Andrew Taylor Product Lead
Client: Equal Experts, January 24
“Jon has an exceptionally thorough knowledge of Agile delivery methods and really performed an incredible job in coaching the formerly non Agile team in new ways of working. There were client staff members who had worked for the client for years who said this was the best year of their career to date.
Jon also assisted greatly in helping the client to understand product orientated thinking as well as ruthless prioritisation. If it wasn't for his delivery management skills the highly successful project would have had a different outcome.
Jon also has a real talent for getting things unblocked and facilitating - rather than telling people what to do - which is a real skill. Working with Jon has been a great learning experience for me personally and I will definitely be reusing a few of his quotes.”
Janette Weber Analyst Consultant
Client: Springer Nature, May 2022
“Jon worked with us to deliver a data pipeline, data as a product. The project was executed by a distributed team, not having worked previously together. The work was completed entirely remotely.
Jon organised the running and processes of the team, in a supportive manner, accounting for our context of high complexity, helping us through our various stages of formation and performance. He encouraged us to be precise, aligned and collaborative, whilst shielding the team from work interruption, waiting for a suitable opportunity to consult with the team.
I really like his retrospective sessions. Jon managed to facilitate the workshops, providing interaction and engagement for the whole team, where everyone could discuss issues and successfully collaborate to find a solution. I was really impressed because we all worked remotely and Jon managed to get everyone actively involved.
I would certainly look forward to working with Jon on a project again.”
Dr Yogi Valani PhD - Director Diyena Solutions Ltd
Client: Springer Nature, May 2022
“Transformations take time and require patience.
Identifying and prioritising the improvements which will be most beneficial for a team is what Jon does best.
The ease at which Jon is able to articulate problems, pinpoint them either to an issue or an enabler for a process, has been a rewarding experience to witness and be a part of.
I especially appreciated how Jon is able to turn both individual and team constraints or impediments into either common problems to solve or align the team around agreed changes. I would highly recommend and welcome Jon’s consultancy input into helping teams achieve greater performance at both system/organisational, team and individual levels.
I would recommend Jon without hesitation, and look forward to working with him again in the future.”
Ben Cheetham Cyber and Tech Lead
Client: Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), July 2020
“Jon recently worked with us to deliver “Pre-Discovery” and “Discovery” phases of a project. He quickly created the space that allowed the team to focus and deliver.
None of the team members had worked together previously and some had limited experience of working with an agile project management approach. He coached team members and helped them to build relationships with each other as well as confidence in their work.
The Discovery phase took place during Covid lockdown so the team had to move to full remote working at the same time as new people joined the team. This didn’t phase Jon and the team were still able to meet the outcome and deadlines. From a product owner perspective, I felt I was able to absolutely trust Jon and his judgement. I felt he was very good at spotting areas that I needed to focus my attention.
I would certainly look forward to working with him again.”
Mark Brookbank – SAP Functional Lead
Client: Capgemini, March 2019
“I had the pleasure of working alongside Jon for a year on the SAP HMRC account with Capgemini. Jon originally was brought in to review and help develop better work practices within our functional team, but ended up doing so much more. Jon introduced new ways of working which completely changed our working philosophy by adopting Kanban methodology so we could accurately represent our work and priorities to help defend our workload against multiple stakeholders. This was a fundamental shift in culture across the account, and similar practices are now being developed across all the other shared teams.
Jon also introduced a push to pull system where historically our senior stakeholders have always pushed priorities to individuals. We now have a single point of prioritisation who actively decides what our current priorities are and the team can pull a ticket when they have the capability too. We are now able to protect our time from outside influences and prioritise our work across the teams which all senior managers can view on our JIRA and physical boards. Jon won’t admit this – but for a short time we were also without a manager for a number of months after a senior delivery manager left our team, and in my opinion Jon filled this void without hesitation and provided an unbelievable amount of support and team running acumen to a number of junior leads who relied on his positivity and no nonsense approach.
I’ve never witnessed an individual make such an impact in his short time here – Jon was a fantastic addition to our team and I would have him back in a heartbeat. Jon is a brilliant people person, has a fantastic work ethic, is happy to engage and teach others, and is a huge driver for change and self-improvement. I sincerely hope we get the chance to work together again in the future and fully endorse him to any company that is lucky enough to have him.”
Ryan Jarrett – Tech Lead
Client: Ministry of Justice, May 2016
“I worked with Jon at the Ministry of Justice while I was a lead developer. Jon led the delivery of a major redesign and redevelopment of the Intranet site, a massive undertaking to say the least. Jon was a fantastic delivery manager and led the delivery expertly. He provided the interface between the development team and the product owner with pragmatism and professionalism in, what was sometimes, a challenging environment. His technical knowledge and willingness to "get his hands dirty" when business requirements changed with little notice further unified the delivery.
Jon was a key part of the team and the project would not have moved forward at the pace it did without his steer. I would recommend Jon without hesitation, and look forward to working with him again in the future.”
