About ME

I came to AI as a sceptic. I remain one. But after a brief and slightly stubborn period of refusing to engage with it properly, curiosity won out and I went deep to try work out what was genuinely useful versus what was just tech bro noise. After a lot of trial and error, something shifted. Not revolution, but real time savings on the mechanical work, which meant more time on the human stuff.That experimentation eventually led to delivering AI initiatives and workshops within my team at NHS England, where I've spent the last few years working on the platforms behind things like the NHS App and e-prescriptions. Before that I was leading Scrum deliveries at Kin + Carta and Edit for clients including Tesco, British Heart Foundation, Co-op, Northern Rail, Mitsubishi and others, and before that working on transformation projects with Volkswagen, SEAT, SKODA and Mercedes.Along the way I picked up an MBA from the University of Leicester, both a Professional Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner cert, and an ICAgile Coaching qualification. I've consulted for AI start-ups, written over fifty articles on developer productivity and engineering leadership, won a few HackerNoon contributor awards from those, and published work on responsible project management through the Association for Project Management (APM). I also led a project that funded the planting of over 20,000 trees, which might be the thing I'm most quietly proud of.

I'm the author of The Scrum Master's Guide to AI and run training sessions around using AI as a lever for better Delivery Management and Product Ownership. Hit me up for details.

Or just email me at:
[email protected]

Bespoke AI Training for Scrum Masters

This training is built directly from my book, which means it's grounded in my real everyday Scrum Master experiences.The ceremonies, the coaching conversations, the stakeholder headaches, the admin overhead that slowly eats your soul. The goal isn't to turn your Scrum Masters into AI enthusiasts. It's to give them practical skills they can use on Monday morning without completely rethinking how they work.Sessions are tailored to your organisation's context, your tools, your constraints, and the specific parts of the role where your Scrum Masters are spending too much time on the wrong things.

WHAT I COVER

Throughout all my training session, the emphasis is on AI as a lever rather than a replacement.The coaching, the facilitation, the trust building, the reading of a room when something's clearly wrong but nobody's saying it yet.None of that gets automated.What does get easier is the preparation, the documentation, the communication overhead and the admin that gets in the way of those things. The training takes directly from my book, specifically providing ways to leverage AI across all of the three core Scrum Master accountabilities:

SERVING YOUR SCRUM TEAM• Coaching Teams to Actually Self-Manage• Helping Teams Deliver High-Value Increments• Identifying and Removing Impediments• Leveraging AI with Sprint Ceremonies

SERVING YOUR PRODUCT OWNER• How the Scrum Master Serves the Product Owner• Shaping Product Goals and Managing the Backlog• Ensuring Clarity in Product Backlog Items• Empirical Product Planning• Facilitating Stakeholder Collaboration

SERVING THE ORGANISATION• Leading Scrum Adoption Across the Organization• Planning and Advising Scrum Implementations• Supporting Empirical Thinking at Scale• Bridging Stakeholders and Scrum Teams• Reporting and Delivery Tracking• Identifying and Managing Risks

TRAINING OUTCOMES

By the end of the training, attendees will have a clear sense of where AI can genuinely save them time and add value, and where it can't, which is honestly just as valuable. They'll have practical prompts and approaches they can apply immediately to their own work rather than having to figure it out from scratch through trial and error. They'll spend less time on the mechanical side of the role and have more energy for the human side, which is the part that actually makes a difference. And they'll have a way of thinking about AI use that holds up as the tools keep changing, because the tools absolutely will keep changing.

HOW IT WORKS

Training is delivered in person or remotely, in whatever format works for your team.It can run as a full 2 day course, across multiple shorter sessions, or focused on specific modules depending on where your Scrum Masters need the most support.Get in touch and I can figure out what makes sense for your situation.

Or just email me at:
[email protected]

SPEAKING GIGS

I speak at conferences, company events, team away days and pretty much anywhere that'll have me, as long as the topic is something I can actually talk about with conviction rather than just winging it with a slide deck. That rules out a lot, but it leaves things like AI, agile delivery, and the human side of tech teams.My background is a bit unusual for someone talking about AI. I started as a teacher, moved into academic management in China, then digital delivery consulting at places like Kin + Carta, and most recently NHS England working on the platforms behind the NHS App and e-prescriptions. Along the way I ran AI initiatives and workshops for my team at NHS and wrote a book about it. I came to all of this as a sceptic and I'm still fairly sceptical, which I think makes the talks more honest than the average AI evangelism you get on the conference circuit.I'm not going to tell your audience AI is going to transform everything and also that they have nothing to worry about. Both things are said constantly and neither is particularly useful. What I will do is talk plainly about what actually works, what doesn't, and what questions people should be asking before they roll anything out.Topics I talk about regularly include AI as a practical tool for delivery teams (not the hype, the reality), how Scrum Masters and Product Owners can use AI without it eroding the skills that make them good at their jobs, and why self-managing teams are so much harder to build than anyone tells you in the training.Get in touch below if you want me to speak some words at a place of your choosing:

Or just email me at:
[email protected]

1-2-1 Coaching

Most of the coaching I do is with Scrum Masters, Delivery Managers, and Product Owners who are dealing with something specific that's making their work harder than it needs to be. Sometimes that's technical, like figuring out how to actually use AI in a way that helps rather than just adds another thing to learn. More often it's the messy human stuff. Teams that aren't really self-managing despite all the 'right' ceremonies being in place. Stakeholders who won't engage properly. Backlogs that have become black holes. The growing sense that you're doing everything right on paper but it still doesn't feel sustainable.I'm not going to give you a framework and tell you to implement it. What I will do is listen to what's actually happening in your context, help you see patterns you might be too close to notice, and work with you to figure out what might actually help. Sometimes that's practical tools and techniques. Sometimes it's permission to stop doing things that aren't working. Sometimes it's just having someone who gets it and isn't going to tell you to try harder or be more positive.

What we work on

The sessions are led by whatever you're dealing with, but common themes include using AI practically without it becoming another thing that drains your time, building teams that genuinely self-manage rather than just perform self-management, making delivery sustainable instead of lurching from crisis to crisis, Product Ownership that doesn't require being in every conversation and writing every story, stakeholder management that doesn't leave you exhausted, and working in ways that don't slowly burn you out even when you love what you do.I've worked across various client contexts from startups to large government departments. I've made many of the mistakes you can make in this role, which turns out to be fairly useful when helping other people avoid them. I came to AI as a skeptic and remain one, which means I'm not going to try to sell you on it as a solution to everything, just help you figure out where it's genuinely useful for you, or not and where you might need a more human approach.

How it works

Sessions are usually an hour, remote or in person depending on what makes sense. We can do one-offs if you're working through something specific, or regular sessions if you want ongoing support. The work is confidential. What you're struggling with stays between us.If you're interested, get in touch and we can have a conversation about whether I would actually be helpful for you. No obligation, no hard sell, just a chat about what you're dealing with and whether I'm the right person to help with it.

Or just email me at:
[email protected]