The Last Target Operating Model You’ll Ever Need™

I first wrote this as a comment on Joel Bailey's excellent blog post titled 'This thing called agile might kill us all' but thought it worth re-hashing and expanding here. For context, Joel writes about "working for a big high street bank. The brief is to redesign the ‘end to end mortgage experience’. The timescale is to reach … Continue reading The Last Target Operating Model You’ll Ever Need™ →

It can be these, but…

Our economy will not grow bigger in scale, but we will see it become more specific, more diverse, more adapted to individual needs and desires. The economy that served us well is giving way to what I call the informative economy. According to my dictionary, “to inform” means to “imbue or inspire with some specific … Continue reading It can be these, but… →

Thinking about a service model: associate, participate and iterate

I recently had the privilege to front a pitch for a combined piece of service design and web development work that has helped sharpen my thinking about the way this stuff can be structured to make a difference. The prospective client was a small, local, public sector organisation with a limited budget. We offered them … Continue reading Thinking about a service model: associate, participate and iterate →

Murray versus Watt at Bettakultcha

My 20 slides from Bettakultcha at Temple Works, Holbeck... ... on which more later, but meanwhile you can also read the original blogpost: How to get ahead in business the Boulton and Watt way.

How to get ahead in business the Boulton and Watt way

Dirty tricks among high-tech businesses? I recently came across the original Machiavellian play book for start-ups, and it's more than 200 years old. Two of my 1794 heroes were the steam pioneer James Watt and Holbeck engineer Matthew Murray. Both made engines for the textile mills of northern England - in effect the processing power to … Continue reading How to get ahead in business the Boulton and Watt way →

All this rubbish Powerpoint must be telling us something

Chris Heathcote's abstract pointillist Powerpoint toolkit once again reinforces the received wisdom that Microsoft's near-ubiquitous presentation software presages the end of civilisation. Unlike the army of total Powerpoint rejecters, Chris' solution is to fight pixel with pixel, subject to three strictures: POINT ONE: Presentations are about IDEAS, not TEXT. POINT TWO: READING from SLIDES is … Continue reading All this rubbish Powerpoint must be telling us something →