Weeknotes  

Monday 10 May - Sunday 16 May 2021

I took a break last week from Weeknotes, primarily because I had forgotten to keep a log of each day and so found myself struggling to remember things worth sharing.

I’ve decided that it’s OK to miss a week now and then.

Jabbed 💉

• Had my 1st Covid vaccination! As I’m under 40 the UK NHS offered me the Pfizer BionTech flavour of corona kicking goodness.

• Started saying hello to users and stakeholders of the service I work on.—This past sprint we met remotely with LandStack who are doing interesting work to collect data and build tools to help people find planning applications, allocations and land availability assessments.
  —It was good to hear their story and to talk about their concerns about planning data as well as get feedback about the work of the Digital Land team.

• Worked with Colm to update the design of data records page on the digital land site - Adding a new section (tab) to provide details of whether or not it has been referenced by other records.

• Helped Katie (User Researcher I work with) to design and plan some workshops we’d like conduct with groups of users and stakeholders.

• Tried ‘Nova’ a native mac code editor from Panic Software.
  I currently use VS Code but every now and then it feels slow and overcomplicated for what I need.

• I went back to the gym since my last weeknote. I want to lose weight and feel better about myself because for quite a while I have essentially abused my body and used food as a way of burying my emotions.

  All of us have suffered during this pandemic and I had an incredibly stressful 2020. I noticed just how much physical exercise helps my mental health.

  The pandemic has impacted my fitness and progress because it forced Parkrun and Gyms to close, both of which helped me stay motivated and active.

Linknotes

• Invisible interface A thesis by Zeno Kapitein examining flow in digital tools.

• What is a product? - Most product managers implicitly know what a product is when they see it. But it is very hard to define. Sam Buddington gives his take.

• A better roadmap - A framework for teams and product managers to understand the “big picture”.

• Use an AeroPress to make your morning coffee? I asked twitter for coffee recommendations and tips.—One link I was sent was to James Hoffman’s Ultimate AeroPress technique - well worth watching if like me you’ve always been a little bit ‘Am I doing this right?’ with an AeroPress.

  Prefer to read your brewing instructions? Scott Colfer sent me a link to a blog post detailing his AeroPress method.

  I was sent a brilliant set of coffee suppliers and roasters to try, here is the list:

  • The Roasting Shed - Hackney Wick
  • Tropic Coffee - Norfolk
  • Clo Coffee - Leeds
  • Greenhill Coffee Roasters - Cinderford
  • Assembly Coffee - London
  • MacBeans - Aberdeen
  • Girls Who Grind Coffee - Wiltshire
  • Old Spike Roastery - Peckham

  I was also sent a link to a list of Places for acquiring bags of coffee in the UK by Simon Wilson

• Selectors Explained a tool that will translate CSS Selectors into plain english.