A collection of resources that I have found particularly interesting, useful, or influential. In no particular order.
Product
Undercover UX, by Cennydd Bowles
Agile delivery, section from the government service design manual.
Why and how to run a ‘top tasks’ strategy, by Gerry McGovern
The practioner’s guide to product management, by Jock Busuttil
Introduction to content design, section from the government service design manual.
Product vs. IT mindset, by Marty Cagan on svpg
All of the reports of GDS service assessments, on Data at GDS.
The standard to rule them all, the Digital Service Standard.
This is why I never hire product managers, by David Cancel on Medium
Leading cross-functional teams: always bring the donuts, by Ken Norton
Six templates for aspiring product managers, by Kevin Steigerwald on Medium
Minimum viable product manager, by Brandon Chu on Medium. Excellent summary of what to focus on in terms of learning.
How to make a user journey map, by Kate Ivey-Williams at GDS
An easy-to-use checklist for implementing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.
Eight principles for user researchers on Government as a Platform, Will Myddleton on GaaP blog.
Why you only need to test with 5 users, by Jakob Nielson
Being a service manager, exceptional slide deck from Kit Collingwood-Richardson
Being secure and agile, excellent lecture on security in agile development by Michael Brunton-Spall
Must-haves when starting or joining a product team, a great checklist for getting a product team off on the right foot.
Policy
20 cognitive biases that screw up your decisions, great poster by Samantha Lee, Business Insider
Foresight and science fiction: the link between arts and science, by Claire Craig former director of the Government Office for Science
Designing digital democracy, by Geoff Mulgan Nesta
On policy and delivery talk by Mike Bracken at the Institute for Government.
Bad service design is not a strategy, by Andrew Greenway
The Divided Brain, RSA animate of talk by Ian McGilchrist
Engaging with academics: a guide for policy makers, by Government Office for Science
Test, Learn, Adapt: Developing Public Policy with Randomised Controlled Trials, by the Behavioural Insights Team
Future directions for science advice in Whitehall, edited by James Wilsdon and Robert Doubleday, the Centre for Science and Policy at Cambridge.
The Debunking Handbook (or how hard it is to change someone’s mind), John Cook & Stephan Lewandowsky
10 rules for distributed / networked / platformed government by Richard Pope.
Data
Science as an open enterprise, report by the Royal Society.
Data scientist: the sexiest job of the 21st century, by Thomas Davenport and DJ Patil in the Harvard Business Review.
Registers: authoritative lists you can trust, by Paul Downey on GDS blog.
A visual introduction to machine learning, R2D3 blog.
The need to open up GP data by Dominic Baggot, senior developer on NHS.UK Alpha.
Making sense of big data, talk by Sir Mark Walport.
Open access, speech at Oxford by David Willetts MP.
Government as a Platform, speech at Code for America by Tom Loosemore
Machines that learn in the wild, by Harry Armstrong at Nesta
Markov Chains explained visually by Victor Powell
Lovely set of definitions of data science with an accompanying infographic, Michael Walker at Data Science Central
Anscombe’s Quartet, or why data visualisation is so important.
Did Google’s NHS patient data deal need ethical approval? Useful synopsis of legal requirements for health data use.
IF data permissions catalogue. Documenting design patterns for personal data sharing, with example uses and research. Via Dan Sheldon.
Skills and capability
What if boldness were an explicit value of the civil service? blog post by Janet Hughes, GDS
Bruce Tuckman’s forming storming norming performing model of team formation.
Situation normal, everything must change and an introduction to value chain mapping, by Simon Wardley. Also see Getting started with Wardley Mapping.
Introduction to discovery, Australian Digital Transformation Office
Building a kanban wall, on the Digital Executive blog
Product hunt’s Learn to Code collection.
Elon Musk on acronyms.
Why business models fail: pipes vs. platforms, Wired magazine
The UK government Technology Code of Practice.
Digital transformation: who should lead it? by John Goode, includes excellent comparison of IT vs digital.
A white-label slide deck, presentation templates by Alice Bartlett.
5 keys to a successful Google team, by Laszlo Bock
The definitive guide to continuous delivery, Jez Humble
Dxw’s playbook, open sourcing their methods and philosophy.
The first 100 days as a digital and technology leader. Arif Harbott at MoJ.
GIT for humans, brilliant GIT explainer by Alice Bartlett Financial Times
Nice sketch documenting traits of emotional intelligence, via Helan Bevan and Impact Wales.
Ben Holliday’s Digital Government Playbook. Good collection.
Service design is for everyone, by Sarah Prag. Useful collection of service design materials.
Agile Team Organisation: Squads, Chapters, Tribes and Guilds. Lessons from Spotify amongst others on how to organise agile teams.
Technology
The Government IT self-harm playbook, the genius magnum opus of Dan Sheldon. Essential reading.
Digital Government and E-Government archives. “This is a living, curated list of documents and links related to UK Government e-government and digital government initiatives since the early 1990s” by Jerry Fishenden
Useful stats to counter the kneejerk “let’s have an app” response. Taken from this article.
De-risking custom technology projects, a brilliant guide by 18F on how to budget and buy software.
Health and care
Silje Ljosland Bakke, “What’s the thing about Health IT?”, a really good short primer on why healthcare informatics is *hard*.
The future of electronic healthcare records, Jeff Hecht writing in Nature about electronic healthcare records, focussing somewhat more on the history rather than the future.
Transforming NHS 111 into Integrated Urgent Care, a video explainer by NHS England of reforms to urgent care.
Commissioning Standards for Integrated Urgent Care 2015, describes how urgent care services (111) should “be”.
Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View, the key overarching strategy document setting vision for the NHS. For highlights of urgent and emergency care sections go to Matt Stibbs’ blog post on this.
“A&E needs total system overhaul if it’s to cope, says hospital which revolutionised its emergency care“, Telegraph article describing an example of a successful approach to dealing with an overstretched A&E, and a model the government seeks to emulate (as at April 2007).