It’s time to share more about my journey. I’m going to move cautiously towards working in the open.
In 2017 I was looking for my next challenge. Having run software agencies and built SaaS tools, my experience even to this day has predominantly been where humans meet technology. It’s a place I know and work well.
I’d also been involved with delivery teams throughout my career. Often leading them and regularly mentoring and supporting individuals.
The needs of the different roles I’d had meant I had become experienced with Agile, certified as a Scrum Master and had worked as a coach and facilitator.
My career tag cloud had a few words which stuck out in large bold text.
People, Teams, Coaching, Agile, Agency Land, Project delivery, Client Relations
As a result when I was exploring potential directions I could go in, it led me to the challenges of agency project delivery.
I’d attempted to use agile frameworks, primarily Scrum in a project-led context, and seen it fail explosively. Unless approached with experience and pragmatism, the events and rigid routines do not play nicely in a chaotic agency context.
Agency project delivery best practice is still a bit of a void when it comes to people doing it well and sharing their ways of working openly.
I was drawn to it, knowing I had the experience, some of the answers, a network of people experiencing the pain, and a desire to learn more.
Tactical Delivery Habits
So in 2023 I began documenting and further exploring what came become Tactical Delivery Habits, and Agency Tactics.
All the while working with chaotic agencies of various sizes to understand and improve their approaches to delivering client projects.
What I wasn’t doing at that time was working in the open. Sharing progress, failures questions and solutions publicly.
But I plan to change that.
Going forward, the blog on this site will be focused on my journey, with other thought pieces being publishes elsewhere.
Eventually I may even move the Tactical Delivery Habits content somewhere else, but for now that stays.
If you’d like to follow along, you can do so
What am I reading?
This week I started reading Dominica DeGrandis – Making Work Visible.
It covers various topics which are a current focus for me. ‘The five thieves of time’, ‘how to expose [them] to optimise work’, and ‘metrics, feedback and circumstances’.
The first stage to supporting any chaotic agency is always to find some breathing space. This can be done in a few ways, but focusing on product teams, Dominica dives into reducing and clarifying the work in progress.
What am I working on?
Right now I’m working with 2 agencies on their approaches to client project delivery. In both cases the teams are swamped with a mixture of support and project work. Capacity is an issue – and as is often the case – that has led to rework and quality issues.
What am I thinking about?
Other than working in the open, I continue to noodle on how to best describe what I offer in terms of value. My experience is rich with agency and delivery stories, but how I tell them in a way that relevant leaders at agencies feel seen is an ongoing task.
I also continue to define and publish approaches to some of the challenges of chaotic agencies. That’s a mixture of on this site as page content, and over on Substack. My medium account isn’t currently a location for posting.
Get in touch if you have any questions, thoughts or opportunities.