Field notes · 7 March 2026
What a useful handover day looks like for program officers
A half-day structure that leaves municipal staff able to update their own reporting views without calling the designer every month.
A dashboard that only the contractor can refresh is unfinished work. Our municipal commissions end with a half-day handover aimed at the two or three officers who will own the monthly update.
Morning: walk the indicator dictionary and the source trail together. Afternoon: the officers update a practice month while we watch, then correct the guide where their questions reveal gaps.
We avoid long slide decks. A short printed guide with screenshots of their actual pages, plus a checklist for the week before council, travels better than a thick manual.
If the program rotates staff often, schedule a shorter refresher before the next fiscal year rather than relying on informal hand-me-downs between desks.