Things I've built

Ideas that got finished

Not a job history. Three stories with a problem, a decision and a result. The numbers are here, but the decisions are the interesting part.

Programme management · Google

Growing a career programme to 56,000 people

For two years I ran the day-to-day operations of Own Your Career, one of Google's largest career development programmes.

Googlers reached: 56,000
Countries: ~100
Positive feedback: 97%

The challenge

When I joined it was a handful of career resources and a good idea. Jenny Wood, a Google Director, owned the vision and the content. What it didn't have was an operating model — anything that would let it grow past the people who happened to be working on it that quarter.

What I built

Essentially an internal startup: its own brand, a newsletter, a cross-functional team, global live events and the operating processes underneath all of it. Every year we set the priorities and OKRs, and I turned those into initiatives, owners, timelines and cadences.

How I approached it

As demand grew I spent most of my time on things that would outlast me — SOPs, templates and playbooks for almost everything, so the programme didn't depend on any one person. The live sessions were our growth engine, so I ran that pipeline end to end: intake, prioritisation, scheduling, executive briefings, logistics, feedback, reporting. Many involved VPs, which meant coordinating with HR and PR when messaging needed a second read.

What came of it

It reached more than 56,000 Googlers in almost 100 countries, with 97% positive feedback. The lesson I took from it: scaling a programme isn't about adding people. It's about building an operating system that lets a lot of moving parts work together without constant supervision.

Enablement & operations · Google

Reducing invalid escalations by 40%

The escalation numbers had been telling the same story for months. Nobody had gone looking for the reason.

Fewer invalid escalations: 40%
Resources consolidated: 50+
Place to look: 1

The challenge

In my enablement and operations role I could see the escalation metrics, and a large share of them were invalid or out of scope. Sitting with the Sales team every day, I heard the other half of it: the escalations platform was confusing, full of outdated information, and the troubleshooting resources sellers actually needed were scattered across dozens of places.

What I built

One primary site that consolidated over 50 resources, organised around what a seller is trying to do rather than which team produced the material. I took the case to leadership, got buy-in for prioritising it, and led the overhaul.

How I approached it

The hard part was cross-functional. Sales wanted one 'submit escalation' button and nothing else. Support wanted every criterion and troubleshooting step in front of sellers first. Those positions looked incompatible, so I brought everyone back to the shared objective — invalid escalations wasted seller time, created work for support and slowed resolution for the customer. Then I used the data: three drivers explained most invalid cases. Surfacing just those three, prominently, gave Sales a much simpler experience and Support the information where it mattered.

What came of it

Invalid escalations dropped by 40%, and 'where do I find…' stopped being a question people had to ask a colleague.

Strategy & enablement · Courage Collective

Helping launch an instant NYT bestseller

Part-time, remote, alongside the day job: supporting the launch of Wild Courage and the coaching practice around it.

Instant bestseller: NYT
Smallest usable unit: 30 min
Built to run without me: Self-serve

The challenge

A book can inspire someone for an afternoon. Turning that into something a reader — or a whole team — can practise on a Tuesday is a different problem, and it's the one that decides whether the ideas stick.

What I built

Toolkits, learning resources and executive coaching materials to support the launch, plus scalable frameworks, workshop resources and communications for client delivery, LinkedIn thought leadership and audience growth.

How I approached it

Everything sized to be picked up once and returned to later: short prompts, worked examples, exercises a team can run in half an hour without a facilitator. I tested the material on busy, mildly sceptical people, which is the only honest test.

What came of it

Wild Courage launched as an instant New York Times bestseller, and Jenny Wood's coaching practice had resources that could run without either of us in the room.

Next: how I work