Read my story

My first real job was in Scotland as a software engineer at a pioneering mobile games development startup. We were a tiny team sitting in a little prefab building, but we had clients like Sony, Sega and Disney knocking on our door because we were some of the first people making multiplayer mobile phone games. Business was crazy and I was figuring out on the fly how to build, test and iterate using early Agile methods. This taught me how to shift our business mindset from a ‘can we build it’ to ‘should we build it’ and find ways to manage the uncertainties in building products.

From South America, I went to Australia to see the Rugby World Cup, loved it, stayed and started working on an $800m Asia Pacific government-funded education initiative – essentially using digital gameplay to teach kids everything from math to languages. This gave me great insights into building and leading cross-functional teams across cultures and the power of purpose to inspire and motivate.

I joined ThoughtWorks in London, pioneers of technology and product development practices, and ended up running business transformation globally with huge brands like British Airways, Barclays and The Economist – working with and learning from some of the most talented people I’ve met. I could see many large corporations struggling to respond to changing market conditions and customer needs – unable to adapt their businesses and products to keep pace, especially at scale. These experiences laid the ground for Lean Enterprise. The book took off and led to work with senior leaders all around the world.

The publication of Unlearn opened doors to more consulting work and non-exec director roles at places like Just3Things, ThoughtForma and AgileCraft (bought by Atlassian). Whether at large global corporates or exciting new startups, I guide executive teams who are doing something I believe in – working with leaders in the US, Europe, and increasingly Asia. All of this, of course, feeds back into my writing and my work to help people grow and do good things.