Work with me on product, AI and strategy
I work with teams to build AI-powered organisations that scale. I help people decide what to build, put AI to work in delivery and develop the team that will keep improving it.
AI changes the work around the tools too. Someone needs to check what gets made. People need opportunities to develop judgement. And someone needs to understand and take responsibility for the decisions.
Most recently, I helped build the Government of Barbados's digital service with Public Digital. Before that, I worked on digital services across UK government and the private sector.
When I can help
Your team might be producing more with AI and struggling to check it all. You might be working out what that means for people learning their jobs. Or you might need to explain who is responsible when AI has contributed to a decision.
I also work with teams that have competing demands and need a clearer direction, or are building digital capability while delivering services.
Put AI to work and make review part of delivery
We start with something the team needs to deliver. We look at where AI helps, put your standards into the tools and check the result together.
We also look at how review happens. Who has the knowledge and time to do it? What do they need to see? What happens when more work arrives than they can reasonably check?
The work might produce a prototype, a focused set of instructions or a clearer review process. We try it on real work and improve it with the team.
Develop judgement as the work changes
People learn through practice, feedback and decisions. As AI takes on more tasks, teams need to think about where that experience comes from.
I can work with leaders and practitioners on supported review, coaching and opportunities to learn through delivery. We look at what people need to understand and give them room to practise it.
This is a question I am still exploring. I want the team to be able to improve its work after my involvement ends.
Keep responsibility clear
Using AI changes how something is produced. The organisation still needs to understand what it is putting into use and who is responsible for it.
We can examine a real workflow: where decisions are made, who checks them, what needs recording and what happens when something goes wrong. That is particularly important in public services, where decisions affect people's lives.
The aim is for people to be able to explain the decisions they stand behind.
Decide what to build next
I help teams turn competing demands into a direction they can explain. We look at people's needs, the evidence, the things we need to find out and the next useful change we can deliver.
A service map, prototype or roadmap should help the team make a decision. What happens next helps us decide what to keep, change or stop.
How we could work together
Work through a specific problem. We agree the question, review the evidence and produce something the team can use to decide its next step.
Work alongside the team. I join the delivery work, help make product decisions and put the approach into practice with the people who will use it.
Support leaders and practitioners. We work through current decisions, review what the team has learned and help people take on more of the work themselves.
The shape and length depend on the problem and the team. We can work that out together.
Relevant work
Building the team at GovTech Barbados describes developing capability while delivering a national digital platform, and what I would change about how we did it.
The HMRC Design System case study covers shared standards across services. Child Benefit covers discovery, service mapping and deciding where change would help people.
Leading Robots
Leading Robots: The AI Organisation is a book I am thinking about writing. It explores what AI means for the people doing the work: how we review what gets made, how people develop expertise and how we keep responsibility with people.
Those are questions I am working through in practice too. I would like to hear what other teams are finding.
Tell me what you're working on
Email [email protected] with the problem, who is involved and what you need to happen next. You can read more about how I work and my current availability.