Hello, I’m Fred, a product manager working on beta.parliament.uk. At the end of each sprint I’m going to write an update about what the outputs team have done and what we have learned.
We’re in the beta phase of research briefings. Helping people access information so they can better understand topics and debates in Parliament.
If you’d like to read about another team, Alan writes up sprint notes for the people team. Alan has taken over from Colin who left us to return to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Colin is great to work with and will be missed. I’ll be keeping an eye out for DoHSC sprint notes.
Delays are frustrating. We had a difficult sprint but we’ve at least prepared the foundations of our MVP. There are constraints in place which can limit what we build. We found about these towards the end, rather than the start, of beta and it slowed us down. We weren’t always aware of the consequences of some limitations. We’re learning and if something is a permanent blocker than we need to collaborate/join forces to work around it - not through it.
In brighter news - Jaie and John joined our team!
We haven’t had a Delivery Manager before and Jaie is already making a positive impact. He’s been revamping all our ceremonies and making us more accountable and more collaborative. We have taken over support for the MPs guide to procedure so having someone dedicated to delivery is ideal.
John has replaced Lino as Content Designer. He’s already given us some useful ideas. Another set of eyes is always helpful. John was working on Guide to Procedure so he will be extra important in bridging the gap as we carry on development.
It’s okay to ask for help. We did. Things will go smoother in sprint 11 (we hope).