Week 10: a 45-degree couloir
I’m working on GovTech Barbados.
This week I’ve started to think of the work we’re doing as three different things:
- Building GOV.BB
- Transforming the Ministry of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology (MIST), which includes setting up the Barbados Digital Service, or GovTech
- Transforming the rest of government
On Tuesday, the Minister came to our weekly client call. We put together a few slides to show him the roadmap and discuss the delivery strategy for GOV.BB. He’d like to launch with 100 services. We’re working through how to do that, and what the risks and challenges are.
As a team, we’ve been discussing different levels of fidelity, from writing clear guidance to full-blown transformation. We’ve got two hours with the Minister next week to unpack this a bit more. It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out. My biggest concern is time. We need to build momentum right now and get into the habit of shipping things.
On Tuesday evening, a colleague and I met the Efficiency Unit, a group of business-analyst-type people working to improve efficiency across departments. They create process maps and specify improvements. They’re doing good work, and I think we can help them get even better results.
On Wednesday, another colleague and I met the Land Registry about building an e-conveyancing platform. They have scans of records going back to the 1600s. They were very clear about what they want, and there’s certainly a desire for us to help
On Saturday, I skied the Trappier couloir, with 1,300m of vertical to get there. I was tired on the way down. I’d seen a few posts on Instagram earlier in the week and was hoping the snow would be as good as it looked. It wasn’t, but now I know the way, and I’ll go back another time. It ended with an hour-long walk out in ski boots, so next time I’ll take trainers too.
Looking down from the top of the couloir, it’s around 45 degrees, so it counts as steep skiing.