Monthnote: June 2025

This is a few days late because my youngest and I were struck down with a nasty stomach flu last week and I still haven't bounced back completely.

Anyway, here's what's been happening in my world lately....

My team got re-orged again (second time in three months for those keeping track) - all is good and things are looking hopeful but it's another change to navigate. But I've also been nervous for colleagues in other parts of the health sector where layoffs and contract terminations are starting to become more common.

I ran some user interviews, then I pivoted from that project, which wasn't clearly defined but felt impactful, to another one, which is clearly defined and perhaps less impactful on paper but I'm hopeful will pave the road for other work. That work got slightly de-railed by the abovementioned re-org, but I think we're back on track.

I did a lot of thinking about the future. I participated in a 2-week lunch hour 'futures simulation' led by Nicole, it was very inspiring and thoughtful. I also shared a future-focused workshop plan at our design crit and sparked a lot of great discussion and ideas. And, I heard that one of my workshop activities (headlines of the future) has already been used twice by other teams (in case you needed more proof that working in the open is magical ✨)

And I also lead future-thinking visioning workshop for our design team that was really cool and fun. This was the main activity: Write down what we each think design in our sector *ideally * looks like in 5 years, then ask AI to generate one or more images based on that. The results were hilarious and we enjoyed picking apart all the things that co-pilot got wrong (like made-up words, someone reading a novel while driving, a mysterious floating doll-sized person.) Here's what that activity looked like:

I decided to take a break from design community stuff, which turned into the whole design community taking a break for the summer. We've lost a lot of momentum from community contributors (including me) and I was tired of feeling bad about not doing more. I think it's a good thing to take a break, we seem to be at a critical moment to either pivot or end, but it's a little worrying as I don't want things to fall apart.

I finally published a blog post I've been sitting on for a while. I kept re-thinking, re-editing it to make it more actionable and less ranty. I wrote another blog post but haven't published it because I can't find a way to not make it ranty (maybe ranty is ok sometimes?)

On a personal level, I had a month of extreme (for me) extroverting. Meetups with out of town friends, a birthday trip for my youngest (who turned 6!), a birthday trip with my friend Jenny and a crew of ladies, another visit to Kelowna... oh and my kids got a puppy. It's been a lot.

What's gone well

• Thinking about the future is something I don't always do - I'm naturally more focused on what's in front of me - so the focus on futures this month has been a positive change and challenge
• Connecting with people I don't always connect with (personally and at work) has been really lovely, giving me a gentle nudge to do this more often
• Sharing my work this month really paid off - other teams have borrowed my approach and many said they were really energized by the conversation we had about it

What's been challenging

• A couple of situations have been keep me up at night and causing a fair amount of rumination and anxiety. A story involving a child in my daughter's class, made by the organization I work for. And a situation involving a friend. I've been leaning into meditation and practical advocacy for both of these. But I'm still feel helpless and hopeless.
• Plus a normal level of anxiety about the changes happening in our organization and sector, and what the future holds for all of us.
• Although I do monthnotes here, I do actual weeknotes in my paper journal but I've been terrible at keeping them up lately. I wonder if my medium needs to switch - perhaps going back to digital weeknotes and keeping the paper journal for personal reflections and sketching.

Interesting things I've read:

Notes from Decolonising service design in government - an open discussion

Earlier this month, we (Eloise Smith-Foster Sonia Turcotte and Clara Greo (Teoh)) ran an open discussion on Decolonising service design in government. It was a beautiful session to be a part of.

LinkedInClara Greo (Teoh)

18F’s profound legacy of procurement reform

Back in March I wrote about the elimination of the United States government’s two leading digital government teams. Beyond their digital service work, these teams also did a lot of heavy lifting to change processes and policies that held back better service delivery – including around procurement. As 18F and USDS were suddenly shut down, anecdotes about the hundreds of millions of dollars saved by helping departments and decision-makers make better technology choices quickly emerged.

Sean BootsSean Boots

The importance of delivering punchy insights from user research

When delivered well, punchy insights from user research can guide your organisation towards meaningful improvement, innovation, and sustained growth.

Measuring service performance at the Government of Alberta

Over the past year, I’ve been working with product teams at the Government of Alberta to help them evaluate how well their services are working. Measuring service performance is how we understand impact, learn what is working and where we need to improve.

LinkedInIrina Savin

Indigenous Futurisms

I am a Palyku writer, artist and academic and a practitioner of Indigenous futurisms, a term first coined by Anishinaabe academic Grace Dillon.

ANU School of Cybernetics

Radical Place Leadership - how we can change public services for the better

MV Non-Executive Director Director Donna Hall argues that, even with more powers devolved to local areas, we will be overwhelmed with demand pressures, bureaucracy and silo interventions if we stick with traditional methods of public service delivery. Donna makes the case for a new and radical form of Place Leadership designed around the reality of life and human relationships.We all know the current system is broken…There have been a lot of well-intentioned place-based initiatives over the last

Mutual VenturesProf Donna Hall

A Single Front Door for ADHD

Rethinking how we access diagnosis, support and care

MediumHimal Mandalia

Reading, watching, listening

Six months in, I can safely say that 2025 is officially the year of, "I started reading it but I read too slowly and my library hold expired," a problem I have quite honestly never had before. Anyway, I finished three books in june (though I started a couple others) - Gliff by Ali Smith (fascinating and terrifying, a little to vague for me at times but overall quite good); Margot's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe (a fun and interesting read but it lost me a bit in the last third;) and The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (quite good.)

I've been watching the new season of The Bear.

No notable podcasts come to mind but I've been enjoying the replay of several Heavyweight Episodes that I'd forgotten about.