Weeknote 23: Thunderstorm

Just as I started writing this, I was thinking about how grey it was outside and oh right ok a thunderstorm's started. A bit gloomy but very good weeknote writing conditions.

I've been on the rubbish side this week. Had a cold that I'm now starting to recover from, finally. It meant I wasn't really ill enough not to work but it was very annoying. Stuffy, sore throat, lost my voice, the works. That on top of recovery from a sensitive back that I mentioned last week means I've been feeling extra sorry for myself.

Having yesterday and Monday off I'm hoping will alleviate this. I'm already feeling more serene switching my mind off from work and the guilt of feeling like I should be always doing.

But what was I doing?

  • Helped think about how we rollout the new brand, stuff like:
    • the shape of the feature flag which contains the new brand
    • how we communicate that flag
    • thinking about different set ups our users have and how much they'd need to do themselves to get up to date
    • what the 'decay' on the old brand is
  • Worked more on a way to toggle the rebrand feature flag in our review app, ironing out the last bits of code review and writing tests (I know it should be the other way around I should write tests first I know I know)
  • Kept an eye on what the squads updating the header and the footer are doing and if there's anything to account for in my feature flag work
  • Helped Kat analyse results from our UX Survey as it pertains to comments about tech
  • Had my end of year performance review

The website's blue now

I can finally talk publicly about the rebrand of GOV.UK. This project has been in the works for about a year now, both involving and not involving us, and we've been focused as a team almost solely on updating govuk-frontend with the new brand for the past 2 months. I feel obliged to say that we would've really liked to talk about this stuff and work in the open a lot earlier, in line with our community principals. I'll keep my opinions on us being told not to do that to myself. Same for how I feel about the rebrand itself.

What I will say is: Please give the design system team some grace ie: try not to make the design system's support channels an emotional outlet for how you might be feeling about this. The team and some good eggs in GDS have tried really hard to steer this in the absence of more positive, collaborative structures.

Something I've been hoping is that we'd be able to use this mass rollout as an opportunity to make things better and that seems to be coming to fruition. Stuff like reviewing link states for service navigation, iterating our wider strategy for feature flags, documenting our shared states and broad visual language etc. We often have to operate on the assumption that there'll be a long tail of adoption so having a bit more authority to prompt people to update is actually quite nice. I don't agree that policing services to stay up to date is the right approach long term but it makes things a bit easier for once.

Feedback

My end of year was last week. That went fine, I'm stable, content, engaged etc. It was quite interesting reading my feedback. A few things I noticed:

  • When my line manager asked me to summarise my positive feedback, I struggled to sum it up from memory because I'd only collected themes from critique. I don't think that's a problem, I prefer critique as something I can measurably improve, but maybe it's a reminder to not gloss over positive feedback.
  • A few comments about my patience and the brashness with which I present my opinions. I've been on the team 3 years now so I'm very familiar with the product and actually quite attached to it. However I wonder if that's led to a lack of boundaries with the team which I maybe need to reaffirm. Teammates have also commented though that they appreciate my directness, sometimes in the same breath that they noted I'm too pushy, so I think it's still valuable but maybe I need to dial it back.
  • One bit of feedback in particular noted that I don't need to 'be everywhere'. I think that's quite insightful and ties to the point above about my attachment to the team. I do get very absorbed in chats and problem solving within the team whilst also trying to do my programming work. Maybe being more focused will help me feel less overwhelmed and less responsible.

Not work

It's been a bit insular this week because of my ills. No Jiu Jitsu this week as a result of the cold and giving my back a rest which kinda sucked, but my hope is that I can return next week with feeling. I've ended up making a nice amount of time for some cultural stuff though which is all part of the healing process.

The cultural stuff

Last weekend we went to see I'm Still Here. My review is that it deserves that Oscar and more. I've got a loose understanding of Brasil's dictatorship period by way of my wife but this was very educational, besides being a beautiful, tender family story. Go see it. Consider bringing tissues.

Then yesterday we popped down to Dulwich Picture Gallery to see the Tirzah Garwood exhibit. Her story is quite tragic but she made some very wholesome art. A really neat mix of media as well. Also, the person who writes the descriptions for the art at DPG really loves their job.

I'm including this here too because games are art as well, I've gone back in time and picked up Monster Hunter Rise. I was big into 3 and 4, and all the chat about that new MH game prompted me to revisit Rise, which I let pass me by. I remember right away why I was so into those old games. Beating up those dragons feels great. And they finally cracked movement by letting you zip all over the place! Superb.