Monthnote: January 2024
It’s been another busy month on the NHS App. We completed the rollout of the new design and information architecture, put some major new functionality live for all users and produced plans for April to June 2024 (also known as 2024/25 Q1).
I hope you like planning too
I was involved in 3 separate planning events in January, with another to follow in early February.
First up — Big Room Planning for Product & Platforms. This brought together the many many programmes in our sub-directorate, from digital vaccinations to digital primary care to digital citizen (NHS App, NHS website, NHS login). It was the first time we’ve attempted this and it was great to see the big picture. I was able to make several important connections between what we are doing and other teams’ priorities.
NHS App integration prioritisation. Another first! The purpose of this session was to take a holistic look across NHS App integrations on multiple teams’ backlogs, and prioritise those we will work on in 2024/25 Q1. Prioritisation in this space is kind of interesting because it’s not entirely driven by value and strategic direction — we also have to take into account the readiness of the third parties to do the work required to integrate.
Finally, we held our third round of NHS App PI Planning. I wrote about our priorities and principles for the next quarter in a separate post, but the event ran smoothly and we now have a detailed (but still draft) plan for 2024/25 Q1. The main feedback we got was a desire to do this in-person next time, so that’s our plan for planning.
NHS App roadmap
We updated the NHS App public roadmap: https://digital.nhs.uk/services/nhs-app/future-developments
Now that I’ve refreshed this a couple of times, it’s clear there are some issues with the format. ‘Recently delivered’, ‘Working on now’ and ‘Working on next’ are all still good headings but the way in which we’ve grouped the product areas no longer works. The high-level goals and objectives also need rewriting.
The level of detail we provide feels about right, but I sometimes tie myself in knots when I describe what we are doing. I don’t want to be too specific about solutions because we are often still working things out, but that can lead to my descriptions being vague or verbose. The shorthand we use to cover this gap internally could give our external audience the wrong idea.
UKGovcamp
It was great to see so many people turn out for this, and to bump into so many colleagues and associates. The sessions on digital ID and Discovery-Alpha-Beta-Live were both great. The pitching process didn’t quite work for me, but I understand why the old way of doing it wouldn’t work with the larger crowd.
My cultural highlights of the month
- Pandemonium at Soho Theatre. Some of the imagery (Matt Hancock emerging from the swap, Liz Truss crumpling into dust) is burned onto my retina for all time. First-rate satire.
- Civilization VI. This might be my favourite instalment of the game series. I really wish that wasn’t the case as it has the potential to be a massive time-sink. I should probably uninstall it.
