August 26th, 2022
In the spirit of transparency and candour, we publish weeknotes reflecting on the what and why for the ENV service transformation team.
Kelsey’s notes
This was a pre-holiday week and my mind was feeling a little mushy and pulled in many directions (Kevin and I have the all the August feels these days). I’m looking forward to some time off next week and coming back refreshed in early September to push forward some ideas to delivery.
Feedback for me this week — share more openly with the team the meta and micro of my weeks and thinking.
Quick snapshot of the week:
Moved forward with planning some digital leadership training for the Climate Action Secretariat team this fall. Leaning to in-person sessions for the human connection and change of pace. Looking forward to getting invites out in early September.
Met with Hayden Lansdell, who started the Data Innovation Program, to continue scoping approaches to understanding ministry needs for climate data.
Scored service design vendor submissions for the compliance and enforcement file. Great to see such great submissions and a reminder to treat your vendor partners well — communicate with them, ask for their feedback on your RFPs and ensure you have a sense of their needs.
Attended a Digital Plan workshop w/the Digital Investment Office. Really appreciate the space to zoom out to discuss the supports and vision that can help shift an organization towards digital ways of working. So nice to be in-person and re-connect with some folks I haven’t seen in years!
Continued to lean into the upcoming release of the CleanBC service platform MVP in mid-September with support from GDX and GCPE. So impressed with the pace of the team and drive in these final weeks before launch.
Connected some dots between web teams and product teams across the Ministry — and hoping to weave these together more clearly this fall.
Dusted off my content design and plain language skills to review some fairly heady web copy.
Connected with the folks in/outside government and the STB team 1:1 to talk career opportunities, growth and what lies ahead for digital services in govt.
Always continuing to build my understanding of the sector IM/IT landscape and approaches to capital/future planning, digital development and agile teams across various teams and touchpoints.
Got up to speed on the Modern Engagement Tools work from the Environmental Assessment Office that is leading a refresh of government’s digital public engagement tools — H/T to that team for their flexible approach to meeting/anticipating user needs.
Excited for the EPD agile Product Team onboarding this week and what lies ahead!
See you in a week!
Kevin’s notes
I feel the familiar end-of-summer burnout coming on; I have a tendency to really go for it when the days are long and weather warm, stretching weekends from Friday evening to Sunday night. This, combined with busy workweeks, can make for a bit of compounded fatigue by the dog days. It’s been a busy August across the Service Transformation Branch’s portfolio, CleanBC especially. Why all this implicit disclaimer preface before getting to the meat of things? There will be no deep reflections, just quick hits before sliding off into the weekend.
- Score the competition for the next round of Compliance and Enforcement design research. High quality responses from many of our vendor partners, glad to see the way we frame the work to be done resonating with folks.
- Attended a demo of the Modern Engagement Tools work going on out of the Environmental Assessment Office. Sid’s team is doing great things designing and delivering this platform; as well, I followed up w/ Sid on who they’ve been working with across gov (mostly from a technical perspective). As we move into major dev initiatives w/ EPD and C+E I want to be aware of every corner of the organization that can help if useful!
- Spent time w/ Parks and OXD strategizing approach and roughing roadmap to bcparks.ca switchover. I won’t make any bold predictions on when this may happen but I’m more optimistic than ever on an expedited path to a final sunsetting of the legacy system.
- Attended an exemplary sprint review from Parks; as I commented at the end of the session, I’m struck by the deep and sustaining transformation across the org, from a focus on outside-in evidence driving policy and service trajectories to working in the open, cross-pollinating learnings and driving improvement through silo breaking and embracing interconnection.
- Participated at an in-person workshop for the new BC Government Digital Plan, spearheaded by CITZ. Well designed and executed for a highly engaging (and for some reason, exhausting) 3 hours. Well done team!
- Attended EPD’s first user research / agile team onboarding session. With inceptions ceremonies next week, things are really happening.
- Rode along on CleanBC; Allieren has done an amazing job taking the reins as PO, orchestrating timelines, approvals, and exec reviews. I’ll be around as a support layer through to MVP launch, all hands on deck in this final sprint.
The opinions and views expressed in this post are solely the author’s and do not represent those of the Province of British Columbia or any other parties.
