Yesterday was the 17th birthday of the company that became The Skiff Ltd's. It took ~2.5 years before the company opened a coworking space so we get to have two birthdays a year.

By many measures, the last month has been the best we've had since before the pandemic. The space is buzzing with members new and old. The best thing this week was hearing a member, who joined less than a year ago, say this to a member who joined in 2016:

In this 24th edition of Brighton Dynamic:

• You'll hear how Becky designs services as a remote working civil servant.
• You'll discover a Brighton based SaaS that's helping the UK’s biggest government department with their product strategy.
• You'll find 7 local events to meet creative, technical & business folk in the area.

Meet Becky Miller

Becky Miller is a service designer working for DEFRA, the UK Government Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. Becky shares her research driven approach to supporting farmers.

In this episode you'll learn how she:

• First moved to Brighton to study design.
• Collaborates with user researchers.
• Draws on experience growing up around the farming community.
• Started out as a PA to a designer but also worked at a music venue before working in government.
• Has a side project to better understand all the different kinds of cyclists in the city.

Becky describes how so many of us are doing service design without realising it and could achieve so much more by better understanding other people's experiences.

​Listen to the interview or read the transcript​

Check out Becky's website​

Check out ProdPad

Janna Bastow, ProdPad's founder and CEO, lives in Brighton. In 2012 Product Management tools didn’t exist outside of collections of templates and proformas created in generic business tools like Word and Excel. So Janna and her co-founder, Simon Cast set to work.

They were both Product Managers themselves and knew thousands more as a result of also founding ProductCamp London and Mind the Product. This helped them understand the pains of their customers better than anyone else.

A decade later and ProdPad is used by product teams around the world as their single source of product truth:

• Thousands of customers
• Over a dozen awards
• 20 employees
• 100% customer-funded

Janna and Simon still own more than 90% of the company but they've shared ownership with their team though an EMI scheme. They're proud to have zero reliance on external funding or investors, no messy ‘cap table’, and no fears of going out of business. They're profitable and in this for the long-run.

The product started out without a name or being publicly available:

Now they have the UK Government Department of Work and Pensions as a customer! Around 20 million people could soon be benefiting from products and services developed with a ProdPad roadmap.

ProdPad is currently ranked 19th on our list of successful Sussex SaaS. Know some we're missing? Disagree with the rank? Hit reply to let us know.

Also let us know if you're a customer of ProdPad. Jon would love to ask you a few (easy!) questions.

Local Events:

​ffconf 2023 — Friday 10th November, 9am to 6pm —
Duke of York's Picturehouse Cinema

A full day of eight carefully curated sessions for an audience that cares about the future of the web, and who want their ideas challenged.​

At least 10 members of The Skiff will be among the attendees, it's probably the annual conference that excites us all the most.

Show and Tell — Weds 19th, 12:30pm — The Skiff

5 minute talks + Q&A. Any member can talk ... or just come along to watch. Work projects, side hustles, introductions, requests for help or collaboration

Questions: find @tom or @carolinebeavon on Slack

= DOODLE CLUB — Weds 19th June, 6:30pm — The Skiff

A monthly night of guided sketchbook doodling and arty fun. + you'll get a free sketchbook to get you started (just let us know you are coming so we order enough).

Questions: find @carolinebeavon or @Jo on Slack

​The Farm Freelancers Networking (weekly) — Weds 19th, 8–11pm — Battle of Trafalgar
Freelancer or want to be? Come and chat with lots of other freelancers and swap work leads, get help for any problems you might have, and just enjoy making jokes with people who understand being self employed.

​People, Planet, Pint: Sustainability Meetup — Thurs 20th, 6pm-9pm — The Walrus

Whether you're a sustainability professional, small business owner, local council/government worker, student, consultant, looking to switch careers, or anything else besides, come down and meet others interested in sustainability.

​Brighton JS Meetup — Thurs 20th, 8pm-10pm — The Walrus

Come along and meet like minded individuals, to discuss any and / or all aspects of the JavaScript world. No agenda, workshops or webinars. Just chat over some nibbles and beers.

​The Skiff Board Games Night — Fri 21st, 7pm-late — The Skiff

We have many games and are always up for learning more, so feel free to bring along your latest overpriced purchase and a bottle of booze or two. Non-members welcome. Skiffmates have brought, their partners, their children, their parents and their housemates along in the past.

Every reply we get makes a difference!

If you like what you read from us, let us know and we'll see if we can power through to 50 editions of Brighton Dynamic. And do send us your tips - which people, companies and events do you think 2,000+ people like you would like to hear about?

Best wishes,

Jon, Caroline & Paul

​

If you liked this you might like to:

• ​Try working from The Skiff - meet the coworkers you always wanted (Free Tour & Trial).
• ​Work with Jon - build a £1 million a year software business.
• ​Work with Caroline - communicate information with graphics.
• ​Work with Paul - make your Google Ads more effective.
• ​Join us at Brighton Farm - meet freelancers at the pub on Wednesday evening.

The Skiff, 30 Cheapside, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 4GD
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