Why skipping discovery is the most expensive decision you'll make
One firm nearly spent £400k on a rebuild. Discovery cut it to £80k. Here's why skipping that phase is the most expensive decision available.
Products that gain traction
Experiences that convert
Reducing cost and risk
Agentic AI for service firms: what's real and what's next
Agentic AI works now for research, document workflows and triage. But vendors stitch the working bits to the broken ones. Here's how to separate them.
AI that improves performance
Choosing the right technology
Why your last digital project didn't deliver (and why the next one doesn't have to)
Seventy percent of transformations fail, and the patterns are eerily consistent. Some sit with the agency, some with you. Here's how attempt two succeeds.
Products that gain traction
Making the case internally
Reducing cost and risk
What we mean by discovery (and why it isn't a sales exercise)
Most discovery phases are a con. But writing the thing off entirely costs you. Here's what proper discovery produces, and three tests to judge it.
Products that gain traction
Making the case internally
Reducing cost and risk
How to build confidence in AI without overpromising
"We tried AI and it didn't work." Six words that kill a programme. Here's how specificity at the scoping stage prevents the overpromise cycle entirely.
AI that improves performance
Making the case internally
Reducing cost and risk
The agency pitch vs the agency reality: how to tell the difference
The pitch is the worst predictor of what an agency is like to work with. Here are the signals that reveal what month four brings.
Products that gain traction
Reducing cost and risk
The first 30 days of a digital project: what should happen (and what usually doesn't)
The problems that blow up at month six were almost always visible at week two. Here's what the first 30 days should actually show you.
Products that gain traction
Reducing cost and risk
Why hourly billing rewards the wrong behaviours in digital projects
Hourly billing feels safe, but it pays your agency to be slow. Here's how each commercial model actually aligns incentives, and how to choose deliberately.
Products that gain traction
Reducing cost and risk
The leadership mindset that separates digital winners from laggards
Culture beats technology 5.3 to one. So the thing determining your next investment isn't the platform. It's how your senior team behaves once delivery begins.
Products that gain traction
Making the case internally
What recovery looks like: how to restart a stalled digital programme
When a programme stalls, the instinct is fix it or kill it. There's a third path. Here's how to reset governance and manage the politics.
Products that gain traction
Making the case internally
Reducing cost and risk
The AI skills gap in professional services (and how to close it without hiring a data scientist)
Sixty-six percent of firms say they lack AI skills, picturing data scientists. The real value sits in literacy and prompting, and fear blocks both.
AI that improves performance
Choosing the right technology
The biggest cultural blockers to digital progress
"It's a cultural thing," everyone nods, nothing happens. Here are the five specific blockers killing your digital progress, each with a name and a countermeasure.
Products that gain traction
Making the case internally
What to do when scope changes mid-project (and why it's not always a bad thing)
Across 170-plus projects, every single one changed scope. Here's how to tell genuine learning from a governance failure, using a protocol that takes 30 minutes.
Products that gain traction
Reducing cost and risk
How a professional services firm went from AI curiosity to implementation in 90 days
Most firms take 90 days just to agree their AI committee's agenda. Here's how one reached a working application in production, honestly told.
AI that improves performance
Choosing the right technology
What 'agile' actually means when you're the client paying the bills
Agile only works when the client plays their part. Here's what that requires of you, and why a three-day delay can block a whole sprint.
Products that gain traction
Reducing cost and risk
What good looks like halfway through a digital project (and what should worry you)
The status report is green but something feels off. Halfway through, a project shows you what it'll become. Here's what should worry you.
Products that gain traction
Reducing cost and risk
How to evaluate AI vendor claims without a data science degree
"90% accuracy" usually means 90% on their data, not yours. Here are the non-technical questions that expose the gap before you sign a six-figure contract.
AI that improves performance
Choosing the right technology
Reducing cost and risk