https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/Recent content in Writing on Evolving Complexity.Hugoen-gbThu, 23 Jul 2026 09:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/top-of-mind/Thu, 23 Jul 2026 09:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/top-of-mind/As engineering organisations grow, leadership context becomes increasingly concentrated. Directors and VPs move across strategy, delivery, customers, hiring, organisational design and operational issues, often within the same week. The wider organisation sees the resulting…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/farewell-efg-hello-runware/Sat, 01 Nov 2025 12:06:36 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/farewell-efg-hello-runware/After an incredible journey at ESL FACEIT Group, I have taken the decision to move on and begin a new chapter. I am joining Runware to lead their engineering organisation, and it is a move I am genuinely excited about.https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/financial-fluency/Wed, 10 Sep 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/financial-fluency/When I first stepped into senior leadership, I realised that my responsibilities had expanded well beyond technology. I was accountable not only for the performance of teams and platforms but also for the way those decisions showed up in the company’s financials. At first, the P&L…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/rediscovering-craft/Wed, 03 Sep 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/rediscovering-craft/When you step out of the rhythm of writing code every day, it is easy to forget how much muscle memory there is in programming. The shortcuts, the debugging rituals, the half-remembered syntax quirks that once felt instinctive begin to fade. Years spent in leadership roles…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/leadership-styles/Mon, 25 Aug 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/leadership-styles/Leadership is never one-dimensional. Early in my career I wrongly assumed that consistency in a specific leadership style was a strength. Over time, I learned that the reality is very different. Effective leadership at the Director+ level requires adaptability…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/staying-technically-involved/Thu, 21 Aug 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/staying-technically-involved/A constant challenge in senior technology leadership is deciding how much to stay involved in technical work. At the VP or Director+ level, most of your energy goes into strategy, organisational health, and cross-functional influence. But fully stepping away from technology…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/working-together/Tue, 12 Aug 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/working-together/Cross-functional collaboration in an engineering organisation is rarely a nice to have - it is the operating model. Engineering does not deliver value in isolation, and neither do Product, Design, Marketing and Commercial. The best outcomes happen when these functions…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/complex-characters/Sat, 09 Aug 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/complex-characters/Dealing with difficult individuals is one of the most challenging and draining aspects of leadership. It is not the occasional disagreement or personality clash that concerns me, but the persistent behaviours that, if left unaddressed, begin to shape the culture in ways…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/retaining-talent/Tue, 22 Jul 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/retaining-talent/Retaining top talent is a constant challenge. It is tempting to think that compensation is the lever that matters the most, and while it plays a role, it is rarely the reason someone chooses to stay over the long term. The people you most want to retain are driven by…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/difficult-discussions/Thu, 03 Jul 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/difficult-discussions/One of the hardest parts of leading any organisation is not the strategy, the OKRs, or the architecture decisions. It is the conversations. The tough ones. The ones where you are delivering bad news, addressing underperformance, or making a call that impacts…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/sponsorship/Sun, 22 Jun 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/sponsorship/There is a lot of talk in leadership circles about coaching and mentoring, and rightly so. Coaching helps people refine their skills. Mentoring provides the benefit of experience and guidance. But there is a third, often overlooked ingredient that plays a crucial role in career progression…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/skip-levels/Fri, 06 Jun 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/skip-levels/Skip-levels are one of the most effective ways to truly understand the health of an organisation, yet they are often treated as an afterthought or run as a one-off exercise. At scale, when you are several layers removed from the delivery teams, these conversations become a vital mechanism…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/predictability-vs-estimations/Thu, 29 May 2025 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/predictability-vs-estimations/In many engineering organisations, especially those undergoing agile or delivery transformations, teams still default to traditional metrics like story points, time estimates, or velocity. These methods, often rooted in well-intentioned planning…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/leading-through-reduction/Sun, 02 Feb 2025 12:06:36 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/leading-through-reduction/One of the most difficult responsibilities in senior leadership is guiding your team and organisation through reductions. These moments cut deeper than any product delay or operational challenge because they impact people’s livelihoods, trust, and sense of belonging…https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/speaking-at-gdc-alongside-cloudflare/Mon, 08 Apr 2024 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/speaking-at-gdc-alongside-cloudflare/Last month at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), I had the privilege of joining the team from Cloudflare to speak about a topic close to my heart: Zero Trust and its role in supporting the competitive gaming ecosystem.https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/farewell-unity-hello-efg/Wed, 07 Jun 2023 12:06:36 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/farewell-unity-hello-efg/Today marks the end of an incredible 5-year chapter at Unity Technologies as their Senior Director of Engineering, where I had the privilege of leading software engineering for the Multiplayer Product Suite within Unity Gaming Services.https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/effective-meetings/Thu, 23 Jun 2022 12:06:36 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/effective-meetings/Meetings are an essential part of any engineering organisation. They provide a platform for collaboration, decision-making, and sharing information. However, not all meetings are productive, and ineffective meetings can be a significant waste of time and resources.https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/farewell-lush-hello-unity/Wed, 10 Oct 2018 12:06:36 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/farewell-lush-hello-unity/After four and a half incredible years, today marks the end of my journey at Lush. What started as a small, tight-knit team of just four engineers within the Poole headquarters grew into a technology powerhouse of over 70 talented individuals globally delivering business impact.https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/speaking-at-google-next-london/Thu, 20 Apr 2017 13:28:48 +0100https://evolvingcomplexity.com/posts/speaking-at-google-next-london/I am thrilled to have taken the stage at Google NEXT 2017 in London, joining Google Cloud CTO Brian Stevens during the Day 1 keynote to share the story of Lush’s rapid migration to Google Cloud - completed in just 22 days.