Consulting
Short engagements, mostly. I am usually brought in to help make one decision well rather than to run a programme.
How engagements usually run
A first conversation, free, to work out whether I am the right person — about half the time I am not, and saying so early is cheaper for both of us. Then a scoped piece of work with a written question at the top of it and a date by which the question gets answered. I write things down as I go, and you keep the writing.
I do not take engagements where the conclusion has already been decided and the work is to supply evidence for it.
Areas of work
Grouped by the three domains on the home page. The grouping is a convenience; almost every real engagement crosses at least two.
Technology
Building and maintaining the systems organisations actually run on, and being honest about what they cost to keep.
Technology
Enterprise and Open Source IT
Platform selection, integration, and the long maintenance tail that selection decisions commit you to.
Technology
Machine Learning
Where a model earns its place, where a rule would do, and how to tell the difference before building either.
Social Benefit
Work with organisations whose purpose is not profit, and whose constraints are therefore badly served by tools built for ones that are.
Social Benefit
Nonprofits
Operations, data practice, and the reporting burden that funding conditions impose.
Social Benefit
Philanthropy
Grantmaking systems, portfolio concentration, and the coordination problems that follow from both.
Social Benefit
Leadership and Consulting
Advisory engagements, interim leadership, and helping teams decide rather than deciding for them.
Scholarship and Service
Research, governance, and the obligations that come with holding a seat at a table.
Scholarship and Service
Policy, Programs and Social Change
How programme design and policy interact, and why the interaction is usually discovered late.
Scholarship and Service
Consulting Practice
The craft itself: scoping, evidence, and the ethics of advising people who will live with the result.
Scholarship and Service
AuDHD and AI
Assistive technology built with autistic and ADHD users rather than for them, and what changes when it is.
Getting in touch
The contact form reaches me. It validates on the server, keeps no tracking of any kind, and — in this test build — records messages rather than delivering them, so nothing sent through it will be read.
Technology
Social and Affective Computing
Systems that respond to people, and the question of when responsiveness is worth less than predictability.