Everything I've seen over the last ~20 agrees - the most high performing teams broadly following XP practices (if not in name, at least in practice)

"We appointed FF Studio as our partners...This can’t-be-topped team wore their expertise lightly. They operated thoroughly inside the tent as we’d hoped...They delivered at pace, with high standards and most importantly, any problems were shared problems that we figured out together."

Lizzie wrote a very pleasing account of my favourite project of last year with the V&A

saw this image from Blue Lug in Tokyo and it just made my heart sing, aren't bikes and all the beautiful things people make for them such a thing of beauty

another great piece from @amymcnichol.bsky.social's annual series. the cognitive load involved in becoming a queer parent is immense. www.ithoughtaboutthatalot.com/2025/becomin...

I don't miss Sharepoint but I do miss being able to say "We're working with the V&A at the moment", thanks @soniaturcotte.bsky.social for writing up the work soniaturcotte.com/digital-gard...

accidentally bounced civilservicepensions.co.uk offline the other week. back now. haven't updated it since 2018 but hopefully someone somewhere still finds it useful. (not financial advice etc etc)

best bit of the new Lily Allen record is her dropped Ts, 100% London energy

Not sure what Martin Keown has to do with all this

wrote down some stuff about closing FF Studio, what I was proud of and what I'd do differently if I did it again notes.annagoss.co/closing-ff/

wrote down some stuff about closing FF Studio, what I was proud of and what I'd do differently if I did it again notes.annagoss.co/closing-ff/

there was, I am sure, a blog post recently about modular content on GOV.UK. it isn't this post by Markland in 2020. but I cannot find it. does anyone remember where this post was? gds.blog.gov.uk/2020/11/05/n...

my dad's visiting and just got a phone call during which he gave whoever it was his email address. "at compuserve.com" tell me you're an internet early adopter without telling me you're an internet early adopter, go on!

lovely work by @nickasbury.bsky.social - nearly a decade old but I only just came across it www.asburyandasbury.com/cambridge-un...

I got Claude Code to audit my Mac's folder / file structure (because it is a hot mess developed over 20 years). Turns out I hoard copies of Transport all over the place. You never know when you might need it!!

I just really, really love my dog

Uncharacteristically professional post: I'm looking for experienced, freelancing designers & researchers for a swath of FTC roles my team is trying to fill. You'd be joining our Trusted Talent contracting network, with immediate roles in UX, Content, or Service design, and design research. 🧵 1/3

No one's coming, it's up to us (to remember to pay our taxes)

DING DING DING! I just remembered I've got to pay some tax to HMRC by 31 July. Have you also forgotten? Consider this a reminder!

look dad we got two inbound links

felt left out of the vibe coding chat didn't I notes.annagoss.co/2025-07-18/

do you want to buy some office stuff? we're selling some office stuff. buttondown.com/ff-studio/ar...

£3,750 could get you several pedal cycles, two e-bikes or a cargo bike. Where’s the grant for them?

is there a better book for very small children than Slinky Malinki? if so please let me know, if not I will just read Slinky seven times a day for the next three years (quite happily actually, but variety is nice innit)

As a case in point, a certain crowd-funding publisher that went bust recently owed nearly £360k to HMRC in PAYE it had withheld from peoples' payslips but hadn't actually, you know, paid across to HMRC - there are a *lot* of SMEs and this adds up, even disregarding the umbrella scams going round.

Kim Little is a European champion. My heart can’t cope.

Absolute cliche to be a govdesigner commenting on the childcare service but...well I have 100 things to say about payments, basically

our poor pup is in dog hospital, it seems like she'll be fine but woweeeeeee the bill is currently one month's salary perhaps, fellow pet owners, take this as a cue to increase your pet insurance cover!

quite fun to go back to the comments on early GDS blog posts. "I presume this means merging everything to a single mega-site...this doesn't seem to me to be a very sensible thing to do at all." "Well good luck with that. I hope you have some very good technical folk in amongst your web designers."

This is exactly what I mean when I say that it is impossible to reduce friction, only to move it around. The text-making-up machine dropped the friction of "research" to zero, but every single person downstream of that "research" who has to act upon it now shoulders a double workload.

Today is the last day for early bird tickets to Introduction to user-centred design in government training in June 🐥 Tickets for Advocating for UCD training are also available 🦚 Opportunity tickets are also available claragreo.com/training/ --- Illustration by Ayush Kumar on Unsplash

Update on this: I’m in the pub

the V&A's order an object service is live: www.vam.ac.uk/info/order-a... so you can get all up close and personal with pretty much anything in their archive 😍

an email I just received from a charity I've supported for many years (my mum's best friend was a co-founder) "At ABCD Bethlehem, we’ve been working for over 40 years to improve the lives of children with disabilities across Palestine — regardless of faith, race, or gender."

Yo I'm doing starting a new thing. Slow reading! Online! Animals! Open to anyone, with no prior reading or experience needed to join other than an interest in animals and reading with others. soniaturcotte.com/animali/

I'm running a new in-person course! Introduction to User-centred Design (UCD) in Government 1 day, Brighton, 20 June £275/£350 Perfect for: 🌱 People new to user-centred research or design 🐝 Designers new to gov 🪻 Folks who want to work better with UCD people

since the death of Twitter sometimes it's hard for the indie designers & researchers & trainers to get the word out about what they're doing, but if you sign up for updates from Clara & Ignacia you'll never miss a training course again!

our favourite collaborator @rodm.bsky.social is in town for Interesting in May (sold out! well done @undermanager.bsky.social!), so we're organising some pre-drinks, do join lu.ma/j1g3ualv

I still chuckle at this report cover sometimes. Grateful to work with a team who are confident enough to inject personality and wit into the work. What's the point otherwise? cc @soniaturcotte.bsky.social @rodm.bsky.social @eliotf.bsky.social

can't wait to read Kevin Evers' book on the strategic genius of Taylor Swift, the CEO of one of the world's largest entertainment businesses on.ft.com/4lMl5w1

our favourite collaborator @rodm.bsky.social is in town for Interesting in May (sold out! well done @undermanager.bsky.social!), so we're organising some pre-drinks, do join lu.ma/j1g3ualv

There are those whose words we remember always and across time. For me, Judith Butler is one - their lectures resonating beyond a specific place and time. But then returning at other moments when politics shows just how horribly correct their analysis was.

seemingly I cannot stop marketing this week, yesterday a case study, today an email newsletter, where does it all end? buttondown.com/ff-studio/ar...

we've written up some work exploring what grants might look like if power between grantseeker:grantmaker got slightly reshuffled, and if the technology UK gov used to give out £46bn of grants was an enabler rather than a constraint. grab a brew, enjoy www.ff.studio/projects/gra...

also calling it now that I reckon the Filipino cardinal is gonna be the next pope

absolute scoundrels at Miro, just learned they bill for the number of seats / licences you have even if you've deleted the users who were allocated to them. I bet they make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year with this deceptive pattern but does that make it right? IT DOES NOT

every judgement that attempts to crack down on definitions of sex and gender is also bad news for those who don’t look like they “should”, and so it will continue until everyone has to pretend to be Katy Perry in space to be a woman

oki oki friday afternoon quiet launch lfg

PHWOAR abcdinamo.com/hardware/let...