Customer journey mapping, be it internal of external customers, is more than a fully CX exercise. It's an excellent project planning tool that spots problems before a line of code is even written. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 Map out every touchpoint your customer will have with what you're building. Do this upfront, before you've committed budget. This will let you see and structure processes and features early on, making sure you also spot issues that could blindside you after l

The team, the sponsors, and the stakeholder are all there. Scope, goals, and timelines are aligned. But the most critical voice is missing: the end-user.  Not the internal client. Not the budget holder. But the person who really matters, whose life or work we are supposed to be improving. When the customer isn't represented from day one, we risk delivering a project that's on time, on budget, BUT isn't fit for purpose.

Post-Mortems or Lessons Learned are useful if run properly, of course, BUT they won't save your project. We've normalised learning lessons after delivery, after the damage, after the failure. But what if there was a better way?

The most expensive thing in your project isn't what you think. It's a the endless one-hour meetings with either the wrong people, or the wrong agenda. And I've seen this everywhere, hell, I've definitely been guilty of it myself in the past!

Stop asking for "Lessons Learned". Start asking for "Lessons Applied". How many times have you sat in a post project meeting review, listing out all the "Lessons Learned", only see them filed away in a document that's never read again?

Stop annoying your sponsors: 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 "𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧". Escalate too often, and you look incapable. Escalate too late, and you become a liability. Sound familiar? Before even thinking about your sponsor, ask: "Can my team and I solve this without external help?" and "Is this issue significant enough to warrant executive attention?" This shows you respect your own authority and your sponsor's time.

Your project dashboard is a sea of green but you know something's off.  Your status updates say everything is on track, your weekly reports are all positive. But you know that it's not accurate. 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞!

Successful Transformations need 3 distinct voices in the room from day one - Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Employee, Voice of the System.

You've integrated all your project dashboards into one view. So why is your Steering Committee still confused? I've seen organisations invest heavily in Project software and unified dashboards, integrating every project management tool, all to create the perfect "single pane of glass" view. Then they sit in Steering meetings where executives still ask the same questions: "Are we on track?". "What does this really mean for the business?". "Should we be worried?".

After years of managing technology transformations, I've learned that you cant treat AI like "just another IT project". There are critical key differences, including mindset and approach. AI projects aren't traditional tech projects with a new label. They operate under fundamentally different rules:

A project might tick every box during delivery, on time, on budget, stakeholders happy, but fail to deliver the promised business value months later.  Without post-implementation tracking, you're essentially flying blind.

Whilst AI can handle more of the technical and admin work, the uniquely human aspects of project management become MORE critical to success, not less.

Why Transformations Fail (and how to save them). Most transformation failures follow the same pattern. The root causes are rarely technical or financial. They're organisational.

Having rescued multiple projects across fintech, hospitality, banking and financial services, I've seen the same warning signs appear again and again.

There's a growing need to track what truly moves the needle for businesses, not just on-time delivery but measurable ROI, customer impact and strategic alignment.

Navigating AI Adoption: What's your biggest challenge and how do you solve it? Trying to harness AI can feel overwhelming. It's complicated and it's not SaaS, there are key challenges that need to be faced. From decision paralysis and a lack of skills to trying to grapple with infrastructure, ethics, data, security and change management.

A project portfolio approach ensures every effort serves your wider strategy. It balances risk and value across all initiatives and ensures every project, programme and team is working towards a unified goal.

Tech goes live. Nothing changes. Why? The impact? Tech goes live but the business doesn't change. Adoption is low. Outcomes are diluted...

Don't rush in, proper planning ensures alignment to strategy and vision, awareness of business and people capacity, with clear success criteria and measurable ROIs.