Build vs. Buy: A Framework for Growth-Stage Companies
January 26, 2026It's a common question that gets asked as a company is growing: should we build this or buy off-the-shelf software...
Continue Reading →FFS I am not a resource
February 10, 2019This is a paraphrasing of a talk I gave at FFS Conf Down Under in February 2019. --- This is about language; and when you talk about language, it's compulsory...
Continue Reading →Don't just build the thing right - Build the right thing
December 12, 2016This is a paraphrasing of a talk I gave at the 2016 Melbourne CTO Summit. My Story Right now I’m a CTO but I’ve had many different roles in different companies...
Continue Reading →A one day offsite for leadership teams
March 24, 2016This week I held an offsite for my engineering leadership team. My two aims were to do some formation activities as we have a few new faces in the team and to...
Continue Reading →The team that learns together stays together
March 3, 2016I prefer to build long-lived teams where the same people stay together over an extended period of time. I believe in the immutable team: > Teams are immutable....
Continue Reading →Culture gardening
February 15, 2016"Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats." That's the advice from Jim Collins in his 2002 book...
Continue Reading →Using the Westrum typology to measure culture
February 4, 2016Having a culture of collaboration where people feel safe to share their views and work across a diverse group is a must for a successful organisation. Every...
Continue Reading →Measuring happiness
February 4, 2016As sometimes happens, I wanted to answer a question on Twitter but couldn't do it justice in 140 characters. The question was this: > @andykelk @auxesis...
Continue Reading →Why all the Jira hate? I'll tell you why
December 21, 2015I've recently retweeted a few tweets which weren't exactly complimentary about Jira. For example: > Plenty of good things happened at work today. And then I...
Continue Reading →The power of coffee
December 15, 2015Reading this article recently, an interesting theory about coffee was raised: > The time of day people drink their coffee varies with Sydney waking up with...
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