S01E01 — The new job

Week ending 23/8/24

Anchit Som
5 min readAug 26, 2024

TL;DR: Joined my first public sector product role at NHS England & wrote my first weeknote (it’s this one). Some initial lessons from team building and PMing on the taxpayer’s dime.

During my search for a fulfilling and impactful job in the public sector, I found the Web of Weeknotes to be a great guide to the product community at UK Government. While this practice is meant to be reflective for those doing it, it provided me with tremendous insight into the minds of PMs & designers at NHS, the challenges they face, and the organizational setup they find themselves in. Usually, you jump into new roles with little to no clue about how the role will actually be, except for some idealistic company vision page to go by. But in this case, there was so much for me to dig into and comprehend.

Having read Matt Edgar and Imogen Levy’s reflections on working at Digital Urgent & Emergency Care(DUEC), I decided to take the plunge into a Product Manager role at Find the Right Service, a part of DUEC that helps direct patients to the right place. It’s been 2 weeks already and there’s so much I’ve learnt.

Hoping to help others in the way it has helped me I’ve decided to start weeknoting as a reflective practice. I can’t promise this will be strictly weekly as I find my feet in this new practice, but I’ll try to post atleast fortnightly (otherwise, I’ll have to call it a monthnote, which will mess up my numbering). So here goes —

PMing on the Taxpayer’s Dime

“Government is inefficient, and the private sector does it better.” Growing up in 2000s and 2010s India, this was a common phrase I heard. Rightly so, because the post-liberalization reforms of 1991 had laid bare the failings of the Fabian Socialism espoused by Nehru. Yet in Britain, the story is a little different, as we find ourselves in the advanced stages of this dictum, with privatization and Thatcherism having ruined many of the essential public services people rely on. The idea of private sector efficiency already started showing cracks & I have found myself increasingly at odds with this long-held notion of private does it better. I won’t delve too deep into this, but a good place to find stats, theory, and reasoning to support this claim is Mission Economy by Mariana Mazzucato.

With the idea of government inefficiency being challenged, I was struck by the strong emphasis on efficiency within the NHS. The reason for this efficiency is taxpayer money — every decision or delay needs to be justified, making it imperative for teams to function in a way that is both effective and efficient. This isn’t to say that all parts of the NHS are efficient (we still have a Waiting List crisis), but it is certainly an important measure for most products and PMs working in the organization.

What this means for product management in government is that prioritization carries a responsibility that is second to none, as all costs incurred need to be justifiable. As Marty Cagan points out in his article about doing product in government (heavily geared towards US Gov.), the need to avoid waste in product building still stands. It’s daunting, but it’s new. It empowers you to make tough choices, and it makes you responsible and accountable, which is what the job entails. It brings real ownership and passion, something I see strongly in the colleagues I’ve met at the NHS.

Snapped this Government-ish looking building during my strolls in Greenwich

Team Building and Growth

In the midst of team building with new suppliers coming onboard, it’s a chaotic time, but it’s also great to see talent that can elevate the product and make a bigger impact on the lives of those it serves. As a PM, I’ve often found myself spread thin, working on data, designs, and sometimes even acting as the tester. This gives me a sense of control over the product (says the egotist), helping me feel like I’m in charge and accountable. Yet, I’ve often wondered how much nicer it would be to have someone lead or collaborate with me, bringing in new ideas and perspectives.

With the new team coming on, I now have a set of amazing talent spread across design, data, and engineering. In this new team paradigm, I am conscious that my role, instead of doing it all, is to facilitate people to do their best work, in service of the people benefitting from the product.

Growth comes from doing things yourself, but it also comes from watching and enabling others to do it in much more interesting ways. That’s how you build successful products.

Interesting Stuff Read/Consumed

I’m probably keeping this as an accountability tool, but I’d also love to connect with folks who are reading similar stuff or who are particularly moved by something similar.

Finished this week:

  • Trading Game — Loved it. The narration and build-up were excellent. Living and working near Canary Wharf now, so it’s great to have an insider’s account of what actually goes on inside these glass buildings.
  • Trying — An endearing watch (coz my partner works at Camden Council) that makes you think about how council services affect people’s lives in very real ways.
Got woken up by my cat at 5 am and found this beautiful view of Canary Wharf

In progress:

  • Interpreter of Maladies — Being an immigrant in the UK, I find immense comfort in writings of Indian Diaspora writers & Jhumpa Lahiri is exceptional in her ability to bring to fore some of the complicated feelings and identities experienced by us.
  • Slow Horses — Spy TV with Gary Oldman. Enough said.

Thanks for reading! I’d appreciate your support as I continue my writing practice. Let me know if anything resonates with you or if you have any differing perspectives.

Next up: Team charters and working through success metrics.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this weeknote are my own and do not represent the views of my employer.

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Anchit Som
Anchit Som

Written by Anchit Som

Digital Product & Design in Gov

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