Boring Magic
@boringmagi.cc.web.brid.gy
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May 2026 since
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Reality drift

You’re driving down the motorway. You’re halfway through the journey, with a few hours left till you arrive at your destination. It’s been an okay drive so far. Sure, it’s long and has taken up most of the waking day, but the route and plan has paid off so far.

Suddenly, a light starts flashing on your dashboard. The car is running out of fuel. _How can this be?_ The fuel gauge says the tank is…

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Metrics, measures and indicators: a few things to bear in mind

Metrics, measures and indicators help you track and evaluate outcomes. They can tell us if we’re moving in the right direction, if things aren’t going well, or if we’ve achieved the outcome we set out to achieve.

If you’ve reported on key performance indicators (KPIs), checked progress against objectives and key results (OKRs) or looked at user analytics, you’ll have some experience with…

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How to work better

From Peter Fischli and David Weiss.

  1. Do one thing at a time
  2. Know the problem
  3. Learn to listen
  4. Learn to ask questions
  5. Distinguish sense from nonsense
  6. Accept change as inevitable
  7. Admit mistakes
  8. Say it simple
  9. Be calm
  10. Smile

These feel like good principles for all sorts of work, especially work that involves other people.

Apparently the artists…

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Improving delivery for GOV.‌UK Design System

Through late 2023 to early 2024, we worked with GOV.‌UK Design System to double their release frequency, significantly improving service delivery speed and team morale. Facing challenges with traditional two-week sprints, we implemented a new 4-week delivery cycle that fundamentally shifted their approach to rapid iteration and adaptation.

The problem

GOV.‌UK Design System’s mission is…

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You don’t have to do fortnightly sprints

In early 2024, we helped GOV.‌UK Design System design and implement a new model for agile delivery. It was a break away from traditional Scrum and two-week sprints towards an emphasis on iteration and reflection.

Check out our case study on improving delivery for GOV.UK Design System.

Tips on doing show & tell well

What is a show & tell?

A show & tell is a regular get-together where people working on a product or service celebrate their work, talk about what they’ve learned, and get feedback from their peers.

It’s also a chance to

  • bring together team members, management and leadership to bond, share success, and collaborate
  • let colleagues know what you’re working on, keep aligned, and create…
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Establishing foundations and scaling planning.data.gov.uk

From March 2024 to March 2026, we worked with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to scale its planning data service – restructuring the team, establishing new ways of working, and more than doubling the number of local planning authorities publishing data in the first year alone.

The problem

The planning data service (planning.data.gov.uk) collects planning and…

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Recap of the AI Leaders panel, January 2026

Here’s what we said at Ministry of Justice’s AI Leaders panel, the opening event of their AI Digital Professions conference in January 2026.

Thank you to Nikola Goger for the invitation to speak, and thanks too to the other panellists: Tim Paul (Head of User Centred Design at i.AI), Paul Haigh (Chief Technology Officer at Ministry of Justice) and Jan Murdoch (Head of Horizon Scanning at…

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Leading AI product innovation on planning.data.gov.uk

**From November 2024, we conceived and coordinated Extract – an AI product that turns decades of trapped planning documents into structured data – then led it through an alpha phase, testing and shaping it with local planning authorities. In June 2025, the Prime Minister launched Extract at London Tech Week and named it one of his AI Exemplars. Early results suggest a task that takes planning…

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Showcasing previous projects

Been meaning to show other projects we’ve worked on for some time, so you’ll now find a list of case studies which bring to life the services we provide.

As well as providing evidence of work we’ve done in the past, adding a bit of social proof, hopefully this’ll help us appear in more search results too.

It’s an evolving portfolio and we’ll add more over time, but take a look at the first case…

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