Ways of working
👍🏽 Inclusive by design: Accelerating digital transformation for the global goals has been published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It includes practical advice, inspiration, and case studies for governments and development partners who want to take an inclusive approach to digital transformation and service delivery. Public Digital is really proud to have supported UNDP with this policy brief.
👏🏻 Blog post Don’t start with the data by researcher Mavis Machirori from Ada Lovelace Institute urges us to take a people-centred approach. Data itself plays an important role in highlighting inequalities but in healthcare, “data-processing practices such as the ways it is collected (or isn’t), the way it’s labelled and interpreted, and how it’s used in regular and emergency healthcare provision may reveal the discriminatory ways that marginalised social groups are considered and treated.” Lesson: zoom out – embedded practices can widen inequalities.
🇨🇦 In his latest post, developer Paul Craig reflects on the differences between his previous UK Government team and his current Canadian federal department. Main takeaway in the headline: For the love of God, hire a Designer and a Product Manager. He covers the levers we need in place to hire people into these roles when it’s not the norm. Long but logical. Worth the read.
💪 Nice piece from researcher Catherine Howe who unpacks what it means to be resilient in the digital age and how this differs from being efficient. “We have been pursuing efficiency for a long time and have cut structures and processes in doing so. But this is no longer enough. We have to reinvent those structures and processes for a more networked and digital age and reflect what we have learned about the need to create organisations that are designed to flex and adapt.”
🤔 Loads to unpick and consider in this interview with Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram. Fascinating on product direction and the perilously poised interdependence of consumer wants/needs versus a business agenda. Interviewer Casey Newton presses Mosseri on Instagram’s u-turn on recent ‘TikTok-y’ product changes which were arguably swayed by major celebrity stakeholders. Paraphrased short answer: “We took a risk, it failed. We’ll learn from this and try again.” Time is of the essence by the looks of the dissatisfaction in the comments. And might tedium become a painful new problem?
🌟 Agile Communication specialist and Public Digital network member Giles Turnbull is running his Working in the open course (*in person* and via Content Design London). People working in most roles – and at all levels – would benefit from signing up. Invaluable for anyone who must ‘communicate up’ to manage stakeholders. Giles’ book, The agile comms handbook is available here.
💚 Good to see our friends at IDEO (also part of the kyu collective) launch their ‘this work can’t wait’ site. These design principles feel very relevant – they’re responsible and made with the climate-era firmly in mind. Take note. |