Retrospective July 2021
Generally, the lessons from this month are that setting goals for yourself that have lots of external dependencies makes it harder to achieve those goals, and that achieving goals takes time, which is always limited and not always sufficient to achieve all goals at the same time. Where there are too many goals for the available time, choices have to be made.
Contributing to the digital transformation of the charity sector
How programmes, projects and product fit together. Ongoing. And more complicated than first thought. I presented some initial concept of how they might interact structurually, e.g., projects are aligned to programmes and product spans projects, but it doesn’t really have any depth to it yet. My idea of the ‘the product octagon’ to replace the usual triad of product, engineering and design might help. In our context (maybe) it should be programme, project, product, development, design, content, delivery and impact that drive the direction of the product, but figuring out a model to explain how those eight roles inetract is going to take more time.
Requirements and service blueprinting for the next versions of the product are still ongoing and getting more complex every day. This goal is partially acheived for July and will carry over into August with the intention of getting to an agreed scope following the requirements gathering work.
I attended the Finance & Risk subcommittee meeting and we agreed our recommendations to board about changes to our investments. There’s a learning opportunity for me in underdstanding investments for charities here but I don’t really have the time at the moment.
I didn’t get any feedback on my Interface – Integrate – Iterate emails. A couple of people signed up but I didn’t do anything to promote the emails or ask anyone for feedback, mostly due to not having enough time. I’m going to drop this project until October when I have more time.
Learning about innovation, technology, product and design
Blockchain exam, and so module, completed. I don’t have the result yet but doing the exam felt fairly easy.
Following a meeting with my supervisor I wrote and submitted for feedback my literature review and research methodology so this goal is met. I still need to make some improvements to both but August’s main goals will be around conducting and analysing the research. In fact, August will pretty much be spent finishing my dissertation.
Wrote weeknotes as planned. I continue to find them helpful for reflecting on the week, reminding myself of some of what I did and improving my writing skills, which I think contributed to making exams and assignments easier to write.
Leading an intentional life
Continuing to live a digital nomad lifestyle and travel around the coatline of England, Wales and Scotland. It feels more and more like the best lifestyle decision I’ve ever made, and I’ve been talking about it at work a bit more.
I got to 311 this month, so missed the target of 325. I spent more time studying than walking.
Achieved a runway of 26 months, and did some planning for future finances.