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Gillian

@gilliandy.bsky.social
27 followers 38 following 85 posts

Product Manager in central government. Not a dog.

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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Shout out to everyone else who's working really hard on not responding to compliments with an immediate refusal of anything positive, and instead opting for the revolutionary phrase - and you may not have heard it in this context - of "thank you".
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
There's a really specific energy to a multi page document in Times New Roman.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Back in the 1840s when railways were new, the time (ie when is 1pm) varied between cities - which became a problem as travel times sped up. A data problem because of new tech! It took SEVEN YEARS to standardise time/data (GMT) across the railways. Implementing change has always required patience.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Smart people want to share information. Insecure people hoard it.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Was at a talk last night by Jocelyn Bell Burnell who is an incredibly smart, experienced and respected physicist, and I really noticed how comfortable and quick she was to say she didn't know or that something was out of her field. a) it doesn't make her less clever or important and b) its classy af
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Realised I’ve been posting on Bluesky for over a year, which really shows what you can achieve when you do something solely for your own amusement
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
When stakeholders are pressuring you to add something to the roadmap
Bob Mackie on the phone saying “If I do something for you, I got to do something for Cher. Then the next thing you know, Sabrina Caroenter is outside my door with a sewing machine and a a gun.”
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The quote "weak messages create bad situations" is a great Product quote which I wish I could claim I heard from its author David Shrigley, but I actually got it from a Matty Healy tattoo.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
ps I had to google two words in someone's email today and still don't understand one of them
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Some days you fear you have neither the brain nor capacity for the PM role, and then in a conversation you instantly recall the intricate details from a dev ticket created two months ago and you realise you may not be a walking disaster after all.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
“If you can’t build your own custom solution, store bought is fine”
Ina Garten interview clip commenting if she can’t execute her own vision, “why bother?”
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I am incapable of doing this, so I find this page endlessly helpful (I have nothing amusing to say about this, its just really useful) blog.lime.link/visualizing-...
blog.lime.link
Visualizing Crowd Sizes
If you're going to talk in front of an audience it's fun to visualize how big that audience size looks. Like what does it actually look like when there are 150 people in a room? Here are some images o...
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Saw someone online use the phrase 'you should waste water on that' to suggest someone research something. I love language and hate how we got here.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Once woke up to a badger trying to steal my Dad's trainer out of the tent. One of my best memories.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The world is held together by people who take pictures of the menu for google restaurant reviews, are the first on the street to put their bins out, and accept cookies on gov.uk sites
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Please know that every roadmap I've ever worked on began with with me mainlining popcorn like a gerbil and listening to a depressing female singer-songwriter on repeat. You're welcome for this optimising life hack.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
<short sweaty hot commute for a day in an air conditioned office on a value/effort matrix>
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
The scene in Two Weeks Notice where Sandra Bullock decides on the stationery design by licking the envelope is why multi disciplinary teams exist #00sromcomagile
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Could really take tools being a bit less overzealous with the 'do you want to turn this link into a MASSIVE SQUARE CARD OVER HERE'. Babe, chill. No one want that. Let me keep my formatting in peace.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
My high school careers advisor didn’t mention how much of my professional time I’d spend watching three dots moving with trepidation
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
My wonderful cleaner has no idea what I do, but by the bolstering postits I have stuck around my monitor I can only presume it looks like I’m going into war.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
A wedding planner casually throwing out one of the best descriptions of product management I’ve seen.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Agentic is a good name for a little girl actually.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
The absolute inexplicable cringe of realising you've been wearing the same tshirt on calls all day that you're wearing in your Teams profile picture.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Since hearing that the pixelation of the font on the Brat album cover may have been down to a dodgy file export from figma, feeling about 92% cooler when using it #bratQ3 💚
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Inspired by a clip of Harry Styles doing crowd work on his tour, am resolved to try and slip ‘scream if you want to go faster’ into a future work presentation.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Always exciting when the office conversation moves from the standard 'what are you having for your tea?' (classic, crowdpleaser) to 'how many loads of washing did you get through yesterday' (novel, seasonal). The solstice inverse of 'are you ready for Christmas?'.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Sometimes the PM role has definite overlap with a Mum telling her teenager to call them if they're in trouble, even if they've done something bad, and she'll help them fix it.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Got our first code bug of the project added to the backlog today and I was *so* excited by it. You know what bugs mean? You're doing stuff! You're trying things! Something is being created where there wasn't anything! (Do not send me this post in the future when I'm in Bug City and sick of it.)
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Linked In, stop trying to make Zip happen. It’s not going to happen.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Re public transport, shout out to the Northern Rail announcer’s delightfully rich Yorkshire pronunciation of Dore and Totley station
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Pro tip: if you’re having a tough week, no one knows that your mid afternoon productivity optimizing black coffee in a takeaway cup is actually a lovely little oat hot chocolate to make your heart and tummy feel happy
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I think there is often a missed subgroup of people like me who can be great at small talk, but really really hate it - being good doesn't always equal enjoyment! In depth every time as a preference, but I can do both.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Just saw a man buying porridge in Pret. Sir, its 26 degrees.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Remain astounded that in the digital industry where people talk knowledgeably about the potential negative impacts of AI (as well as positive), I still see presentations using generative AI for unnecessary ‘fun’ images. Creative jobs are still jobs. Art is work. It’s all the same.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
There is no sharper edge than the side of a Pret spoon
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
If you call it networking, I won’t go.
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Reposted by Gillian
Alastair Somerville @acuity.design · 14/05/2026
Edge Users are made by where you choose to stand
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
When booking work travel always amused at the pop ups giving official travel advice for foreign countries. Babe, I'm doing User Research in Essex.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Told one of the devs the code that they'd written was "delicious" and they did this face
Piglet looking incredulous and a bit scared
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
In my ongoing process figuring out what kind of Professional Grown Up I want to be, my highlight from #campdigital was @dasbarrett.bsky.social’s talk which hit all my favourite things - being really interested in & good at what you do, but with an undercurrent of absolute authenticity & being human
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
YES. Dont get me started on this stuff.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
In my corner of this room, when prompted by @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social I turned to my other tech friend and said “Zendaya boycotting the Met Gala”. And she understood every nuance of it. And that in itself made me hopeful. #campdigital
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Checking in on my personal objectives with my line manager
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Very jealous of this, got to see Wu Yize in the quarter finals the other week and it was such a good day! That kid is amazing.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Nothing says business professional like realising too late and having to surreptitiously remove your spot sticker during a video call.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
The realisation that this kind of office furniture is almost exactly the same as the isolation room desks for the kids sent out of class in Educating Yorkshire.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Ella Bruccoleri’s Mary Bennet would make an excellent Business Analyst.
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
When you have a meeting to share project findings with another digital team
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Gillian @gilliandy.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Like everyone does, I often have to google the words other people use at work. Today was the first time I discovered they'd just *made it up*. Its not a real word! Which I love and appreciate, language never stops, but is a helpful reminder that the people are literally making things up as they go.
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