Operations ⛰️

Process Design
Agile
Communication
Data Analysis
P.M.
You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
James Clear

I've led operational improvement projects across Fintech, Edtech and Games.

For example at Waverton , I project-managed and designed a new Cash Management System. It has safely processed >£500M in withdrawals and cut workflow times by 60%.

My broad skillset (see below) makes me particularly suited to cross-disciplinary projects.

Skills Showcase

🚀

Agile Project Management

🚀

Agile Project Management

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
Peter Drucker

I've managed dozens of Agile projects in the Fintech, Edtech and Mobile Games. For example:

  • Led the integration of third-party Foreign Exchange platform within bespoke desktop app (£1B yearly volumes) at Waverton.
  • Project Managed and designed a new Cash Management System- it has safely processed > £500M in withdrawals and cut workflow times by 60%.
  • Administrator for Atlassian Products: Jira, Confluence, Portfolio – defined Scrum workflows, managed backlog, sprint planning, retrospectives and daily standups.
  • Communicated efficiently with teams across C-suite, Operations, Tech, and Compliance to advise on dozens of software/process improvements within complicated regulatory environments (MIFID II etc.)
  • Certification: Agile with Atlassian Jira
👂

Communication

👂

Communication

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
George Bernard Shaw

I value clear communication immensely - so much else rests on it. I aim for clarity, brevity and candor in writing and in person.

  • I've led workshops and demos with stakeholders across C-suite, Operations, Tech, Customers and Compliance on dozens of software & operational projects I spearheaded.
  • Introduced a new data-driven PM process which aggregated Jira ticket data to produce accurate roadmaps for stakeholders – Engineers kept using scrum, Managers could get a waterfall view.

Workflow Automation

Workflow Automation

Automation is good, so long as you know exactly where to put the machine.
Eliyahu Goldratt

Automation so often backfires because along with the inefficiencies, you also throw out responsibility and oversight. Automation is powerful, but not a panacea.

I worked as a consultant for the Change Management team at Waverton across dozens of workflow improvement projects, the best outcomes always balanced efficiency, risk and pragmatism.

For example while maintaining proper controls, the Cash Withdrawal system project managed cut workflow times by 60% and has safely processed over £500M.

📊

Data Driven Decisions

📊

Data Driven Decisions

Data is a tool for enhancing intuition.
Hilary Mason

Data-driven decision-making is as much about deep domain knowledge as it is about analytical skills. The key first step is knowing what data to collect, what user behaviours need to be quantified and why?

Some types of data collection may be obvious, for example collecting customer churn statistics, however the true gems lie deeper, beneath the Five whys.

e.g. Lets take Duolingo as an example: Why are users canceling their subscriptions?

1st Why: Why are users canceling their subscriptions?

👉 Because they feel they are not getting enough value for the price.

2nd Why: Why do they feel they are not getting enough value?

👉 Because they are not using premium features as much as expected.

3rd Why: Why are they not using premium features?

👉 Because they are unaware of some premium features or forget to use them.

4th Why: Why are they unaware or forgetting to use premium features?

👉 Because there is no clear onboarding or in-app reminders highlighting these features.

5th Why: Why is there no clear onboarding or reminders?

👉 Because the product team prioritized gamification over feature discovery in onboarding, and there is no automated nudge system in place.

  • I've Created dashboards (SQL, PowerBI, Kibana) to improve decision making – e.g. identified slow brokers, saving client-base thousands in trading fees each year.
  • Solely responsible for implementing dozens of new ETL data pipelines from and to Banks and other major financial institutions.
  • Introduced a new data-driven PM process which aggregated Jira ticket data to produce accurate roadmaps for stakeholders – Engineers kept using scrum, Managers could get a waterfall view.
🔧

Service Design

🔧

Service Design

Service design is all about making the service you deliver useful, usable, efficient, effective and desirable.
UK Design Council

At Waverton I project managed and designed a new Cash Management System- it has safely processed > £500M in withdrawals and cut workflow times by 60%.

🛡️

Regulatory Change

🛡️

Regulatory Change

A market looks free only because we so unconditionally accept its underlying restrictions that we fail to see them.
Ha-Joon Chang

I've led many projects driven by complex regulatory change, including:

  • The testing program for an equities trading system, driven by MIFID II, with £ millions in daily trade volume.
  • Led Anti Money Laundering and Risk integration with Dow Jones’ risk monitoring database.
  • Led ESG data-feed project to integrate trading locks in-line with client’s ethical convictions.

🎨

UI/UX Design

🎨

UI/UX Design

A user interface is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it's not that good.
Martin LeBlanc

My first boss, at a small financial software start-up, drilled into me the primacy of design. Whenever he was developing a new feature, he'd always ask himself the following question:

  • Would I go mad if I had to use this every day for a year?

An odd question, sure, but thinking this way helps you spot the friction that will grow tiresome over time. It helps you see the two clicks, where one would suffice. The validation step that is so onerous, in 6 months time, the users will just skip anyway. The ambiguous tool-tip that will bamboozle a new employee.

Since then I've taken those lessons into a number of design heavy projects:

  • Designed responsive app UIs for phone & tablet and led development and design on Arti website.
Excerpt from Arti pitch deck showing selected user interfaces and designs

🧭

Leadership

🧭

Leadership

Don't find fault, find a remedy.
Henry Ford

Talking about one's own leadership qualities seems slightly conceited! Good leadership is the confluence of numerous faculties, some of which I have, all of which I'm trying to cultivate:

  • Self-Awareness: continuously reflects, learns, and improves - low ego.
  • Integrity: honesty, transparency and ethical judgement.
  • Clarity: communicates a compelling direction.
  • Trust: empowers everyone in the team and sets high standards.
  • Adaptability: navigates uncertainty and shields the broader team.

I've strived for these virtues in all my work so far - and will continue to do so going forward.

♟️

Strategic Consultancy

♟️

Strategic Consultancy

If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdom.
Adam Grant

My approach to strategic consultancy is rooted in clarity, first-principles thinking, and adaptability. I believe that the best strategies come from deep observation, domain expertise, and a focus on fundamentals

🤿

Deep Work

🤿

Deep Work

Less mental clutter means more mental resources available for deep thinking.
Cal Newport

Cal Newport's work is a big influence on my approach to work, he has convincedly argued that Knowledge Work is beset with distractions and perverse incentives that degrade productivity and wellbeing.

Deeply understanding the costs of context switching, distraction and modern work habits has borne fruit in all aspects of my technical and creative work.

🖊️

Clear Writing

🖊️

Clear Writing

One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.
Jack Kerouac

I believe concise, clear writing is universally useful - it is a byword for clear thinking.

It applies to coding, marketing copy, negotiation, documentation, collaboration and much else besides.

🪴

Customer Development

🪴

Customer Development

In a startup no facts exist inside the building, only opinions.
Steve Blank

Steve Blank has been a huge influence on my thinking about start-ups. His books, like the The Startup Owner's Manual, solidified the principles of the scientific method in early business development.

His maxim that "No facts exist inside the building" - taught a generation of founders to trust their customers, rather than their hunches. The Lean Startup, Business Model Generation, Disciplined Entrepreneurship all took on that torch, but Steve did it first and in my opinion did it best!

🎯

Bullseye Marketing

🎯

Bullseye Marketing

Never let ads write checks your website can't cash.
Avinash Kaushik

At Arti driving traffic to our beta app was challenging, Duolingo has driven up the customer acquisition cost in the language learning space since it's IPO.

The Bullseye Marketing framework helped us narrow down to a couple of cost effective channels, in our case micro-influencer referral programmes and guest blog posts.

Bullseye Framework

🔬

Quality Assurance

🔬

Quality Assurance

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequila.
Mitch Ratcliffe

I Led the testing program for an equities trading system with £ millions in daily trade volume, in a complex regulatory environment.

🎬

Video Editing

🎬

Video Editing

A lot can change in the editing room.
Diane Lane

Video-editing for Adventures in Awareness, a Youtube channel with 13k subscribers and 890k views

🤝

Negotiation & Mediation

🤝

Negotiation & Mediation

Use soft words and hard arguments.
English Proverb

I defined the negotiation strategy for 2018 Acquisition of Fintech startup Parrish Blake by Waverton Investment Management.

Skills

Process Design

Agile

Communication

Data Analysis

P.M.

Need a smooth operator?

If you want to chat about an Ops project — email me on wjbourchier@gmail.com

Will Bourchier | LinkedIn