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Another financial review, early 2024
It’s been a few years since my most recent financial review. I’ve done the last one for 2021. So, it doesn’t harm to do some stocktaking again.
2022 has been a rocky year in the stock markets, where most of my money is invested. Throughout 2022, the total value of assets remained flat while continuously investing, causing the value to decrease throughout the year. 2023 was much better. And so have been the first two months of 2024, too, with markets reaching all-new highs recently.
The good thing is that I’ve consistently and steadily saved. In 2023, though, I only invested half of the saved amount and left the other half in a savings account. Somehow, I felt like increasing the always-available cushion. Since the beginning of this year, I have set up more strict automated investment orders.
The current orders make monthly investments into the following ETFs:
Diversified commodity – 1/6 of monthly investment
Global clean energy – 1/6 of monthly investment
MSCI world emerging markets – 1/6 of monthly investment
MSCI world value factor – 1/6 of monthly investment
MSCI world SRI – 2/6 of monthly investment
ETFs account for 69% of my UK pound portfolio and 74% of my German euro portfolio. Since moving to Germany almost 2 years ago, I have shifted investments so that my UK portfolio remains smaller than the German one. That is, of course, unfortunate as I do not benefit from the capital gain tax exemptions that the Individual Savings Account (ISA) annual allowance offers in the United Kingdom.
With some hyped shares I bought tanking in the last few years, there are some individual stocks that are very much in the red. As of early March 2024, my best and worst performing positions are:
Flop 5
Beyond Meat: -90%
Bumble: -81%
Zalando: -77%
CD Projekt -48%
Trainline: -25%
Top 5
Nvidia: +1,106%
Apple: +529%
Alphabet: +264%
Intuit: +175%
Cloudflare: +139%
The gains massively outweigh my losses. So, I cannot complain. And as Peter Lynch has put it: “Maybe you’re right 5 or 6 times out of 10. But if your winners go up 4- or 10- or 20-fold, it makes up for the ones where you lost 50%, 75%, or 100%.” Individual shares comprise less than 30% of my stock market investments. In the past few years, I have not sold any shares.
Last year, I set aside about 1/3 of my net salary for savings and investments. That is less than in 2020, when I reached 52% at the beginning of the pandemic. For 2024, I’ve adjusted my goals again and aim for around 41%. That is on par with my saving and investment efforts in 2017.
In addition, I’m investing 2% of my gross salary in a company pension. My employer matches this, making it 4%. Post-tax, the impact on my net salary is, obviously, smaller, so I barely notice it. However, this is significantly less than the UK Civil Service Pension, as the employer contribution rate was 27.9% and will soon climb to 28.97%. There is nothing like that rate within reach in Germany.
As I lack the terrific UK Civil Service Pension employer contribution and there is no ISA equivalent, I am saving more money in practical terms to compensate. Still, it’s no match, especially considering the long-term impact of untaxed gains from compound interests in my UK investment account.
As my gross and net salary in Germany is relatively higher while my rent is about the same, I could save and invest even more aggressively to counterbalance the shortcomings of the national financial setup. That would mean less travelling and less yummy food, mostly. But I also want to enjoy the now, so 41% of my net salary plus 4% of gross salary investments for 2024 might be all that I’m willing to do. My future self of 2067 might have to deal with the consequences.
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End of year review 2023
It’s been over 2 years since the last note.
That’s a while.
In between, a few things have happened, including me moving to Berlin again and joining the German government’s Digital Service as the first Head of Design. I’ve managed to write notes about the work I do there almost every week. So do have a look there, if you’re interested in any of that.
Following a question format developed by Prof. Dr. Molly Steenson, which I discovered on Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino’s blog, I am answering her list of questions to reflect my 2023.
What did you do in 2023 that you’d never done before?
I have never led such a big team. The design and user research team at Digital Service is now 20 people strong. By the end of this year, 2024, we might get closer to 30. I’m still getting used to that responsibility.
Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn’t bother to make any promises to myself for 2023. So there was nothing to keep. I intended to run, eat well – primarily vegan – and do public speaking and writing, though. I failed miserably at running. The rest was alright.
Did anyone close to you give birth?
Some people I work with gave birth, but I don’t feel close to them.
Did anyone close to you die?
Luckily not.
What countries did you visit?
Only a few. I did not fly at all, which I am proud of.
I visited the UK several times, including Scotland – a 19-hour non-stop train journey from Berlin. I visited France (Paris) once and Switzerland twice for leisure, including skiing in Saas-Fee, close to Zermatt.
2024 will be different. I will travel internationally again.
What would you like to have in 2024 that you lacked in 2023?
A better work-life balance. I worked seriously long hours in 2024 – at a level that even I don’t find sustainable.
What date from 2023 will remain etched upon your memory?
My own and another birthday. I know that I did then. There is no other specific date that I remember – maybe that’s even a good thing.
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I find it difficult to name one. I am proud of what the team is doing; I wrote and delivered an all-new talk on the ‘long slog of public service design’ with Kara that was well-received at 2 conferences. I also co-ran a 24-hour remote conference, which was a success.
What was your biggest failure?
I didn’t get anyone else in the German public sector to embrace the Service Standard or any senior person to embrace it publicly.
Did you suffer illness or injury?
I fell in the first 5 minutes of skiing in December – straight on my skier's thumb from 2001. I am still recovering from that several weeks later. Apart from that, I was fine.
What was the best thing you bought?
A Vitsœ 606 shelf for my living room. I installed it for my birthday, and it brings joy every day.
It took me over 15 years to convert from a clueless design student to a customer. That’s when I worked for Thomas Manss & Company, which did all the design and branding for Vitsœ.
Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Countless anti-racism, anti-sexism, and anti-fossil fuel activists. More closely, I admire and respect our CEO, Christina and how she is navigating the growing Digital Service through a tricky political and stakeholder landscape.
Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
The behaviour of a few German ministers that actively block the progress they set out in their party manifestos and coalition treaty from 2021.
Where did most of your money go?
To food, in general. I visited some nice restaurants. It was still no outrageous amount, though.
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The Vitra Campus in Weill am Rhein was quite spectacular. I am not sure it was a 3x ‘really’ level of excitement, though.
What song/album will always remind you of 2023?
I discovered Philip Glass’ ‘Dance Pieces’ and listened to them extensively. It was played as part of ‘Age of Content’ (LA)HORDE’s performance at the Berliner Festspiele in August. It was marvellous.
Compared to this time last year, are you:
Unsure how I was or felt last year. I think I was less exhausted in mid-December 2022, though. 2023 was dense. I did a lot.
What do you wish you’d done more of?
More exercise. More breaks and holidays.
What do you wish you’d done less of?
Even though not everything was fruitful, I think everything I’ve done was worth it.
How will you be spending Christmas?
As it’s already after Christmas, I answer this retrospectively. I went to my sister’s family place and celebrated there – right after the pre-holiday ski trip.
Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
My mother, even though she thinks I could call her more often.
Did you fall in love in 2023?
No need. All good and stable.
What was your favourite TV programme?
‘The Last of Us’ on HBO stood out. Great drama, themes, storytelling, actors.
While not the greatest show, ‘Extrapolations’ on Apple TV+ will be on my mind for the years to come as it shows snapshots of human existence dealing with a changing climate between 2037 and 2070.
Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Such a strong word, no. But I do have much less respect for certain people. That includes several men in charge of driving digitalisation in the German public sector. Their performance is weak and deeply disappointing.
What was the best book(s) you read?
At the end of the year, I started reading ‘Baustellen der Nation’ (‘Construction Sites of the Nation’ in English) – an analytical and progressive book outlining what needs work in Germany and how to do it. I like it goes deep and broad and covers problems and potential solutions, enriched with a lot of data and strong narratives.
What was your greatest musical discovery?
I discovered Oskar Sala at an architecture exhibition in the Berlinische Galerie. I watched a documentary about the construction of the ICC building from the early 70s and waited until the end titles to see who composed the music. I have been listening to Oskar Sala’s music for various hours since then.
What did you want and get?
The mentioned Vitsœ 606 shelf.
What did you want and not get?
Some upgraded camera equipment. I did not prioritise it enough in my budget.
What were your favourite films of this year?
It was neither ‘Oppenheimer’ nor ‘Barbie’ – the blockbusters and most discussed movies of the year.
I missed a few films I still like to watch when they are streaming.
‘Decision to Leave’ by Park Chan-wook stood out for me. And Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ was powerful in its message, especially when watching the documentary with director Peter Sohn telling about his family’s immigration story that inspired the movie.
What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 41 in April. We wanted to take a canoe trip to the Spreewald, but the weather wasn’t great. So my parents came around, we went to the ‘Futurium’ exhibition about science and democracy and had cake afterwards. In the evening, I got invited for dinner at the Korean fine dining restaurant ‘CHOI’. That was a very pleasant and intimate food experience.
What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More significant progress in driving user-centred design approaches in the German public sector. I didn’t get done what I wanted to get done. Too many actors are following their own agendas instead.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2023?
Adding a bright colour to my navy blue – beyond the colourful socks. I got two new RÆBURN jumpers in 2023. I like the brand’s regenerative design approach and some of their designs.
What kept you sane?
Focussing on the things that I can influence and that give me a sense of progress.
Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
No idea. Not my thing.
What political issue stirred you the most?
So many. It’s hard to pick a single one. The wars, the inequality, the rise of the far-right.
It is remarkable how terrible communication from politicians around policies to prevent climate breakdown is – globally. So, global inaction regarding climate change is the one that stirs me the most – as too many democratic politicians don’t even address it regularly.
Who did you miss?
My grandmother, especially around Christmas.
Who was the best new person you met?
I built a good relationship with Stephanie, our Chief Product Officer. I first met her in 2022 when I started at Digital Service, but we only had a few overlaps and encounters last year. That changed in spring. She is smart and driven, and we share views, values and attitudes.
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2023.
Take things step by step. There might still be countless steps missing from your goal, but you got a bit closer, at least.
Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?
I am bad with song lyrics – as I mostly listen to instrumental music. So, I need to pass on this one.
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H2/2021
We have entered 2022. So, this is a perfect moment to reflect on the second half of 2021. Half-year notes must do the job as I am unable to write week notes.
Work
Work has been a bit of a rollercoaster. The team I’m leading has been doing some great work on the Service Manual. We had one content designer leave us and another one joining us. We updated quite a bit of guidance, researched lots and published all new guidance on Making services in an emergency.
In November, we finally managed to look beyond guidance and address issues with the software product. I facilitated a compressed 3-day design sprint for the team, with 2 days in the office and prototyping and testing on the third day remotely.
I made a comprehensive GIF to summarise what we managed to do and ship in 2021 with the team.
The new unit I’m working in, the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), is still a reasonably immature organisation that tries to find its path, identity and role. It doesn’t help that people at the director level have not worked at GDS before but at other government departments or consultancies. The practitioners in the organisation bring GDS culture, values and ways of working, which aren’t understood or appreciated. It leads to misunderstandings and conflict, which we can only slowly address.
Health
I failed at my running goal of clocking 1000 kilometres. After running the postponed Hackney Half at the end of September, which resulted in some injury, I pretty much dropped the ball. I only completed a few runs in October and stopped entirely in November and December.
At least, I did the half marathon again. And I have the next one planned for 2022 already. The 1000k goal stands again for 2022 – with my mantra of ‘Fit Fourty’. 😱
I did a good amount of swimming in late summer, though. With a lake close, I managed to swim every second day in August – 16 times or so. And continued well into September until it got too cold without wetsuits, gloves and shoes.
I also took a canoe introduction in August. After that, I went back a couple of times, trying different boat types and stand-up paddling (which requires more balance than expected). The new season starts in April, and I cannot wait to sign up for annual membership. There seem to be very friendly folks, too.
Culture
Still much less than before the pandemic.
I went to the cinema a few times with friends and colleagues, primarily blockbuster films that weren’t available to stream. ‘Dune’ was probably the biggest and most beautiful surprise.
Among the things streamed in the last months: The indie sci-fi series ‘The OA’ on Netflix, ‘The Green Knight’ – a medieval story based on a 12th-century poem, ‘Crashed’ – a comedy series made by Phoebe Waller-Bridge in 2016, right before ‘Fleabag’.
I went to Tate Modern a little while ago to see the rather impressive ‘Making of Rodin’ exhibition, about Auguste Rodin’s life, process and way of working. He reused a lot of hands in sculptures and developed advanced approaches to scaling models up and down. A much more systematic approach than I would have thought. The second exhibition was about the work of Sophie Taeuber-Arp – which was beautiful, especially her theatre puppets. However, I was disappointed about the number of pieces exhibited and the incomplete storytelling about her life and circumstances. I don’t want to read Wikipedia pages while walking through an exhibition because I feel there are essential things the curator decided to leave out.
Almost 2 years after buying concert tickets, I went to see Lubomyr Melnik with friends during his 2-day residency at Café OTO. He was marvellous as always and brought a young-ish man from Cornwall who he had taught over Zoom during the pandemic.
Also, in November, I attended an outstanding performance of the James McVinne Ensemble in Barbican Hall. They performed Philip Glass’ Music in Fifths and Glassworks. Afterwards, I created a long-planned spreadsheet for all contemporary classic concerts attended in the past 15 years. Unfortunately, it’s incomplete and misses quite a few entries, but I’ll use it going forward.
Social
Christmas travels got cancelled again at the last minute, just like last year. I attended my parents birthday party in Germany in September, though. And we also had a 1-week postponed Easter holiday in the Netherlands in October. While in the Amsterdam region, I managed to meet 2 different groups of friends who recently moved there from London and the Bay Area, respectively.
In July, I attended my colleague Kate’s annual birthday-garden party on the edge of Wales. And continued travelling for following weeks upwards through Wales, stopping by at 2 colleagues’ homes in south and mid-Wales. With 5 proper hikes in 2 Welsh national parks, the trip was my annual holiday and travel highlight.
In autumn, I went to New Forest on the English south coast twice. The first time it was too dry to pick any mushrooms. The second visit was a success, though.
Despite more COVID cases, December has been a rather social month with home dinners and play-night with friends.
Side projects
Before 2021 ended, I published the first version of an all-new personal website. Since then, I tweaked it, made it more accessible and extended it. I hand-coded it from scratch, using bits of Bootstrap, which I had never touched before. I learned tons throughout just 1.5 days, and it was great fun to create well-structured HTML and CSS.
So far, the single-page website collects recent texts written in English and German, 7 examples of work from the last 5 years, a selection of talks in English and German, 3 side projects and 4 teaching projects.
The website addresses the following user jobs I noted down years ago:
See work
Read articles, blog posts
Watch talks
Reach out
Book mentoring session
Connect on other platforms
In the coming weeks and months, I like to write up detailed case studies for each of the 7 examples of work. In our portfolio blog post from 1.5 years ago, my colleague Charlotte and I wrote about documenting work when it’s done. And not putting cases together only years later when applying for the next job. So, I want to follow our advice.
We did not create another Service Gazette edition in the second half of the year. But I just repurposed the Service Experience Camp’s existing Instagram account for the Service Gazette to give it a social home.
In November, Katrin, Simone and I did run another Public Service Lab event. We returned to a single-day format with a mix of workshops, short talks, case study presentations and discussions. It was again well received.
After my experience with my personal website, I’m itching now to redo the website for Public Service Lab and build one for The Service Gazette, too.
Finance
I managed to reach all set targets for 2021 – all but one. I wanted to increase my £ emergency fund, which instead melted down. I would like to double it now, but it’s not an absolute priority.
After my grandmother passed away in March 2021, I received an inheritance which I invested to 100%. I used it to rebalance my Euro investment portfolio. I exclusively bought ETFs so that both portfolios, in Pound and Euro, now have a 1/3 individual shares and 2/3 ETFs ratio.
I could max out my ISA this year again with a bit of discipline, putting aside £1,667 each month. As part of that wrapper, the money invested will never be taxed.
It took a while, but my UK/£ portfolio has been underperforming against the market last year. That was meant to happen. So why did I think I could beat it? My all-time performance (since moving accounts in March 2020) is still better, but that might not be for long. Stubbornly, I’ve been investing in Beyond Meat and Oatly that both reached all-time lows recently. Some other tech stocks like Shopify and Spotify have fluctuated quite a bit. I might rethink my stocks and shares investment approach in the coming months.
Bitcoin stayed volatile as well but only reflected 2% of my assets. After dipping 2 years ago, my little investment in Monzo has more than tripled in value after a recent investment round.
My financial and investment targets for 2022 are set again. Admittedly, some might be a bit of a stretch, especially given actual inflation (my energy bill just increased by factor 4!), but I’ll try.
PS:
In December, I made my annual card again. I tried a few combinations of 1 and 2 and on paper it was easier than on the computer eventually. I printed with the lovely people at Duplikat again.
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H1/2021
50% of 2021 are gone. So while I had the ambition to keep writing weeknotes and collected various weekly bullet points, I just didn’t feel it and eventually didn’t see the value.
Work:
Things are okay. I’m no longer at GDS as a substantial part of our organisation got spun off into the Central Digital & Data Office (CDDO), which looks after digital standards, assurance and strategies and is also part of the Cabinet Office. The scope of my and my team’s work hasn’t changed, however. We continue to take a community-led path. Recently, we blogged about it for the second time.
In June, I started going back to the office for a handful of days – after not being in the office for consecutive 467 days. Who would have thought that in March 2020?
I try to continue elements of my previous role as best as I can. I continue running the cross-government blogs, record case studies and meetups.
Health:
Sticking to my 1000k running goal for 2021, I’m slightly behind after a slow April and an early May blocked by quarantine. June looked good again, though, as I clocked 100k and am standing at 430k at the moment. As long as I run about 100k every month now, I’ll be on target. My virtual running group keeps me going, and I know I can reach 1000k.
In early June, I started swimming in the lake that I look at every single day from the living and study room. It’s a total blessing. From door to dip, it takes me less than 5 minutes. I got myself a monthly subscription and went 7 times in June. The water temperature currently ranges from 18 to 21 degrees, which is pleasant. From September on, I might need a wetsuit – or go back to indoor swimming.
In other health news, I got my first COVID-19 vaccination in mid-May and will get my second one in mid-July. With rising cases once again, I’m looking forward to becoming fully vaccinated.
Culture:
I haven’t been to many exhibitions and events yet. However, for my birthday, I went to Whitecube Gallery in Bermondsey.
I saw Nomadland and an Aalto documentary, and Disney’s Cruella was fun because of Emma Stone’s acting, the wild costumes and the classic 70s soundtrack.
In terms of music, my most significant UK discoveries were Welsh Kelly Lee Owens for electronic music and English Natalie Holt for classical compositions and scores.
Social:
I started meeting some friends and colleagues in the neighbourhood again as social distancing rules were eased.
Side projects:
Katrin, Simone and I organised another remote Public Service Lab Week in mid-June. For the second time, we had talks, workshops and discussions for 5 days at lunchtime, increasing German public servants’ understanding of user-centred design approaches.
Katrin and I also used it as an excuse to put together another Service Gazette. Entering its 7th year, it’s also the 5th German edition already. Those document the progression of Germany towards more user-centred ways of working pretty well. Most articles are available on Medium.com. We wrote the lead article on more accessible and equitable services, which I’m a little proud of but which should have been an even longer text.
Finance:
The optimistic projections of some analysts I read at the beginning of the new year turned out to be true. In the last 6 months, I saw a few minor dips but significant overall gains again. My European and UK portfolios both grew substantially again, reaching a new record growth and letting me tick off my first annual target already after 6 instead of 12 months.
The best new individual investments were Alphabet and Zalando. As Oatly had its IPO, I also started investing and plan to build up a decent little stake. I continued to diversify my ETFs with more value stocks and also (currently underperforming) global clean energy stocks.
The weakest performers are Airbnb, CD Projekt and Trainline – but all for different reasons (ranging from not so great management to sudden change of government policy). I’ll keep invested in them, though, in for the long game.
The overall money-weighted rate of return of my UK portfolio increased from 40% to over 51%. The time-weighted rate of return is currently at +45%, outperforming the FTSE all world ETF that sits at +30%. It’s nice to beat the market – even though I know it’s luck and I shouldn’t be betting on it.
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#5/2021
To say this was a crazy week for the stock market would be a massive understatement. Things went absolute nuts. A flock of Reddit users drove a few meme stocks to unheard highs and pushed hedge funds toward ruin. The financial, business and general interest media are still unpicking what actually happened, and the situation isn’t over yet. After video game retail chain Gamestop went up by 1,700%, the frenzy spilt over to other stocks.
At some point on Wednesday, Nokia’s shares doubled in value. They peaked at $9.79 – a price they had not reached in 10 years.
Right before starting at Nokia, in October 2011, I bought some Nokia shares. In the last few years, they had their ups and downs, and more downs recently. To balance my relative losses, I bought additional shares last autumn but thought about selling them on multiple occasions. The political anti-China sentiment with several Western countries banning Huawei 5G equipment should have benefited Nokia’s network business. But improper management and wrong technology decisions caused significant delays in delivering. Seeing the sudden jump of the share price on Wednesday made me push the button and sell off all Nokia shares with a sweet profit instead of a loss. That has been my first sale in my German portfolio and deviation from my buy-and-hold strategy. The exception proves the rule.
On Friday, the Services Week 2021 announcement blog post finally got published. The post has 16 authors, illustrating how much of a cross-organisation effort it has become since I started it in 2019. Now, we have about a month to do the planning and get content together. For our team, I already wrote 4 session proposal for utilising the event series week for show and tells, workshops and content crits. With a remote-first, location-independent format come challenges and opportunities. But there is a little collective to address them, which should help.
For the post, I took a photograph for the blog post. At some point, I should make a new album on the GDS Flickr account.
On Friday for virtual team lunch, my colleague Ben set up a round of a card game online, Sushi Go. We played via Board Game Arena which lets you play 175 board and card games online. It was such good fun that I returned on Sunday night to play another few rounds remotely with friends in Barcelona. And that was still just the first game.
I finished Sunday with 84.15 kilometres on the clock. That’s 1/12 of my 1000k running goal. I slacked in the first half of the month and played catch-up in the second half, including a few nightly runs in the rain. With longer days and better weather, it will become easier again to get out in the street. Still, the last few years, I only ran 50k in January. So that’s progress.
Throughout the month, I also did a deep dive into pensions. They work very differently in the UK than in most Western European countries. The state pension is relatively small here, so people rely on their workplace pension programme, property, and additional savings/investments. The size of the second pillar, the workplace pension, differs a lot from industry to industry. As of 2020, employers need to pay a minimum of 3% of the gross salary into their employee’s pension pot. A few industries pay up to 8%, the median seems to be around 4.5% contribution. That’s in the private sector. The Civil Service pension looks a bit different. While salaries are comparably lower in the public sector, pension contributions are significantly higher.
For me, the Cabinet Office puts not 3, 4.5 or 8 but 27.9% of my monthly gross salary into my pension pot. That is a significant difference and increases the value of my total package. It can add up to £15,000 to the overall salary. So whenever I decide moving back into the private sector, calculating the full package value will be an important thing to do.
Favourite podcasts at the moment:
Gimlet’s How to save a planet (solutions to climate change)
Vox’s Worldly (international politics and policies)
Aktienrebell (personal finance and investments)
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#4/2021
As part of our first sprint of 2021, I participated in our two streams of user research and scheduled further sessions with participants. Stream 1 is about capturing the value of the GOV.UK Service Manual, working closely with an economist. Stream 2 is around testing new guidance on publishing performance data. Besides, we are scoping two new pieces of guidance and consult subject matter experts from inside GDS and across government in the process.
After falling behind, I reckon figured out how Services Week 2021 submissions can work, collaborating with my colleagues Shah and Lisa. I also reviewed our blog pipelines for both the Design in government and Services in Government blog. Some good content is coming.
From Monday to Friday, I made another 3 batches of Ben’s style-cookies:
Hazelnut-milk chocolate
Triple chocolate including white in the inside
Hazelnut-cranberry-white chocolate
They are outstanding, indeed: Both crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. After the first ones had pieces of white chocolate on top which burned, I started placing them inside. Nothing is better than a melted piece of chocolate inside a cookie. But as I made way too many while trying to get them right, I started touring through the neighbourhood to deliver them to friends and colleagues.
On the running front, I wasn’t entirely successful. I’m at 50k for the month and need to clock at least 83k to contribute sufficiently to my 1000k target for the year. Today, it was snowing outside, which was pretty but didn’t help draw me out, at least not for a run. So there is some work to do in the next week.
While I keep putting money into my stock and shares ISA, I’ve spent much less money this month again. That leaves room to get my Polaroid SLR 680 fixed. Its auto-focus doesn’t work any longer. The leather is worn out, and there are probably a few more issues. Retrospekt, a Milwaukee-based repair shop, offers full repairs on a flat-fee system. They take the entire camera apart for it, which looks beautiful. At $215, this doesn’t come cheap, but it will be great to get the camera back to a near-perfect condition. Also, the same model in good to excellent condition isn’t a bargain on eBay either. There, they range between £350 and £800. So, I’ll keep putting some pennies into my Polaroid saving pot.
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#3/2021
This was my first full working week of 2021. And it was somewhat productive. I reduced my mobile screen time by over 33% and blocked distracting news sites for most hours of the day using the Focus app on my laptop. As a result, I felt more concentrated, less fragmented. My paper notebook with a task list helped me to keep track. I’ll try to stick to that, picking up some tips from productivity coach Chris Bailey.
My team finished a 4-week sprint – in which we naturally got relatively little done due to the holiday season. We planned for the first sprint of the year, reviewed problem statements and got a new stream of user research rolling. We started speaking to Service Manual users to learn about how they are using it and what potential value it creates for them. I also talked to the Royal Navy who are working on their own digital standard.
Following some skill gap exercise with the GDS service designers some weeks ago, I invited Adam to talk about organisation design. He has been doing organisation design in various forms for almost 7 years at FutureGov. Adam and I also used the occasion to have a coffee-walk meeting this week in Peckham. In our virtual session, he introduced the design team to the organisation design theory and practice fo Naomi Stanford. Immediately, a new learning area unfolded. I’ve added some recorded talks and books of her to my study list.
And then there was some huge news: GDS’s new chief executive was announced – Tom Read. As I participated in the staff engagement exercise with 5, 6 applicants at the end of last year, I saw him in action. Many people at GDS seem very excited about him taking the top position. He had worked at GDS before, led the Ministry of Justice’s digital part with some impressive results in the past 4.5 years, cares about equity, inclusion and believes in a servant-leadership style. I buy that and cannot wait to see him promote user needs as the new old leading paradigm – and fixing the basics. This BS-free blog post about MoJ’s digital strategy hopefully gives an idea what we might have soon as well: a clear, meaningful and sensible new direction.
In the meantime, I keep trying new types of coffee. This week, I opened a kilogram pack of Dark Arts’ Peruvian Wild at Heart beans. This small London-based roastery only produces small batches and what’s gone is gone, offering a few variants at a time. Apparently, the Wild at Heart blend has a mousse au chocolate/nutty flavour. I’m not sure I recognise all of that. Next, I like to brew another round of Common coffee’s Complex. According to the Glaswegians behind Common, it has a cranberry, toffee, and plum taste. It’s irritating, in a pleasant way.
Intending to recreate the chewy-crunchy cookies from Ben’s Cookies, I followed a recipe found online which produced pretty good results. The first batch cookies are enormous, included dried dates, and were baked for only 10 minutes, but at 200 degrees. They are pretty sweet, so I might try a version using less sugar. In one cookie, I folded some peanut butter which turned out very delicious. I should add nuts in the next version.
Eventually, we finished the third season of The Handmaid’s Tale. As it develops way too slowly, we had to watch it at 1.5 to 1.75 times speed. Netflix has recognised the need for it and integrated speed controls – even though creators and directors hate it. Amazon doesn’t have it yet, but some plug-ins allow increasing and decreasing the speed. As video recorders and DVD players permitted it, it’s for the viewer’s convenience to enable it, too and enable them to adjust the director’s decisions.
I miss live concerts. Very much. The Barbican sold virtual tickets for 12 Ensemble with Anna Meredith and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. But now it decided to postpone that as well. I cannot wait to even attend some open-air concert in spring or summer.
With my books, I’m a bit behind. My Good Reads list proves that. A conversation with Katrin and Manuel got me thinking about other fiction literature I might want to pick up.
Two speaking requests reached me this week: One from a Swiss university, one from an Austrian conference. It makes me wonder if I should create a German version of my website, too—something to tinker with on a day off, including a dark mode, of course.
My neo bank Monzo released their annual personal finance review for 2020. The most interesting graph reflects the year and its various lockdowns fairly well: the rise and fall of online vs. in-person transactions.
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#2/2021
Work started slow this week with just two days ‘in the office’. Two new mentees showed up via Mega Mentor for the first available workdays of the year, which shows the platform’s relevancy. I’m never sure how much value a 30-minute conversation creates. Still, people seem to find it beneficial according to the feedback I have received.
Recognising that I’ve taken on quite a few product manager responsibilities, I got myself a copy of ‘Strong product people’ to help me become a better product manager. Although I call myself a service owner for the Service Standard and Service Manual, plenty of product management is what I have to do. It promises to give a complete overview. Given that there is still some learning and development budget available, I might also research some related online course.
And, of course, a third national lockdown started. It’s likely to last until March or April. Not that it’s a significant change, but somehow it clarifies. Hence, I won’t be making any plans for the near future.
Being slightly bored, I watched the Netflix documentary The Minimalists. It is a rather bland documentary retelling the story two white Americans who share how they concluded that they don’t need more stuff. Marie Kondo was a bit more creepy and entertaining. One memorable and useful activity I took away from it though: Find 1 item each day you might not use any longer and sort it out.
Following my mentioned goals, I am trying to read more offline – using Good Reads to state ambition and track progress. I’ll pick that up at the end of the month again.
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2020 – a financial review
Financially, 2020 is has been a remarkable year.
There are two reasons for it. One: I’ve shown more investment discipline than ever before. Two: After the massive dip in March, the markets and especially tech stocks went up, up, up.
Once I had eventually understood the benefits of a Stocks and Shares Individual Savings Account (ISA) even for foreigners, I set myself the goal to put as much money as possible into such an account. It’s useful as I will never have to pay any taxes on compound interests and dividends or value increases whenever I decide to sell the equity. I set a significant monthly investment goal and mostly stuck to it throughout the year. Working from home and not eating Pret sandwiches for lunch made it easier to meet the goal.
On average, I invested 43% of my net salary into ETFs and individual shares this year. In the early days of the first lockdown, I managed to save 52% for a couple of months.
As written in summer, two-thirds of those monthly investments went into various ETFs:
• iShares Core MSCI World (IWDG)
• iShares Global Clean Energy (INRG)
• iShares Far East excluding Japan (IFFF)
• MSCI Emerging Markets (SEMA)
All of them reached the end of the year with a definite plus. And so did most of my investments into individual companies.
In total, I invested in 17 companies – from tech, entertainment, food/drink, mobility and travel sector. There were several smart, well-timed and a few not so wise purchases among them. Wirecard was my most foolish investment by far leading to a 98% loss. Spotify, Shopify, and Cloudflare were among the bets that paid off the most.
Since I moved my entire UK portfolio into the ISA account in February, I had to sell and re-buy shares. The timing might not have been the best right before the significant March losses. But my UK portfolio closed with a 40% money-weighted rate of return at the end of the year. That is an extraordinary outcome. Below is the graph from March to December 2020.
Comparing the last three 6-months periods across all assets, I saw the most significant gains since summer. Interestingly, the single largest increase in value didn’t happen in my equity investments, but in my BitCoin wallet, which gained over 250%. If that is sustainable must be seen.
As the WSJ wrote yesterday, investors bet that the ‘everything rally’ will continue in 2021. Maybe it will. Maybe not. For the next few months, I plan to increase my ETF positions in renewable energy and focus even more on clean, sustainable investments. If the markets see another bearish period, I might buy more individual companies, too.
Whatever happens, my steady, longterm investments have proven to be the best approach to grow my total asset value. So I will continue to put money into that ISA account every month as long I’m in the UK. That’s what I should have done much earlier. But as the proverb goes: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
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#1/2021
This was both the first and last week of the year. I started the week with Monday entirely offline. That was calming. I didn’t miss anything. Not the constant news stream, not the email refresh or incoming notifications from messengers. I need to make this a habit somehow. At least, on weekends.
It required a bit of a race at the last hours, but on 31 December I ran over 15 km to reach my 750 km target for 2020. My stretch goal was 800, which with a lazy December I didn’t manage. The minimum goal for the new year is 1,000. The stretch goal is 1,200 km. With consistency and no injuries, that’s manageable, but also a new high.
I also wrote down other goals for 2021. They include financial, mental wellbeing, knowledge, self-management and leadership topics.
I made another batch of granola, probably the 10th if not more. It doesn’t take much time anymore but continues to receive much praise from people got little jars for Christmas. All costs for the 12 ingredients are collected in a neat spreadsheet. They break down to £5.87 for 750g of granola, excluding electricity and packaging.
Out of curiosity, I bought Kentucky Route Zero, a strange point-and-click adventure game. It was in the making for almost the entire decade and released in 5 episodes. It’s quirky, beautifully designed, with a crisp soundtrack. I’ve played the first two episodes which took me around 2 hours each. Unlike the early LucasArts games I played as a kid, this one doesn’t come with tricky puzzles to solve. It’s instead a weird David Lynch-like storytelling in the format of a video game.It ended up on some of the best games of the decade lists, so I was intrigued. And to my surprise, it was also available on Mac. The game always reveals too little of its characters and story, which draws you in.
As I spent most of my year on video calls, I decided to upgrade my equipment a little. The camera in my 2019 MacBook Air is pretty terrible, and my 2015 MacBook Pro’s isn’t much better either. But I decided against buying a webcam. Instead, I purchased a license of Camo. Camo allows one to use their iPhone as a laptop camera. The result is phenomenal. The question now is: do I even want everyone to see me in high definition in my WTF-outfit?
On cybersecurity: I spent half a day on it, if not more. After consulting HPI’s Identity Leak Checker, I combed through old and new accounts, changed email addresses, passwords, added two-factor authentication wherever possible. I probably missed quite many services. So this continues. Boring but vital.
After AOC overtook Twitch a little while ago, I got curious about Among Us. With a few friends distributed over Europe, I played it over New Year’s Eve for the first time. That and video calls with friends in Germany and Spain got me through the uneventful night and into the new year.
This week, I also spent a night sewing and fixing trousers and tote bags. That was rewarding. It’s pleasant to do things with the hands and invest in something.
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#52/2020
Christmas is over. It came and went fast. The last days were relatively slow with lots of cooking, a bit of reading, and walking outside when the weather allowed. The home Christmas dinner was a veggie feast with four courses. Watching the family unwrapping the gifts via video conferencing concluded this year that was all-home, all-Zoom. Why would Christmas be different?
The best surprise gift received are super bright Nike Trail Pegasus 2 in orange, pink, beige and turquoise. I’ve been thinking about new running shoes, but always went for all-black ones. The colours are terrific. I also got new Lululemon shorts and a headline to see more when running in winter darkness.
I received Cy Harrel’s civic technologist’s practice guide. In the book, she reflects on her 7, 8 years working for and with the US government in various roles. I just started, but it looks like a good introduction for ‘digital people’ beginning in the public sector. I didn’t finish the 12 books I wanted to read this year. I might still finish this one, however.
After two rounds of feedback, Diginate managed to print our team’s rediscovery stickers. They aren’t the greatest but allow to serialise. So more owls in action are to come. This one has a holographic magnifying glass. It’s a little too tiny, in any case.
On Monday, their last day of work, Estelle and Rich from Duplikat Press managed to squeeze in my New Year’s card on their last day of business. They are great, and the neon green they printed looks pretty fab. To avoid spoilers, I’ll post the picture next week. Now, the card writing marathon starts. I printed 50 cards, slightly fewer than last year.
On Sunday, as the weather suddenly allowed, we cycled to Epping Forest – almost 14 kilometres each way. Luckily, I wore my hiking boots as it was very muddy. The winter sun stood low and allowed some nice pictures to be taken. I will be nice to return when days are longer again. An early summer picknick here should be amazing.
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#51/2020
This was my last full week of work for this year. And that feels good. It included quite a fair share of business case writing, job description reviews, and design management meetings. We wrapped up this quarter’s work and have a more clear view of the next one. There are high value, high attention pieces of guidance various parts of government should benefit from.
We also had another round of user research with a governmental service team to test a guidance draft. It’s so important to be exposed to user feedback. I want to make it a habit for the entire team – so that everyone can attend a session at least every month. That reminds me of the 60+ tests that Alexis and I ran for the relaunch of here.com in one year. Some weeks, we would have a remote session with users in the US, and people in the lab in Berlin – testing different aspects of the web application we were building.
Finally, I finished the design for my New Years card – sticking with the design I already had decided on two weeks ago. Now, I need to rush it to the printer. I will print with Duplikat Press again as they are quick and affordable while offering a great range of colours – including multiple fluoresce ones.
While I initially thought I’d take the coming week off, I’ll work for the first few days half day to wrap up some things, to not carry them in the new year. Hopefully, I can get some more in-depth, solitary work done without distractions.
In the meantime, London went through 3 different COVID-19 restriction levels this week – starting with tier 2 of 3, going up to level 3 on Wednesday, which meant restaurants had to close, and establishing an all-new tier 4 on Sunday. Practically, this is a Christmas lockdown with shops closed, gyms closed, and even European borders closed as the number of infected with a new version of the virus rose. Preemptively, I cancelled the flight to Germany at the end of last weekend. That means I’ll be stuck in London for Christmas for the first time. Time to cook some elaborate dishes at least.
With work winding down a little, I started watching David Fincher’s series Mindhunter. It depicts how profiling serial killings was developed in the FBI’s behaviour science unit in the late 70s and early 80s. It’s beautifully shot. The characters are multi-layered as you would expect it from Fincher. It makes you want to read up on the cases and murderers the protagonists encounter throughout the season. Also, The Mandalorian finished its second season on Disney+ – and it did so with a big bang. It’s a fun action series, and it’s cool to see Disney has various spin-offs in the making. Well, their 86 million subscribers also demand more content for their money, of course.
Getting very close to 90 days, both Mauro and I broke our streak in Apple’s Fitness app this week. We are both disappointed of ourselves, but eager to pick it up in the new year. I’m still aiming to finish my 750 km of running for 2020 – which is well in reach. And with the gym closed once again due to tier 4 until at least the end of the year, there is little else to do.
Not being at home for Christmas ruins a bit the mood, but the right thing to do, of course. I hope to spend the next 2.5 weeks half recreational, half productive with some side projects open, some study work to do, and some plans to explore hiking grounds and forest trails in the area.
Also will make some plans for 2021, review those for 2020, and introspect why I failed on some miserably (reading at least one book every month) and overachieved others (investing). I think I know some answers – external accountability – but there is more to it.
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#48/2020
For the second time, I participated in a staff engagement exercise. That means: 6 of our 800 employees spend 30 minutes with a senior-level applicant to learn more about their approach, leadership style, views and values. Last summer, I participated in such for a director role. This time, it was for the part of the chief executive. It is a marvellous opportunity to gain insight into the application process and level of preparation that senior applicants do. Usually, there are candidates from outside and inside the public sector. Some people already have a good understanding of the work; others are making the effort of learning about it. This time, our focus was on three aspects: inspiration, engagement, and empowerment. For those, we gave every candidate a score on a scale of 1 to 5 and submitted a recommendation to the interview panel whether we think the candidate would be suitable for the role. While there are no concrete takeaways for me, it highlighted how much facilitation skills and capability of building rapport with strangers in a short time matter at any level of your career.
By the end of the week, I published Laurence’s blog post on becoming a service assessor. He put much work into it and even created an illustration for it. Laurence is passionate about assessing government services and even reflects that on his website.
Last week, I forgot to mention this, my partner-in-crime Katrin was named a top 40 under 40 person by German business magazine Capital for her work on Public Service Lab. That’s a pretty extraordinary achievement. And as it’s truly a group effort, as Katrin highlighted, I feel equally proud of her winning those laurels.
Even though a new debt crisis is looming in the US and their COVID-19 cases keep rising, the stock market went further up. Last month’s investment was at a relatively low point, so I saw a 7% growth for my UK portfolio in November alone. Since early March, it’s been even a 33% increase in value which is pretty astonishing. And while it’s tempting to try and time the market, I know it’s pointless, and the persistent investor is eventually the winner.
As I need to increase my ETF positions anyway, I’m aiming for more green energy and Asian businesses. I do that to balance the portfolio that is heavy on US companies and not-so-green companies.
Next week, lockdown no. 2 is going to end. That means shops are reopening and the gym and pool are reopening. I cannot wait!
I read a FT piece on working from home that contained a well-worded sentence that resonates with me: “We used to work from home, now we live at work”.
On other work-related terms: I’ve worked with my colleague Alison on our team’s next research sessions. ① to understand the value for service teams and ② to see how well a new guidance draft works. On Monday, I spoke at the Ministry of Justice’s internal Justice Services conference on a panel about ‘innovation’. Luckily, everyone had an equitably adjusted, down-to-earth view on innovation – not fluffy far-fetched ideas but incremental change on many levels. I quoted professor Vijay Kumar: “A viable offering new to specific context and time, creating a user and provider value” and also my colleague Kay. She said that innovation is “challenging today’s ways of working” which is pleasantly low-key, too.
A nice little note from Barack Obama’s former chief data scientist DJ Patil:
Dream in Years.
Plan in Months.
Evaluate in Weeks.
Ship Daily.
For 1st Advent Sunday, I made my first ever Vanillekipferl. They turned out nice.
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#47/2020
It took several weeks, but on Thursday, I got my blog post about our team’s work since summer out. I had procrastinated a bit on it, but then could not stop even at the 1,200-word mark. It gives a solid overview of our rediscovery covering how the GOV.UK Service Manual is used. It’s honest about the current shortcomings and describes our ambitions. Now, we have to follow through and deliver new guidance for service teams while also making improvements to the product itself as well as the underlying processes. The text, Taking a community-led approach to the Service Standard and Service Manual, is up on the Services in Government blog.
After publishing the blog post, I felt comfortable enough also to update my LinkedIn profile – to reflect the role I’m doing now.
In reflection, this week has not been easy. Our team is very much in the norming phase, and we are experiencing some struggles with roles, responsibilities, ownership and accountability. I have mixed feelings about stepping in all too much and micro-directing colleagues who are absolutely capable of taking things into their own hands and delivering stuff at high quality. By the end of the week, we had discussed things to the degree that more clarity seemed to be there. But with some workstreams, we aren’t in full delivery flow yet. I hope we get there very soon.
Other work streams are progressing very well. We started user research into a new guidance draft. I’ve not been observing enough user research sessions in the past months. Not at all, to be honest. I realised I missed it as it allows us to see and hear how users are making sense of things. (How obvious, I know) All members of the team need to get into their 2 hours every 6 weeks rhythm again. It’s so important. For the research, I deployed a prototype to Heroku, which I also had not done in ages. I had to fake some PHP to make it work eventually. That reminded me how much I enjoy fiddling with a bit of code. And that I wanted to redo my website in 2020. There are still a few weeks left.
I have been working on my annual card. I’ve been sketching ideas on and off already for months. I thought I had made a breakthrough, at least on paper. Then, in Illustrator, it did not work as expected. So I’ll continue with another direction – hoping to get the design sorted by the end of the month.
A colleague of mine talked about having no novelty in their life at the moment. Being in lockdown again, there is indeed very little to do. At some point, one has visited all the nearby parks, been to the few essential shops that are open, and run the neighbourhood runs one can run. I did do a fastest 9k on Sunday though – with less than 5:00 min/km. And I’m on track for 100k in November again.
For the past weeks, I’ve been sticking to intermitted fasting again. This week, I read how it may support the immune system in defeating COVID-19. That is a neat side effect.
Finally, something new for my rarely used Oculus Quest 2. Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge was released. It features R2D2 and C3PO and lets you play a droid mechanic who fights some pirates. It’s good VR fun. And from Thursday to Sunday I managed to get through the game. It’s about 3.5 hours in total. VR games generally are relatively short, which is good. Because nobody wants to stand for that long. It was less impressive than Vader Immortal, but also a real game instead of an interactive experience. The trailer captures the game and its key scenes well. A few more hours would have been lovely, but more downloadable content is expected for 2021.
This week, BitCoin price went wild. It almost tripled in value since I bought my last part. As usual, in retrospective, I should have bought more. Haha.
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#46/2020
The weeks pass quickly, too quickly to get done what I want and need to get done. Also, they feel monotonous cause there is minimal variance. Now, another week into lockdown number two, I very much miss going over to the gym to exercise or go for a swim. I’m trying to come up with reasons to leave the house whenever I can. But as the days still get shorter and shorter, it’s likely to be dark outside when work finishes. All too often, I keep working into the late evening or night. I am longing to break that pattern.
The weekends are too short, and if the weather is terrible, there is not much to do either. On Saturday, I did a rain walk towards Clissold Park and Stoke Newington. And while shopping seems like a mean to fight boredom, I’m trying to avoid stuff. Also, only essential shops are open. And there is only so much sourdough bread you can buy. There is no gallery to visit, no cultural thing to do, no person from outside of the household to meet. On Sunday, the sky cleared suddenly around midday, so I left the house straight away to explore another path inside the Walthamstow Marches Wetlands. At least that.
Otherwise, we ran Public Service Lab Week 2020 – our entirely virtual conference as an alternative to the planned April event in Freiburg. With over 200 attendees from all parts of the German administration, it’s been a success according to the feedback received. We had 13 contributors in total – and more than half of them were non-male which is what we were aiming for. We used Cisco WebEx, which was surprisingly decent. And all recordings are already up on YouTube.
As demand for the latest Service Gazette edition is there, I’m finally responding to it (In the past, I’ve failed to accept orders). I’ve researched online shops and realised that I don’t need one. A simple payment link should do the job. People only need to be able to add things to a cart and pay. So I am toying with SumUp and Stripe. My MVP lives on SumUp now. Who wants to test it?
This week, we have been reviewing our road map again. In this area, it seems more challenging than for a classic digital product. Getting the level and language right is more work than it appeared in the past. For the upcoming blog post about the team’s work, I’d like to include the roadmap in some way. Also, I still feel out of my depth with the grown team and role as an acting service owner. I’d better find myself a mentor or coach.
I should pick up mindfulness and meditation activities again next week. Just doing physical exercise isn’t enough. That said, I’ve clocked close to 63 km of running in the first 15 days of the month and a ‘perfect move streak’ for 54 days, according to Apple Fitness. I have no plan to end it. That keeps me going.
By the way, I’m not using the Quest 2. This week, I’ve not played a single game. That might change when the new Star Wars game is released later this month. But even though there are plenty of praised games available, I’m just not in the mood.
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#45/2020
I took the Friday off as I have piled up loads of holidays. It was pleasant to go to the park when there is still daylight. Luckily, it’s been perfect autumn weather – not too cold, fairly sunny and with the full spectrum of leaf colours.
I’ve run another Service Thursday session — this time we had my former colleagues Rob and Sanjay who have been working at GDS before and went to Homes England to design their very first GOV.UK service. It’s healthy to get their outside-in perspective and insights from an organisation just starting with digital transformation. It helps our team understand better what role our standards and guidance play in organisational and service transformation and they help create value.
It’s been on my to-do list for a little while now, but I’m struggling to write the team introduction blog post. Initially, I had put the deadline down for October. I seem to make excuses not even to open the file but pull in other work instead. Once I sit in front of it again, it will, I bet. I just have to force myself a little.
There are areas related to my product management duties, where I need to gain more experience and learn more, quicker. Managing the work of a bigger multidisciplinary team that is just in forming and norming phase isn’t something I’ve done for a while, and the set-up feels quite different. This week’s sprint planning could have run smoother. To be fair, this may also have to do with communication styles in the team. I guess I’ll benefit from talking to more experienced service owners and product managers.
The new Service Gazette arrived – just in time for our Public Service Lab Week 2020 starting next week. Working on the Service Gazette has always been remote and often asynchronous too, beginning in 2015 as an extension of the Service Experience Camp conference we ran. I’m still not getting bored of putting the paper together. I might be reaching a few hundred people with each issue and then a long tail of thousands of readers over time. It would be nice to keep this as a very long-term side project. The illustration turned out pretty great, and I’m proud. Just the extra-grainy texture I added is a bit washed out by the newspaper print.
With the second lockdown in the UK in place now, the gym and swimming pool have closed. So I have to find other ways of reaching my move goals and simply keep moving. Friends started using Freeletics, a fitness training app. I used it intensively in 2016 and got reasonably fit over four months by doing bodyweight exercises at least every second day for up to an hour. I’m not sure I can give it that much dedication. Nike’s Fitness app is doing a good job too, and as I have a yoga mat here that must do.
I was keen to get a chocolate babka at modern Jewish restaurant Good Egg in Stoke Newington. But it sold out with people preordering them. So I tried making it myself. Replacing butter with margarine and dairy milk with oat milk wasn’t the most incredible idea. With three times the amount of flour, it kind of worked out eventually. I’ll try it again as it’s too delicious.
Following the US elections, I have spent way too much time on news sites and social media, reading and refreshing. It’s a little nerve-racking with no conclusion for days and days. Hope that ends soon.
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#41/2020
This week showed me again how much my new-ish role is about core product/service management. I spent time tweaking our roadmap, incorporating comments and additions from the team and refining its language. Some of these things might be easier to do and then revisit in person and with a shared wall. Discussions would emerge naturally. Now, we have to keep that browser tap open to serendipitously get back to it and schedule a fortnightly session to work on it. Some things aren’t easier when everything happens remotely. But others are, of course.
I’ve also spent a lot of time with mid-year reviews. These are supposed to provide indicative marks for people, indicating 6 months into the operational year how well they are going. It’s also the time when we are all reminded to sit down and write down our objectives and formulate goals. These spread across multiple categories, including our teams and programmes, the community we belong to (e.g. design), and organisational-level objectives. Without a deadline, no one would write them, it seems. Personally, I benefit from having a little north star and check once in a while how much I’m sticking to the planned course.
I spoke to a German university researcher about making public services more accessible for users. Such conversations are a useful speak-out-loud reflection. She sent me a transcript which I don’t read later, but that’s ok. Picking up more knowledge around that accessibility is something I’d like to do. I only need to reserve the time. At the beginning of the year, I had pledged to spend 5% time of my resources – time and money on learning. I have not followed through. I haven’t even tapped my learning and developing budget from GDS.
For the last one and a half weeks, I have picked up intermittent fasting again. I have been doing it on and off for some years, but not at all since lockdown in March. While there are different configurations, I usually have a 16 hours break between dinner and late lunch. It takes a little while again to not feel hungry in the later morning.
On Saturday, I did a 10k run to Alexandra Palace. I had not been here since 2007 or 2008 when I attended an Arcade Fire concert. Back then, it seemed like a very far away place. With having a better sense of place and living further north, it was a delightful, but still hilly jog.
This week, I made some decent tarte flambée variants, basil pesto, and a vegan version of my favourite banana-blueberry loaf. Without eggs, that loaf imploded a little, but the vegan friends I made it for loved it anyway.
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