July 30th, 2021
In the spirit of transparency and candour, Kevin and Jill are publishing weeknotes reflecting on the what and why for their team.
Kevin’s notes
End of a big week, and heading into a week off — I am proper tired. I feel my weeknotes are of a higher quality if I write them later in the weekend, as writing on this Friday afternoon I feel the general haze of meetings, a warm home office, and 40-odd hours of work to reflect on. Oh and the aftermath of my 2nd dose (although big shoutout to our incredible healthcare system). With that preface/disclaimer, on to the notes.
Recently I admitted a weakness in gov financial literacy; this week, I took a crash course in procurement, helping score and award an SRFP, write an SOW, and scope another one. Having consulted for the past few years I’m plenty familiar with that dynamic of procurement, but it was net-new being on the admin side. I really enjoyed the process of scoring the BC Parks brand guidelines contract and extend my gratitude to the vendors who responded. Again from experience, it takes a lot of time to scribe a quality response to an RFP, an especial resource ask from smaller agencies. The desire to work with BC Parks from our vendor community is obvious and speaks to the strong feelings British Columbians have about the parks system, wanting to contribute to its evolution through contribution to the organization. All this to say — great learnings, helping grow my knowledge and toolkit in navigating our internal processes.
On the note of procurement, a recent callout on LinkedIn to meet service designers led to a couple of meetings with new-to-me vendors keen to engage with the ministry and learn about our problem spaces. Honestly, I loved what I heard in both conversations, refreshing to meet leaders who really ‘get’ the value of design and understand the intricacy of process, especially within the government context. We’ll be shepherding fairly major design projects come fall and I’m excited to have new proponents to run the work by for potential collaboration.
I also was lucky to catch up with some old friends and colleagues, comparing recent professional experience and just generally being humans appreciative of authentic connection in this crazy world. Thank you to the people who make time to connect and listen, the substance of what one might call ‘network.’
And without further adieu, BC Parks:
- The aforementioned brand guidelines contract was awarded! Setting up the process with our vendor, this project is going to fly by.
- We closed our latest round of recruitment via bcparks.ca after receiving ~50 submissions. This passive approach to recruitment worked out really well — I don’t think we would have had the intake capacity if we’d promoted it in any way. A new diverse set of folks to connect with through our design research activities this fall, happy to be ahead of the game here and resourced to make that work impactful from the jump.
- The bcparks.ca design team finalized the Homepage and Parks page templates and presented them to the stakeholder group. I’ve said it before, but I’m wholly impressed by the UX/UI process that produced these designs and the collaboration by the GDX/vendor design team. Even more excited to launch them into the world! Soon enough.
- But we also have a long way to go in delivering the fulsome site from a design perspective. A couple of tough planning discussions this week, making progress. Crunch time.
And like that, we’re out for a week on the road, headed up island to climb and run, then duck over the Squamish for a few more days of the same. Grateful for clear skies and moderate temps, and my heart goes out to those in the province effected by wildfire. Looks like a bit of rain in the forecast potentially? Fingers crossed.
Jill’s notes
I held a lot of space this week, and I couldn’t be more thankful. This week was packed yet uneventful. It seemed oddly dramatic yet calm. I think it was heightened emotions heading into a three-week vacation. I’m running on empty and ready for my first big break in over a year. I intend to read a combo of terrible mindless beach reads and the laundry list of digital transformation podcasts and books in the queue.
I’m struggling to convey a forest-through-the-trees approach to my colleagues. Reflecting, I need to step back and re-frame, layout the stones. I’ve been close to this for a long time, and pivoting is natural, even instinctual, for me. Did I rebel hard against the bureaucracy this week — may be too far? Or just right? All will settle in three weeks, and I’ll come back refreshed and open.
Most of the work this week was around stuff we can’t talk openly about (or it wouldn’t be in the spirit of confidence). A few highlights that don’t fall into a long-term planning category are below:
- We officially submitted two new concept cases to the OCIO for environmental protection and compliance, and enforcement. The team is shaping up, and we are on our way to a fantastic business case this fall. Thank you, Karen Li and the team, for your hard work!
- HR Voodo happened, and we have some classifications back.
- CSNR put on a killer update on the new Core Policy Chapter 6. I’m impressed by its simplicity and enhanced procedures. Kudos to all involved!
- I chatted operating model and a lot of Olympics with JP Fournier. There are few things I love more than geeking out about numbers, charts, and sports.
- I had an extraordinary demo with BC Parks, GDX and NTT on the new designs for BCParks.ca — Kevin is doing a great job teeing up this work, and we are fortunate to have snagged some brilliant minds.
- Finally, I caught up with Andy Calarco in the IIT. Grateful for his help in supporting our teams and expediting our hiring of all the dazzling talent we are indeed to need.
I’m so excited for what is to come this fall. Here is to disconnecting and family time.
