Digital transformation leadership panels: “service design and user research are critical for our success” The response when I, a service designer and user researcher, try to register for an event to talk to leaders about digital transformation 🫠

Strikenotes episode 4, the series finale (thank goodness) Our union and government reached a tentative agreement on Sunday so we've returned to work 🥳 This is my first day back and I'm feeling a little lost. I haven't worked since Sept 12 and I got re-orged to another ministry while I was away

It’s been years but I’ve finally done it - I’ve listened to every episode in my giant podcast queue thanks to the @bcgeu.bsky.social strike. Any recommendations for new pods? I like the ones that tell a good story (not usually a fan of conversation-style ones, unless they’re really good)

Strikenotes episode 3: 4th week on the picket lines with my union @bcgeu.bsky.social We had a four day picket week due to Canadian thanksgiving on Monday. Grateful to the union for giving us strike pay on the holiday 🙏🏼 Chilly temps this week but we didn’t have much (or any?) rain ☀️

Still not back at work so here’s strikenotes episode 2. 3rd week on strike, 6th for many colleagues. We all kicked off the week with a huge rally at the BC Legislature. It was both chaotic and energizing. But it seemed to do nothing to move things forward which was disappointing & demoralizing

In case you needed this reminder today … Ready for the March on the Legislature ✊🏻 #defendpublicservices #bcgeu #bcpoli cc @bcgeu.bsky.social

Also realized I should probably provide some “strike” context (all from my perspective) -in Canadian gov, most positions below director level have mandatory union membership (uk gov doesn’t do this?) -in Aug, 91% of members in my current union voted to strike for a cost of living increase

I've been itching to write about #SDinGov and update my #weeknotes but..... I'm on strike and I'm not sure if it counts as 'scabbing' to write about work on my personal blog 😬 So, here are some 'strikenotes' from 2 weeks on the picket lines

Well this is disappointing. I would quite like to go back to work 🥲

This time last week I was filling my heart and brain with ideas and knowledge and connections at @sdingov.bsky.social This week, instead of returning to work, I joined our union @bcgeu.bsky.social ‘s picket line to fight for fairer wages for our public servants. What a September 😅🥳

“AI isn’t taking your job, the people making the decisions are” “Responsibility must be shared, not outsourced” “Being able to ignore the doom and gloom is a privileged position” “Be hopeful AND cynical” Necessary truth bombs from @elmosmoe.bsky.social at @sdingov.bsky.social #sdingov

Unreal moment this morning. Almost feels like there should be some sort of holiday for “the starter word you’ve used for literal years was finally the Wordle word” Or at least something more than a quiet “woo” alone in a hotel room 😆

Imagine you were scheduled for a 15 minute chat with the absolute top person in your public service org (besides the elected leader.) What would you use that time to say or ask? For me, it's prob something around how human-centred designers and/or grass-roots community organizers can have impact

A 'fun' / challenging game to play in government is "try to find this person on the org chart" Are they in this vaguely-named division or that one? (NEITHER) Ooo this branch has all the right keywords...maybe there? (NOPE) Which of these 35 'strategy' teams are they be part of? (NONE OF THEM)

July monthnote up ft: - Recent work (internal project + usability testing) - Writing some things - Spending perhaps too much time on non-design-specific tasks to make the design happen - taking connection opportunities wherever I can find them www.marthaedwards.ca/monthnote-ju...

The full schedule of ‪‪@inclusivedesign24.bsky.social‬ is online, and it's going to be an amazing 24 hours for anyone interested in accessibility. For those not familiar, it's 24 hours, free conferences on accessibility, available on YouTube. Save the date: 25 September 2025!

Rail question for UK folk: Let's say I'm booking a semi-flexible one-way, meaning I can travel on any of the same train within a 70 min window Best train for me is 11am but 10:30 is cheaper. Is it irresponsible to book the 10:30 semi-flexible with the intention of taking the 11?

So many 'private sector' mindsets have been adopted in gov that go against our core principles. EG the idea of 'proprietary' work- People 'protecting' work from being copied & shared. It wastes $ & leads to inefficiency & duplication How can we move from 'it's mine' to 'everything is co-owned'?

Short-form weeknotes 21-25 July What happened - Working on internal service design review atm: team interviews + built out a blueprint, glossary, team guide and list of all tech and touchpoints (whew) - helped a colleague by running a few UX testing sessions on a big public-facing service

June weeknotes are now live, ft 🚀 Thinking about the future (and activities that help do this) 🚀 ✨ Proof that working in the open really works! 🫠 Another re-org in my division 😴 taking a break from design community 👯 much extroverting 🐶 and a new family member www.marthaedwards.ca/june-monthno...

In the past month, I've learned that 2 of the houses I walk by *daily* on my way to the kids' school belong to people I know through work. Feels like some kind of metaphor for how disconnected we are from our neighbours even though we are connected online (or maybe just coincidence + small city)

Last week I shared a workshop activity that I was planning (headlines of the future) at our x-gov design crit. That activity has already been used twice in one week by designers who got the idea from my share. In case you needed a reminder to share what you are working on 🙂

Absolutely gutted by this heartbreaking decision. Charleigh goes to school with my own 9yo and she's such a joyful presence in the school community 💔 I hope @timescolonist.bsky.social & other media are giving this decision the scrutiny and attention it deserves

Here's something I've been noodling over as I reflect on the delivery cultures in the gov orgs I've worked for. Before I obsess any further .... 1 - I feel like someone must have done something similar before. Does this ring any bells for anyone?! 2 - any thoughts? does this resonate?

Interesting user research recruitment method…. Just send people cash in the post with messaging that presumes they will do your diary study! 🤣 (I enjoy getting random money in the mail so will definitely incentivize this behaviour by participating)

When Canada elected Mark Carney as its Prime Minister on Monday night, the word 'humility' came up six times. It's a word and trait I deeply value, as it's how I would describe my most formative leadership role model: my dad. So I decided to write about it: www.marthaedwards.ca/leading-with...

Monthnote for April is up, somewhat on time this month. Ft: - A ministry re-rog 😬 - a federal election 😬 - taxes 😬😡 - and a bit of work stuff too www.marthaedwards.ca/april-monthn...

Filing taxes in 🇨🇦 be like - Start tax return on external tool ($) - Connect return to Canada Revenue Agency - CRA autofills everything with the info it has - Realize CRA has all info & could be doing this part for you - Flip table & rage against ineffective public service delivery - Repeat next year

Happy first day of “election anxiety is over, back to just regular anxiety now” to all who celebrate ✌️ 🇨🇦

WITHOUT getting into the political discourse around it, completely from an objective perspective.... what do other user researchers, forms experts and content designers think about this "survey"?? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Been a while since I've had time for my 'short form' weeknotes so here it goes. What I've been up to: -Spoke at SD in Gov Virtual which went great -Made a followup post on LinkedIn which went a bit viral and was noticed by the top person where I work, which was 😎🥳 but also 😬😅

When IT makes me re-image my macbook and I back up literally everything except my bookmarks which I really really rely on 🫠 And for some reason it doesn't come through via syncing 🫠🫠🫠 ☠️

Governments often focus more on keeping 'fraudsters' out of services than they do on ensuring everyone who is eligible can get access. It's why we have huge security/ identity teams, but small accessibility teams Enjoyed talking about this and other trust things at @sdingov.bsky.social virtual 🙂

You should know that a big part of 18F's work was to make sure multi-million to multi-*hundreds*-of-millions dollar contracts at fed *and* state level didn't go to shitty enterprise IT consultancies that *repeatedly* delivered tech that didn't work, was late, or didn't even do what it needed to

💔 😞

TIL that Government of Alberta has a ministry called "Red Tape Reduction"

Weeknotes Feb 18-21 (17th was a holiday here) What happened: -2x workshops learning more on how someone might change their legal name, and how birth certificates and registrations happen in BC. I'm moving into the phase of this work where I'm starting to compile insights & turn them into action

OH in a very senior-level meeting: "this gov website works great but it's too bland. Can you add some photos?" The problem with photos is.... -Accessibility issues -Bigger carbon footprint -Adds unnecessary clutter -Can be misleading -False tokenism -Anything else? (Or maybe I am just grumpy?? 😅)

Short-form weeknotes - 10-14 Feb -Spent 2 energizing in-person days (and evenings!) learning from @theschoolofgood.bsky.social + connecting with @loudowne.bsky.social @rufflemuffin.bsky.social and so many BC gov colleagues. It was wonderful, my heart and head are full. More on that later

Short form weeknotes - Feb 1-7 What happened this week: - My city (the least wintery one in Canada) had a wild amount of snow. Daycares and schools closed, meetings got cancelled. My kids school was open but it still added stress - dressing them for winter + too icy for my mental health walks

😓

With the intention of putting more thought and effort into my writing, I'm reducing my long-form weeknotes to monthnotes, and going to attempt to post short form here. On that note here's my first monthnote for 2025: www.marthaedwards.ca/january-2025...

You can’t stand up to Trump when you’re working from his playbook. Mark Carney calls out Pierre Poilievre 🔥 It’s either Mark Carney or Fascism, Canada.

It's so fun to be Canadian right now 🫠 nationalpost.com/news/donald-...

I felt too star struck to talk to her at first, that's how legendary @vickytnz.bsky.social was to our gov design community. I'm going to miss seeing her energy, work and word so much - I can't imagine how all her close colleagues, friends and family must be feeling now. What an unfathomable loss 💔

2024 was a year of big job changes for me, and I've written about it in my yearnote: www.marthaedwards.ca/2024-a-yearn... As for 2025 I'm just hoping that Canada doesn't get taken over by an orange dictator, that's not too much to ask right??

Billionaires love the “Community Notes” approach to fact-checking because it involves people working for them for free

Looks like @sdingov.bsky.social Virtual put all of us Canadians in the same time slot 😝 I will miss sessions by @firebethfox.bsky.social and the All In crew 🥲 Hopefully they're recorded? (Here's hoping for more Americas timezone-friendly slots in future events!) virtual.sdingov.net/programme-2025

First bit of mail after a long postal strike in Canada 🇨🇦- and for once it’s something good and not a bill 😆 Thank you @martinjordan.com and The Service Gazette, so exciting 🎉🙌🏻