And we're back.. Day 1 of work in 2026 complete. All the things at once to remind myself why I don't normally do 2 day compressed weeks!

If you're new here and happen to see this, here's a Critical Tech starter pack, full of interesting folk to follow go.bsky.app/VFxSES6 And if you have a small account (<10k followers) and would like to be added for visibility, let me know! (Although response times may be slow)

It's always an exciting moment when we can say #CampDigital is happening THIS YEAR! 🎉 🎤 Our brilliant speakers for 7th May include: @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social, @himal.bsky.social @dasbarrett.bsky.social, @laurayarrow.bsky.social Early birds available till end of Jan at: tinyurl.com/2s35kfd9

Looking ahead to #UKGovCamp - coming up soon 🎉 We’ll be there as Gold Sponsors of this public services unconference on 17 Jan. Come say hi 👋

Wrote about my first 7 months transforming the technology underpinning the national breast screening programme: lizlutgendorff.substack.com/p/lessons-le...

First working day back for many. It can be easy to get swamped, especially if you’re compensating for gaps. Wrote this to cover something I’ve seen in many places: effort masquerading as capacity, leading to burnout, how it affects some more than others, and how to not let it become normalised.

Don’t worry gang, no one actually starts their New Year’s resolutions on the 1st. And you’d be silly to begin on a Friday, best save it for Monday. But Monday is the 5th so you’ve kind of missed the boat anyway and can safely put it off for next year.

Happy New Year to everyone I know or have connected with here 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣🎆 I’m halfway through a much needed Christmas break from work… No reflection posts from me this year - I ran out of time and energy in 2025. Here’s to doing our best and being our best selves in 2026 #keepgoing

Meanwhile this is *machine learning* and what it is *good at*. Not generative AI bullshit, actual useful predictive statistical models. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Merry Christmas everyone 🎄 …with four children and a busy household we’re at the *falling over the line* stage of life on days like today. I’m just glad we made it and everyone seems healthy and happy this morning. Hope you all have a good one 🥂

The Top 10 (non job links) from my newsletter this year - About the GOV Reuse Library reuselibrary-dev.apps.cloud-platform.service.justice.gov.uk/about.html ...was top by a country mile.

💡 New short read about false positives in user-centred design. This is an analogy I find helpful when thinking about how user-centricity is really shaping, directing and impacting the work of digital teams #digitaltransformation benholliday.com/2025/11/27/f...

I *love* the torn one that just has "you don't have to accept this future" written in regular handwriting. That's what I keep repeating to anyone who will listen to me at my institution. We don't have to participate in reinforcing this one possible future; there are others we can imagine and make.

Kendal Mountain Festival has taken over our small town again this weekend - it’s wonderful seeing this international festival growing each year… busiest I’ve ever seen it around the town yesterday #UKLakeDistrict

One brilliant thing about Twitter was that for a lot of us, it made networking not networking. You posted about what you were passionate about it, and it had more of a chance to get in front of someone relevant. It wasn't networking, it was caring about something in public.

"…we need a discussion about the added value that admin teams bring to patients, particularly those that struggle to navigate the NHS." Interesting ideas here: "Imagine if GPs, not admin staff, were the first point of contact for people wanting an appointment." www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

Nice short read: highlights the importance of thinking about audiences (senior leaders and stakeholders) when presenting the outputs of mapping work #servicedesign medium.com/@katie.dicke...

💡 Good new TPX design blog by Weronika Tokaj (not on BSky)… I'm often asked where the examples are of teams using design/research as part of policy spaces? Here's a great example with some practical insights #ServiceDesign #UserResearch #UserCentredPolicyDesign www.tpximpact.com/knowledge-hu...

Vendor lock in. The same obvious tactics in 2025, just increasingly applied to AI tooling, or being sold more explicitly as productivity solutions www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

If people in your team or organisation are using AI notetakers as a way of coping with too many meetings and a culture of presenteeism, there's not a technological fix for this. The answer is to have fewer, better organised meetings www.careful.industries/blog/2025-11...

I’ve been listening to @naomialderman.bsky.social’s new book this week - about living through an information crisis. It asks lots of important questions, which I’ve found really thought provoking #books www.penguin.co.uk/books/469677...

‘Tis the season for cancelled and/or delayed trains #trains #winter

London bound today. This morning has that ethereal winter feeling. Everything slowly defrosting as the sun rises #trains

⭐ New blog: I've been doing some writing about Service Design recently... In this post, I explain how importance of the shift from product to a "service mindset" … Thanks to Mica Moore (not on BSky) who contributed to this and provided feedback. benholliday.com/2025/11/18/f... #ServiceDesign

⭐ New blog: I've been doing some writing about Service Design recently... In this post, I explain how importance of the shift from product to a "service mindset" … Thanks to Mica Moore (not on BSky) who contributed to this and provided feedback. benholliday.com/2025/11/18/f... #ServiceDesign

Snow on the mountains in the distance this morning #UKLakeDistrict

⭐ I'm really pleased that we're hiring again in Design & Research at TPXimpact... we've been getting lots of interest in our roles, so the team are hosting some sessions this week if you want to find out more… Join any of our upcoming sessions 🧵 #jobs #hiring

Working to the sound of the heavy rain outside today. We've reached the point of the year where we all need to find small things to lift our spirits. Soup for lunch today, and I might even put some lights up in my home office later

Enjoyed this long-read post from Christine Browne “What can be measured and calculated becomes all that matters. The most valuable things—trust, judgment, understanding what someone needs when they don’t know themselves—are the things that resist quantification.” open.substack.com/pub/christin...

Quiet Stories 191: Stop Craft Negging, Thoughts on Responding to Change, Seeing Like a Software Company, and lots more! mailchi.mp/aecf565f3683... Includes work from @catt.design, @ames.world, Sean Goedecke, @grimalkina.bsky.social, @benholliday.com & many others!

Good listen on BBC Radio 4 from earlier today - featuring three books now on my reading list. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Early-Bird tickets are now on sale for next year's Agile Manchester conference (13-14th May): agilemanchester.net/tickets "Agile Manchester is designed to create and nurture ‘change agents’. We provide actionable insights, practical tools and new ideas" / @agilemanc.bsky.social

Extract from my new book in the Guardian today! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

“The NHS is still struggling to improve productivity, the report finds, with fewer than 10% of areas managing to raise the number of elective procedures they carry out by any more than the number of extra staff they hire.” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I get frustrated by the press release culture around time savings from AI tools. I couldn't resist responding to a recent one about Microsoft Copilot in the NHS. There's still a missing step of being able to reimagine the future of work with technology benholliday.com/2025/10/23/4...

Is AI making job recruitment less meritocratic? We're getting some v interesting research studies on this question now, and the news is... not good. @jburnmurdoch.ft.com & I dive in, in the latest edition of our newsletter The AI Shift www.ft.com/content/e5b7...

www.theguardian.com/education/20... What could possibly go wrong?

Good share from the BBC's design team on AI content labelling patterns - something that's going to become increasingly important on public services and sites. Very interested in how GOV.UK might already be going similar research and testing? www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

A bit of a holiday rant... We need to stop designing "target architectures." They're a fantasy. A waste of money. An approach that forces decisions too early, kills speed, and guarantees you'll never fix legacy tech. A utopian plan that's an anchor, not a map. dafyddvaughan.uk/blog/2025/th...

New TPX design blog this week shares some great work with Defra - the team created a four metre illustrative ecosystem map that shows how all their environmental services connect and overlap www.tpximpact.com/knowledge-hu... #servicedesign #govdesign

Sunday and some calm between the storms 🌦️ #UKLakeDistrict #breathe

New TPX design blog this week shares some great work with Defra - the team created a four metre illustrative ecosystem map that shows how all their environmental services connect and overlap www.tpximpact.com/knowledge-hu... #servicedesign #govdesign

As with everything, the technology is not the thing. OpenAI is a financial instrument more than it is a tech company.

The whole of the HMRC Board got me to present to them about the opportunities and risks of AI about 18 months ago and my main messages were be very careful with high stakes decision making and remember the Horizon Post Office scandal which was about governance and accountability…

New on the TPX design blog this week …this post is a good example of transforming a relatively small internal service in the courts and prisons system www.tpximpact.com/knowledge-hu...

A very good post from Sam which feels familiar. I know I rant too often about queuing theory and the NHS but too often “efficiency” and “rationalisation” takes no account of the brute realities of the mathematics. It’s also why Sam’s understandable desire for a place in the queue app is so hard.

I very much appreciate this: "Technologies like LLMs have utility, but the absurd way they've been over-hyped, the fact they're being forced on everyone, and the insistence on ignoring the many valid critiques about them make it very difficult to focus on legitimate uses where they might add value."

One thing I’ve noticed in the last month is that some design schools are rushing to introduce design/fashion courses ‘with AI’ without really being able to explain what they are

I’m busy looking around universities with my eldest daughter at the moment. The new Manchester School of Art and Design facilities were impressive today

Felt like making a starter pack for #GovDesign. Here it is: go.bsky.app/Anw2ykD