James Hobbs Discuss an engagement

How I can help

I work with founders, CTOs, heads of engineering and boards. You do not need to diagnose the problem before we talk: start with the people and the situation, and we will work out the rest together.

Ways I help

Where are you now?

Situations where I am often useful.

The work that follows

Examples, not packages. Within one relationship I might advise the board, coach a leader and help engineers change how work gets done.

Improving delivery and developer experience
CI/CD, fast feedback loops and sound engineering practices, and removing the friction that stops good people doing good work.
Coaching across the organisation
Founder-to-founder and CEO-to-CEO conversations, supporting CTOs and heads of engineering, and working directly with engineers.
Making analytics central to observability
Starting from what customers experience and what the business needs to know, then working back to the product signals, instrumentation, reliability, testing and delivery practices that support them.
Connecting decisions with the work
Turning board and leadership decisions into plans, team changes and engineering practice, and following them through.

How we start

We start with a focused look at what you’re trying to achieve, what’s getting in the way, and how I could help. From there, we agree whether there’s a useful role for me and what it should involve.

  • Understanding the business and what you are trying to achieve
  • Meeting the people who matter to the work
  • Looking at enough evidence to see where I could be useful
  • Deciding together whether an ongoing role makes sense, and what it should be

Discuss an engagement

Tell me what you’re working through. We can explore whether there’s a fit and discuss scope and timing.