Category: work
- Many things are ok ()
Back in 2016, the team I was part of at the Government Digital Service created a poster. This poster, written by the team and designed by Sonia Turcotte: This blog post gives you the background. Since then, a few companies and organisations have either printed their own copies of that poster, or have remixed it […]
- Blogging for teams (without using Medium) ()
Recently I was working with a team who wanted to blog about their work. Their first instinct was to start posting stuff on Medium, but I pulled a face and they immediately asked why. “Medium’s not great,” I said. “It’s so aggressive in nagging people to sign up or sign in that it becomes quite […]
- Stickers for the RSS massive ()
I’m not sure where the phrase “Big up the RSS massive” came from [edit, later: it came from Russell, of course] . It’s been doing the rounds for so long that it feels like something from the good old days. It’s not, though, it’s much more recent, and it’s mainly spoken by a tiny minority […]
- The “How to make a video” video ()
This is a script I wrote years ago at GDS, when we were thinking about making a video to help people in other government departments when they were making their own videos. The idea was to “show the thing” – in this case, all the things people should try to avoid when making a video. […]
- Projects 19-24 ()
2019 was one of those years that feels like it only began 5 minutes ago, but here we are in December and where did the days go? The same place that all the hours and minutes and used train tickets went, I suppose. Even more so than last year, this year’s work was almost entirely for Public […]
- Turn question slides into statement slides ()
This is a tip I often suggest when I’m giving people feedback on draft presentations. I thought it might be useful for other people, so here you go. In an effort to add structure to their presentations, I’ve seen quite a lot of people insert slides that ask a question. They usually say something like: “How […]
- Projects 13-18 ()
Another year done. Different from last year mainly because there were fewer clients and fewer small projects. This year’s work was dominated by Public Digital as they scaled up from a small part-time team to a much larger full-time one. The pace and scale of the change there has been very impressive to witness, and play a small part […]
- Planning comms ()
Not too much; mostly blogging This is how I advise people about planning their communication: “Plan comms. Not too much. Mostly blogging.” (A reference to Michael Pollan’s advice for a healthy diet: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”) Some teams, particularly government teams, love to plan their future communication out on what’s usually called a […]
- Making better corporate video ()
If the company or organisation you work for makes a video about a project or a piece of work, it’s important to make sure that the result is actually a video about the work. Too often, the video is treated as PR, and turns into something horrible, boring and unwatchable. Here are a few tips […]
- Collecting things ()
Doing future-you a favour This is a tip for people who find themselves in charge of communicating over time on behalf of a team, an organisation, or a piece of work: collect things. Collect things that future-you will find useful. Of course you don’t know which things they’ll be, because you’re not future-you yet. So […]