and they are consistently curious. It’s great when one of them comes up with a new insight or piece of analysis, or even just a puzzle that requires further investigation.
- Tom and I are working on some metrics for our wider leadership team’s high level outcomes. I tried a sort of ‘data crit’ session using Jamboard. It went fine, I think I’ll iterate the practice. Meaningful measurement is really hard.
- Pooja (data scientist) and Karthik (data analyst) took me through a high level data science environment architecture that I’d asked them to do. This was a big help, because I need to push for something along these lines to be implemented. It’s a way of working and a tool set that is distinct from software development. The deck Pooja and Karthik put together will help me increase awareness and understanding of where we need to get to with our data work.
- I had a call with Josh who’s going to start in a couple of weeks as a data architect. Really looking forward to having Josh in the team.
- I enjoyed listening to colleagues from other organisations in the charity sector about what they’re experiencing on a VCSEP working group video call. Of particular interest was hearing about client patterns and demographics.
- I’ve never listened to podcasts but last week I decided to give it a go. I’ve listened to most of ‘About Race’ with Reni Eddo-Lodge. I think it’s fantastic. I’ve learned a few things too. I’ve listened to episodes when I’m out for a walk or when I’m in the kitchen. A nice feature is Reni Eddo-Lodge shouts out to other podcasts which has given me a list of things to check out next.
- This blog post about OpenStreetMap was fascinating. Also 4.5 million edits a day!
- This blog post from my colleague Maddie is incredible, one of the most powerful things I’ve read in a long time:
What could have been better?
- I missed a presentation by Ireti (data architect) about the logical data model of the Citizens Advice network he’s developed. This was because it clashed with the school run and childcare. There are a few things coming up that clash with this too, like our second unconference (see episode 8). I’m not happy about it.
- That thing where the question is “is there anybody in your team who can help with this?” and the answer is no unless I can work out how to do it myself somehow.
- I’m finding it harder to be present in all of the places where things are happening than ever before. There is so much going on in the organisation.
- I’ve had some discomfort in the past couple of weeks. I think it’s due to my posture. Makes it harder than usual to focus.
What are you looking forward to next week?
- Nothing stands out. Maybe I’ll find another great podcast.
Thanks for reading. Hope you’re doing ok. There is good in the world. Stay safe. Fight racism.
Footnotes
¹ Or hey man I don’t know maybe I’d ask somebody else to do it because I’d be the boss. Or maybe I’d advise somebody to do it because I was a consultant.
