Quality Is a Culture Problem, Not a Tooling Problem
Failed quality initiatives aren’t a tooling gap — they’re a decision-making gap. How to fix engineering quality by fixing the culture that produces it.
Look before leaping!
Why your CV isnt getting you a callback – and how to fix it
Prefer to watch? Watch the video on YouTube. You’re qualified. You’ve got the experience. You’re applying for roles you know you could do well. And you’re hearing absolutely nothing back. No reply, no rejection,…
The Pragmatic Programmer — five lessons that shaped how I lead engineering teams
Twenty-plus years in, these are the five ideas from The Pragmatic Programmer that I keep coming back to as an engineering leader.
Why large organisations are bad at delivering software — and what to do about it
Three structural reasons big engineering orgs slow down — capability silos, adversarial teams, and the outsourcing trap — and how to fix each.
Reading List
It is really important to always have a growth mindset and look to continuously improve yourself and learn more. Here are some of the books, sites, channels, podcasts and articles I have collected…
Successful Teams – Lencioni Pyramid
I really like the Lencioni books, they are generally short and to the point, they also have great insights in them. I was sceptical at first when I saw that the listening time…
High Performance Traits
When hiring, evaluating staff or talking to people about their careers I talk about High Performance traits. Here is a short list, in no particular order, of what I believe are traits that…
Architecture Decision Records
Why? I have experienced a lot of conversations with engineers that bemoan that do have the historical context of why certain decisions were made, what were the constraints and what were they trying…
About
Why “Insightful pause”? Modern engineering leadership rewards decisiveness. Ship, iterate, decide, move on. That instinct is often right — and just as often, it’s how good teams walk confidently into avoidable mistakes.The insightful…
Insightful Pause 