This week I wrote some letters.

But not any old letters! We’re putting some serious work into the letters sent to donors and attorneys when they register a new LPA.

The new letters will provide more detail on the rights and responsibilities of each actor and provide information on how to use their LPA online when contacting banks and similar.

This is quite a big deal, and a big change, which was unanticipated when we started this work (we thought we were just adding a paragraph).

Because of the large impact of the work (it’ll reach tens of thousands of people) and associated risks (I really don’t want to be part of a “government sends incorrect letter” news article) we’re doing a few things:

Firstly, we’ve split the work down into smaller chunks. Rather than a complete rewrite, we’re starting with just the “use it online” info. We’ll slowly add more content as we’re comfortable.

Secondly, we’re keeping the old letters in rotation. This will allow us to do a slower rollout with a small group of new registrants (an A/B test).

Thirdly, we’re adding tests on the letter content. This will ensure the logic still holds as the letters get more complex (e.g. if there are multiple attorneys, we include a paragraph noting how they should work together).

Lastly, we’re pushing back on the logic complexity. Complexity introduces risk—particularly how our code currently works—so we want to balance personalisation with caution. This means since content may not apply to a recipient, but we’d rather that than risk not telling them something important.

Summary

Bit if a weird week here: I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about team/squad comms and—though I hate to say the words—horizon scanning.

• Added new letters for donor/attorney registration
• Hotfixed a bug caused by a dependency upgrade (eurgh)
• Started discussing integrations, and particularly Pact, cross-teams
• Discussed and started experimenting with how to communicate more effectively between squads
• Added some detail to our micro-frontend plans
• Got more familiar with Laminas, so I can more effectively use it when doing backend dev work