Writing

Every org design framework is right, and they each point you somewhere different. What to do when the answers don't match.

Leadership 9 min read

The smooth checkout is an illusion. The unglamorous infrastructure work behind it is where payments actually live.

FinTech 6 min read

Why partner selection in FinTech comes down to compliance posture and relationship depth, not which integration looks cleanest.

Leadership 5 min read

From my father's vinyl to Sufjan Stevens on headphones. The thread is music that doesn't hedge.

Personal 1 min read

OKRs, SMART, BHAGs, V2MOMs. The framework isn't the point. A goal needs a clear achievement, a baseline, an owner, tangible work you can point to, and a cadence you keep.

Leadership 3 min read

A physicist's case for approximation as a deliberate tool, and why back-of-envelope thinking beats false precision in business decisions.

Leadership 4 min read

The bar is a contract, not a demand. What it takes to hold high standards and actually help people meet them.

Leadership 4 min read

Every payments platform reaches the same crisis point: you become the team everything routes through. How we committed to APIs-only and held the line.

Payments 4 min read

The connection between quantum physics and FinTech leadership isn't obvious. But the instincts transfer: systems thinking, order-of-magnitude reasoning, finding the right frame.

Leadership 5 min read

A 'status meeting' says your job is to account for yourself. A 'support meeting' says our job is to help you succeed. Same calendar slot, different culture.

Leadership 4 min read

Our platform teams wrote thousands of lines of documentation. Engineers read almost none of it. Here's what we changed.

Leadership 7 min read

We asked the bank if they supported Faster Payments. They said yes. Then we tested it at 9pm on a Saturday.

FinTech 4 min read

Five dimensions I track when I'm responsible for more than a single team. Not from a book — from doing the same thing in different areas and watching what moved.

Leadership 5 min read

Payment systems look simple until you hit production. The learning curve is expensive, and most of the lessons live in the gaps between what documentation says and what APIs do.

FinTech 4 min read