Full story
What I Do
I'm a technical leader and product manager. I help software teams navigate complex challenges through strategy, facilitation, and hands-on guidance—especially when you're not sure which of those you need yet.
I've spent 20+ years working across the US, Australia, and Europe, mostly as a software developer, then product manager, and now somewhere in between that's hard to put in a LinkedIn category.
The Journey from Code to Complexity
I started writing code professionally in 2001. VB6 programs generating WAP pages to help reps track orders on the go. Over the years I chased more maintainable approaches: automated tests (2004), TDD (2007), Domain Driven Design (2009). I struggled to apply DDD within Ruby on Rails (you can find my scars documented on the blog), which eventually pushed me toward Java when I had the chance.
My years at Pivotal Labs helped me grow as a hands on technical coach pair programming on high stake projects on laser focused iterations.
The technical work was satisfying—component-based Rails architectures, React frontends, a React Native mobile driving license app for the NSW government, load testing a cryptocurrency platform at 300K requests per minute. You can find more technical details on LinkedIn.
But somewhere around 2015-2017, I noticed I was reading and writing more about retrospectives, facilitation, and complexity than about technology. I realized the hardest problems weren't in the code—they were in how teams made decisions, how people communicated, and how organizations navigated uncertainty.
I kept attending "whack-a-mole" retrospectives—the dull three-column ones where you identify problems but never shift patterns. So I went deep: read everything on retrospectives, found a mentor who was close to the people who coined "Agile retrospective," took an Event Storm class that showed me how sometimes problems don't require any software change at all.
In 2017 I switched from engineering to product management, which became a gateway to visual facilitation, impact mapping, group decision-making. I took a 9-week online course on Cynefin and joined the Cognitive Edge network to understand complexity and how to navigate it.
I also started a retrospective facilitation podcast where I chatted with other facilitators.
How I Think About Work
I don't believe in silver bullets or "we've done this before" solutions. Complex adaptive systems require shifting patterns, not applying templates.
When I work with teams, I use whatever makes sense for their context: impact maps, event storming, retrospectives, visual facilitation, Cynefin, HSD techniques. The tool matters less than understanding what patterns need to shift.
I can help with product strategy, technical architecture decisions, facilitation, code reviews, interim technical leadership—or some combination that doesn't fit neatly into categories. The work changes based on what the team actually needs.
What I'm Looking For
I like working with teams that appreciate complexity and deal with it honestly. I'm fine with skepticism, but when it's clear I'm not needed, I'd rather not be there. It's like forcing someone to pair program against their will—nobody wins.
I want to work with folks who are curious about:
- Where can Ai enhance our work
- Facilitating group discussions and decision-making
- Understanding users through research
- Designing for emergence in complex systems
If you want someone who'll tell you they have "the solution" to your problems, I'm not your person. If you want to shift patterns together and see what emerges, let's talk.