Explore a selection of talks I have delivered on topics ranging from team dynamics and organizational design to software engineering and innovation. Each talk reflects my passion for enabling organizations to achieve faster flow, reduce cognitive load, and embrace continuous improvement.
Interested in my talks?
I am available for speaking engagements at conferences, meetups, and workshops. I can deliver talks on a range of topics, including:
- Team Topologies
- User Needs Mapping
- Agile and Lean practices
- Organizational transformation
- Continuous Improvement
- Sociotechnical Architecture
Featured Talks
From Inside-Out to Outside-In: Aligning teams around what matters
Event: Fast Flow Conference NL 2025
Date: [March, 2025]
Summary: Most organizations focus on optimizing their internal processes, creating silos and misalignments that hinder their ability to deliver value effectively. This inside-out perspective may feel like the best way to run a business, but it misses the most critical perspective: that of the customer. Whether it’s Product, Tech, Operations, or even Marketing, failing to align around the value being delivered creates inefficiencies, complexity, and frustration.
This talk introduces User Needs Mapping as a practical approach to shift organizational thinking to outside-in. By focusing on user needs—external and internal—it enables every part of the organization to align around the value being delivered. From revealing misalignments to breaking dependencies and fostering purposeful collaboration, User Needs Mapping provides immediate insights into creating focus, ownership, and autonomy for teams.
Through actionable examples and real-world stories, this session will show you how to uncover what truly matters for your users and align your entire organisation to deliver value more effectively.
Finding teams and service boundaries with User Needs Mapping
Event: Fast Flow Conference 2023
Date: [May, 2023]
Summary: As teams grow, “awkward” interactions can signal the need for evolution, but knowing change is needed and deciding how to implement it are different challenges. This talk follows a real-world case of a company reorganizing its teams and explores how User Needs Mapping, combined with Team Topologies heuristics, helps identify and validate team and service boundaries. By not leading with the label of techniques like Wardley Mapping and Domain-Driven Design, this approach reduces cognitive overload and supports effective organizational design.
Planning for growth with Team Topologies
Event: Lean Agile Brighton 2022
Date: [November, 2022]
Summary: Team Topologies is often seen as a tool for ‘big’ organizations, but this talk debunks that myth by showcasing its applicability to organizations of any size. Using the real-world example of Passenger, a Bournemouth-based sustainable transport startup, we explore how they leveraged Team Topologies principles to address the challenge of doubling their headcount while designing an effective team structure.
Want me to speak at your next event? Get in touch to discuss how I can contribute to your conference, meetup, or workshop!