Insights from 
Agilicist

Most IT functions are losing talent faster than they can replace it – but throwing headcount at the problem won’t speed you up. Here’s how to target capability where it matters most, and win the skills battle without burning budget or momentum.

Most leaders think they’re pushing their teams to move faster. In reality, they’re often rewarding behaviours that look like speed but quietly drain time, money, and trust. True speed isn’t about starting more work - it’s about finishing the right things, in the right order, with fewer unforced errors.

If you’re leading a senior team right now, don’t mistake tactical harmony for strategic alignment. True collaboration isn’t comfortable - but it is transformative.

You don’t have a reporting problem. You have a structure problem. When teams are stretched, priorities shift weekly, and outcomes are unclear - no dashboard will save you. This article shows how to fix the structure behind the chaos, using proven patterns from Team Topologies and OrgTopologies.

In many mid-sized product organisations, busyness has become a proxy for progress. But full roadmaps, maxed-out teams, and delivery velocity aren't translating into market impact or innovation. This article breaks down why - revealing how systemic misfocus, fractured prioritisation, and reactive product roles are silently killing your speed. Learn how to rewire your operating model to shift from motion to momentum.

When the terrain is uncertain, a detailed plan won’t save you - but clarity of intent might. This article explores how the best execs lead through complexity using strategic agility, intent-based leadership, and a deep understanding of how decisions are made when there are no right answers.

Dashboards don’t drive decisions - feedback loops do. If your teams are waiting weeks for reports and months for action, you’re not data-driven… you’re delay-driven. Here’s how to fix the loops that actually move the needle.

Most teams aren’t failing to deliver. They’re just delivering the past. This post reimagines the Three Horizons of Product Delivery - showing you how to balance innovation, scale, and stability before your roadmap becomes a liability.

Tech debt doesn’t begin in the codebase - it begins in the boardroom. This article exposes how leadership decisions, delayed investments, and strategic neglect create delivery drag across your organisation. If 40% of your tech budget is lost to invisible friction, it's time to rethink who really owns the problem.

Organisations often respond to delivery pressure by adding more teams - but without the right capabilities in place, this only scales dysfunction. In this article, we explore why capability must come before capacity, how to identify the real constraints in your system, and what to do instead of defaulting to headcount growth.

Agile was never meant to be a playbook - but that's exactly what it's become. In our latest article, we explore how the Agile Industrial Complex turned a mindset into merchandise, and what leaders can do to reclaim agility as a principle-driven, outcome-focused way of working. If your teams are running the rituals but not seeing the results, this one’s for you.

Most portfolio frameworks promise scale - but end up scaling everything except focus. This article exposes the traps that turn strategic ambition into delivery chaos, and shows how to shift from overloaded backlogs to outcome-driven clarity. If your portfolio looks impressive on paper but underwhelms in practice, this one’s for you.

Most org charts look like neat boxes, but the real flow of work resembles a tangled subway/tube/metro map - overlapping lines, hidden bottlenecks, and missed connections. To deliver at scale, you need more than structure. You need flow by design.

Step into the average digital programme, and the backlog tells a story - but it’s less of a roadmap and more of a crime scene. Bloated lists, zombie tickets, and vague tasks reveal deeper organisational issues. In this article, we’ll play detective, examining the evidence to uncover what your backlog says about your culture - and how to fix it.

In many organisations, strategy has lost its way. It’s been reduced to a budgeting exercise — a list of projects, initiatives, or key priorities vaguely tied to ambition but completely detached from strategic logic. This transformation from intent to task leaves delivery teams overwhelmed and disconnected, working through endless backlogs without a clear sense of purpose. But strategy isn’t just a shopping list of work to be done. It’s a singular, integrated set of choices.

I have a problem.  It’s quite serious and it affects me everyday.  I can’t seem to watch a TV programme without trying to find some...

Your organisation can’t move faster than your leadership’s ability to focus. While most execs chase headcount, tools, or structure, the real constraint is attention. This article explores why executive focus - not effort - is the hidden bottleneck in enterprise transformation, and how to reclaim it as your organisation’s most strategic asset.

Why speed, structure, and customer obsession are the new currency of value. Which direction is your Organisation heading? Why This...

In today’s enterprises, delivery often looks busy but achieves little. Delivery Theatre explores the illusion of progress created by rehearsed rituals, vanity metrics, and agile-by-numbers. From Jira-driven busyness to transformation-by-slide-deck, this article unpacks why organisations confuse activity with outcomes—and how to break free from performative delivery to focus on real customer value, measurable impact, and strategic alignment.

I’ve written my thoughts previously on why I hate daily stand-ups. Not because they can’t be valuable, but because they almost never are....