How I work.
A leadership philosophy built on curiosity, adaptability, and the conviction that most technology problems are actually people problems.
I’m a digital plumber.
That’s not self-deprecation — it’s the most honest description of what I do. I look at organizations and see the pipes: where value flows, where it gets stuck, where pressure builds up. My job is to find the blockages, clear them, and get things moving again.
Sometimes you call a plumber for a remodel. Most times there’s something rotten in the pipes and you need someone who’ll get knee-deep in the muck to find it.
The pattern.
Over 20+ years across e-commerce, gaming, cloud computing, AI, and cybersecurity, the common thread isn’t the industry — it’s the work: identify the bottleneck, understand the system, remove the obstruction, unlock the value.
Most of what looks like a technology problem turns out to be a people problem. I’ve built a career bridging those gaps.
Most blockages look technical but are actually human. Misaligned incentives. Broken communication. Trust gaps between teams.
Curious and adaptable.
My leadership style comes down to two words.
Curious
Curiosity builds situational awareness of business needs, the state of the team and organization, and market drivers. It builds understanding of where we are and where we’re going. At the personal level, I get curious about your challenges and seek to understand your goals and motivations.
Adaptable
Needs and conditions change. I use understanding gained through curiosity to create strategy that meets teams and people where they are and builds a bridge toward the future. I’m constantly reevaluating and course-correcting along the way.
I repeatedly invest in people, process, and technology — maintaining a delicate balance of the three, realizing they’re all intertwined. Running lean creates space for innovation. Innovation creates experiences that bring people closer together.
How I build situational awareness.
When I step into a new organization — or a new challenge within one — I follow a consistent process before making recommendations. Diagnosis before prescription.
Listen to the problems
People are always eager to state what’s wrong. Listen and document. This gives a place to start. Don’t allow bias to influence information gathering.
Learn the culture
What are the company’s mission and values — not just the stated ones, but the practiced ones? In all discussions, test for consistency between communications and behavior.
Gain financial literacy
Numbers don’t lie. Accounting is the blueprint of the company: it illuminates priorities, decisions, risks, motivations, and baggage. Start with the business model and budget, then delve into investment and investors.
Meet the team
To the extent practical, meet everyone in the organization. Give them the opportunity to build trust. Ask about their motivations, dreams, goals. Learn the unwritten communication channels.
Document the findings
Use documentation to gather feedback and test for correctness, completeness, and consistency across all perspectives.
Make the recommendations
Once the problem is fully understood and accepted by all, then — and only then — build recommended solutions. Socialize recommendations with key partners to gain consensus before executing.
How I make decisions.
I’m data-driven, but I’m not paralyzed without data. Here’s my hierarchy:
Data first
Especially for one-way doors — decisions that are hard or impossible to reverse. The bar for two-way doors is lower.
Customer anecdotes
I prioritize negative sentiment for truth. The harshest criticism often contains the most insight.
The Rude FAQ
What questions does the team not want to be asked? There’s usually something worth investigating there.
Gut call
I trust my instincts. Better to make the wrong call and learn from it than delay and suffer the consequences of inaction.
I practice disagree and commit. If we can’t reach agreement, I acknowledge my inability to agree and invite the opposing party to take a bet with me. Once we make a call, I expect we all do everything in our power to make that decision work as intended.
I bring a writing culture wherever I go. If you’re bringing me a decision, write a document — not a slide deck.
On hiring and talent.
For me, hiring is a sales pipeline. Talent is my pool of potential customers, and the goal is to nurture relationships to fill the spot with the right person. It starts with understanding the business and defining the problem — what does the company truly need? Sometimes the answer isn’t hiring at all, but finding a service.
If hiring is the solution, I identify the right communities and network with experts. This means rolling up my sleeves — reading papers, talking to people, and building relationships. It doesn’t happen overnight.
Once someone joins, it’s about setting them up with a great problem to solve and fostering a culture of mentoring and learning. Everyone contributes — mentorship comes from all levels within a thriving organization. We focus on failing fast, learning quickly, and moving forward.
On feedback.
I prefer to give feedback the way I prefer to receive it: clear, concise, and actionable — provided as close to the impetus as possible, but never in public.
Praise in public, critique in private
In public we always present a unified front. We don’t air dirty laundry in large meetings. If we’re working with a customer, it’s critical that we’re on the same page.
Clear is kind
Feedback is always direct. I don’t sugarcoat. Criticism should never be emotionally charged — that destroys trust. I take a beat, figure out the correct feedback, then provide it.
Problem-first approach
I’m more likely to present the problem factually and then ask you to figure out how to better approach it. While I’ll have opinions, I’ve found it’s more effective to let people own the solution.
The escalation signal
First warnings and minor feedback are always verbal. If I’m documenting a situation in writing, you can always assume it’s serious.
What I’m reading.
Books that have shaped how I think about leadership and operations — and why they matter to me.
The Goal — Eliyahu Goldratt
A classic for understanding business operations and the theory of constraints. Read this first. It fundamentally changed how I think about bottlenecks and throughput — and it’s a surprisingly compelling novel.
The Phoenix Project
Pairs perfectly with The Goal. Where Goldratt taught me to see constraints in manufacturing systems, The Phoenix Project showed me the same patterns in IT organizations. The Goal provides context that makes this book even more valuable.
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
About balancing strong business leadership with empathy. The introduction comparing two types of leaders was eye-opening for me. I saw myself in the stressed, overworked leader and realized I wanted to become the other type.
Let’s work together.
Interested in what I’ve built? Take a look at two decades of clearing the way.