May 2021

I thought I’d try a shorter “month notes” format this month, covering all the main areas but as list items. Let’s see how it goes.

Work 🏢

Returned to the Birmingham office, the first time “in house” for 14 months – all safe but very strange experience
Met Annette, a fellow new Engineering Manager to brainstorm some ideas
Explored the use of Trello boards to help engineers plan and track personal development plans along with profiling tools to understand behaviours and personalities
Recruited our first engineer headcount as a team, one of the most seamless interviews I’ve ever experienced
Setup a fortnightly Lightning Talks ⚡️ series for our engineers to share recent learnings; first on Bitcoin, second on functional programming
Returned to the Birmingham office to meet Tori, another new EM, for introductions IRL
Introduced a “monthly focus” for peer (360) feedback in teams, encouraging faster-feedback and rapid personal development
Promising feedback from the second month in the new(ish) job, thanks to vocal people responding to my feedback requested
Recorded a Racket with Gareth about personal development plans
Setup a Microsoft Power Automate process to generate permission/access emails and create development plans for newstarters

Lovely family trip to Woburn’s Centre Parcs for first bank holiday weekend including plenty outdoor activities and (uphill) cycling
Picked up a new(ish) Mini One to get me around now lockdown is easing and travel is more likely
Setup the novelty Apple Air Tag with the new car keys to realise precision is ruined in our thick walled house
Obsessed over a TV show being recorded in the house (for sale) over the road
Made the most of our local gym & pool, racking up quite a few swimming sessions and hitting a 1,500m record
Restarted tattoo research for inspiration and local talent – now considering a record player illustration at Revelation Northampton
Dad Camp returned following the COVID hiatus with lots of fire, fun & games, drinking and scorching sunshine (plus custom t-shirts from Printful)

Designed and built the MVP foundations of Football Cal with thanks to my On The Side support and feedback
No Multipack this month – demand seems low so now considering alternative ways of engaging
#FinesseFriday continued with weekly editions, culminating in a special guest mix from Paul Hutchinson
Re-registered funkyhousefinesse.com and onephatdj.co.uk to support the audio idents from the archives
Started plans for Make Life Work Season 6 inviting a range of people along to talk with a new project-specific format
Setup a Goodreads RSS syndication to my Reading section