What's important to me (outside of work)

Spending time with my wife, my family, and my friends. Raising my children well.

Chasing arbitrary endurance goals (long term goal to break 15 mins in 5k). Learning to ski well. Balancing a love of being in the mountains with living a long way from them.

I need some sort of creative outlet. I love bringing new things into the world. Work often provides this, but if it doesn't you'll find me making music, movies, tools, and random internet experiments.

Family + mountains + skiing = happiness

What I love about what I do

I do this job because I love the feeling of finding an insight that creates a way out of a problem.

For me that feels like trying to find a key at the bottom of a river, mixed in with hundreds of other keys that might be the right one. You feel around on the river bed, trying different ones, and your fingers curl around something that feels like the right shape. You pull it out of the water and show it to some other people and it feels right to them too. You put it into the lock and give it a turn and it goes with that deep and satisfying clunk. The door opens. The flow begins.

My values

Action - let's not theorise, let's go find out. Quickly.

Creativity - let's imagine and celebrate unique perspectives.

Learning - let's go deep and broad and apply what we learn in other areas.

Making - let's create things we can touch, use, and learn from.

Community - let's rally people around an idea and create groundswell.

What I need to do my best work

I like to mix up how I'm working and where I'm working. I'm super focused first thing in a morning and can get a lot of solo work done quickly - bashing out content or going deep on research. Then I like to bring this back to the team and kick it about, get different perspectives, argue and generally make it better.

I like to work with people who want to do great work but don't take themselves too seriously. People who know it's more important for the team to be right than for an individual to be right. I believe you do your best work when you're having fun. Jockeying for personal position isn't fun.

To that end, I think that just enough structure clears the way for fun. A solid plan, even if it changes. Clarity on role expectations, especially who will make decisions, even if we'll all pick up whatever needs to be done to keep moving forward.

Co-creation with Micha Nicheva at Made by Many

How I like to get feedback

On thinking and content: promptly, framed in terms of what we're trying to achieve, and with ideas or examples of how to make it better.

On how I'm showing up: as close to the moment as possible; in-person; use the SAID model (or at least be specific).

How you can build - or break - my trust

Building: be interested; do your research; share cool things; try new things; have a plan; ask questions; get shit done; respect time; have fun.

Breaking: don't follow through; talk but don't act; sit on problems, issues, or misgivings without voicing/confronting them; tell me "That's just the way it is"; behave in ways that don't tally with what you claim to value.

What it looks like when I'm stressed

I don't get stressed often. I believe in having a solid plan, being willing to adapt it and not taking anything too seriously or preciously. Which isn’t to say I don’t care about the work. I want to do great work. I believe that the way you do that, is by having a lot of fun together. I get stressed when there’s something getting in the way of us doing the best work possible. 

In a time pressure stress, I can go two ways but both are ways of getting stuff done: 

• More directive and assertive (Sounds like: “Here’s a way I’ve done this before, let’s do it that way.”
• More apathetic (Sounds like: “Whatever, do it that way, it doesn’t matter.”) I might also take on more things myself to feel more in control (see Things I'm Working On)

In a frustration stress I might go quite quiet and then boil over with a voice that is slightly high and slightly strained as I try and keep it under control. This mainly happens when people aren’t reasonable e.g. not changing their opinions in the face of new evidence, demanding changes without explaining their reasoning etc. 

When I do feel stressed I need to go for a run, then talk through with people to level set on what's important to achieve our goals. That generally sorts things out.

What people might misunderstand about me

I am very optimistic, but I'm not naive. I'm also not as young as I look.

People say I'm good at

Simplifying complex things.

Creative thinking.

Getting things done, building momentum.

Things I'm working on

I'm a words person who also sketches things out. But not everyone is. I'm working on trying to communicate ideas through diagrams, maps and generally bringing more of a visual representation into slides and whiteboards.

I also need to work on not just doing whatever is in my head because it seems easier/faster than bringing others along when we're under time pressure.