Dave Briggs' other blog

My good friend Carl Haggerty and I are really pleased to be kicking off a new monthly thing – The Change Makers. The first one is on Tuesday, 28th January 2025 at 11am and you can sign up for it now. We’ll be having a fairly open conversation about the broad topic of organisational change ... Keep reading

Ed Zitron: The people running the majority of internet services have used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user, turning the customer into something between a lab rat and an unpaid intern, with the goal to juice as much value from the interaction as possible. ... Keep reading

Dave Rogers answers the question Just what is ‘Test and Learn’? # – micropost 22849 Lloyd writes up his experience of new, location based social network thing Mozi. Just like it’s 2008 all over again! # – micropost 22865 Anything that helps me (and others) understand Wardley Mapping better has to be a good thing. Here’s ... Keep reading

It looks like – thanks to some heavy debugging and re-developing from Steph – the new way of creating the Daily Notes is working! I’ll write up the thinking about it and how it works shortly. # – micropost 22785 The Foundations of Great Product and Service Design by Carrie Swatten (via Roger).   # ... Keep reading

Digitisation, politicisation and the civil service by Martha Lane Fox: Today’s reality is clear: digital skills are no longer optional extras. Data analysis, digital service design, agile project management, let alone the nuance needed in understanding new AI tools, have become as essential to governance as policy writing and stakeholder management. This shift creates real ... Keep reading

Am testing a new way of doing my daily blogging. I’ve created a custom post type in WordPress, called ‘microposts’. This way, each of my ‘paragraphs‘ exist as separate items. For example, here is the permalink for this particular micropost. I have used ChatGPT to help me produce some code that will assemble them everyday ... Keep reading

My new shed, sorry, home office is coming along nicely. It’s quite big! # Transforming the DBT Intranet⬈ – where DBT = ‘Department for Business and Trade’. # Visualising Government as a Platform⬈ – by Ben Welby. # Getting into service design⬈, via Sarah Drummond⬈. #

A lot of people seemed to like the idea of the ‘Institute of Digital Public Services’ (IDPS) – admittedly a few didn’t, but not enough to convince me it isn’t an idea worth pursuing! How on earth to get something like that off the ground though? I must admit I am well outside my comfort ... Keep reading

Whoops, forgot to hit publish on Friday. # Another kerr-azy week of having too much to do and too little time and energy to do it. # A short post I put up on LinkedIn (and published here and on Localise⬈ as an archive) blew up in a modest way. It even attracted a comment ... Keep reading

Where’s the centre of gravity for conversations about how we can and should be leveraging the digital revolution for the benefit of society through our public services? I think about the flurry of activity when James Plunkett kicked off a debate a few months ago⬈ about ‘local GDS’ or the more recent excitement caused by ... Keep reading

My ongoing search for the perfect ‘everything bucket’ has led me to UpNote⬈. It looks good, but expect me to never mention it again. # Against the standardisation of product management⬈ by Roger Swannell. Am stealing this: standardise where interoperability is required, otherwise optimise for innovation # From ideals to realities: navigating complexities in adult ... Keep reading

I have not been feeling great for a few weeks now – generally run down I think although occasional bouts of toothache aren’t helping. This week has been particularly bad – like wading through treacle whilst being quite grumpy. I apologise to everyone who has come into contact with me 😬 Due to this, I’ve ... Keep reading

Am thinking again about the structure of my blogging here. I’d much rather than the individual paragraphs in these daily notes existed as posts in their own right, as well as being collected together for the whole day. That way I could publish each item as soon as I type them in, rather than waiting ... Keep reading

Ten reflections on design leadership⬈ by Martin Wright as he departs TPX Impact. # Gavin Beckett is moving on from Placecube to Public Digital, which is nice for him, but for us means he has written a thought provoking set of reflections⬈. # Your user needs are crap! (And so were mine.) Ten ways to ... Keep reading

Patient records and the NHS App⬈ – or why this stuff is really, really hard. # Southwark Council⬈ have made some interesting design decisions on their new LocalGovDrupal website. A week note from Catherine Howe⬈ should always be celebrated. # A gobbet from a piece I’m drafting for a project: Consolidation, harmonisation, standardisation… call it ... Keep reading

Is it really 13 days since I last posted one of these? Terrifying. Still, it means plenty of links to share. # Rich Pope: Government is not an app⬈ # Tom Loosemore: What we mean when we say “Be Bold”⬈ # 10 principles for the design and delivery of greener services⬈ # Mark O’Neill: Five ... Keep reading

Jukesie shares his ideas⬈ for the new Digital Centre Design Panel⬈. They are very sensible. # Steve⬈ has shared a really good looking intro to product management course⬈ – it’s online and free. # How government defines a service⬈ (via Neilly⬈) When we talk about a service, we mean all the things that government collectively ... Keep reading

Daily noting is rare at the moment, largely down to being busy, about which I should not complain! Lots of very interesting work, working with new people – which in itself is quite tiring. # LocalGovCamp last week felt different – more positive, ambitious, optimistic than it has been for a while. In one session ... Keep reading