Week 51: the magic is in the work you're avoiding
I’m working with GovTech Barbados, helping them build alpha.gov.bb and build capability across the organisation.
I’ve been terrible at writing weeknotes lately. The pace of work has been relentless. We’ve been trying to do as much as possible in a short time while adding more people to the team.
It’s been an intense three weeks, two of which I spent in Barbados. That meant lots of early-morning meetings with folks in the UK and late nights with folks in Barbados. It was exhausting. We’ll need to find better ways to work across time zones.
It’s also been, TBH, a little frustrating. We’ve been pushing to get as many forms live as possible, and despite everyone working hard, progress has been slower than I’d hoped. One phrase has been in my head for weeks:
“The magic you’re looking for is in the work you’re avoiding.”
Chris Williamson
It’s easy to end up building things to build things, rather than building the thing, and over-engineering creeps in.
I thought I’d set the expectations for alpha, but I’m beginning to second-guess myself. We started off delivering quickly with a team that had never worked together, or with us, before. We talked about speed early on and delivered the first version of alpha.gov.bb in 13 days.
I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved in a short time, but also a little disappointed that we couldn’t do more. Back in February, we had what looked at the time like a straightforward vision: build a central place for people to interact with the Government of Barbados, bringing all the websites together under one domain, alpha.gov.bb. My Public Digital colleague Dai and I built the first version of that in an afternoon. What let us build so quickly was a shared understanding of how to go fast.
That’s the single biggest thing I’d change. If I could turn back time, I’d spend more time setting expectations with the GovTech team, explaining what the point of an alpha is, and revisiting it regularly. I’m not sure the word “alpha” has been well understood, and it could have been worth finding different, better words. Maybe “prototype” would have been better.
The new year will be a great chance to reset and do that, while focusing on working more efficiently, strengthening the team and bringing in more senior people.
Back in February, GovTech was just one person. Now the team is around 18 people, a mix of Public Digital people and GovTech contractors, split across several time zones.
It’s been a great year. I think we’ve learnt loads about what it takes to deliver in Barbados, and next year should be about consolidating that and building capability.
Thanks to everyone at Public Digital for everything this year.