Work
Seven case studies, one pattern: work handed over as execution that turned out to be a product problem.
| Case study | What changed | Result | Relevant to |
|---|---|---|---|
| The £6M Thread Pull | Turned a small circuit migration into an audit of Vodafone's whole third-party link inventory | Over £6M recurring opex | PMTPM |
| The Macro | Watched an engineer write per-site scripts by hand, then automated the parts that never changed | 20–25 min → under 5 min | PM |
| Huawei out of the Core | Moved core traffic onto Vodafone's own Ciena network and ended the dark-fibre contract | £3.6M of the £6M | TPM |
| Vendor incentives | Payment tied to validated completion at each site, agreed directly with the vendor's director | Per-site sign-off | PMTPM |
| Neither Two Weeks Nor Five Months | Countered an unrealistic two-week deadline with a scoped 2.5-month plan, instead of a flat no | 2.5 months | PMTPM |
| The Light Test | Added a physical end-to-end light test to the migration process, after a circuit that existed in no database failed twice | New standard step | PMTPM |
| Poka-Yoke | Paired struggling engineers with an expert and mistake-proofed the process, instead of managing them out | Retained, not replaced | PMTPM |
For product roles
- The £6M Thread Pull
Opportunity spotted inside a delivery task, sized, and argued as recurring opex rather than one-off capex.
- The Macro
Discovery by watching real work, then separating what varies from what doesn't. The same abstraction behind most automation and AI tooling.
- Vendor incentives
Solved with incentives rather than escalation, so the vendor's commercial interest and our delivery needs pointed the same way.
- Neither Two Weeks Nor Five Months
A counter-proposal, not a refusal: reframed 'yes or no' into 'what's actually achievable,' backed by a real plan.
- The Light Test
The audit behind this programme was verified three ways, and none of them could see a circuit missing from every record. Fixing your own process when reality disagrees with it is rarer than getting it right the first time.
- Poka-Yoke
Poka-yoke, mistake-proofing a process so an error becomes structurally hard to make, is the same instinct behind good product design: don't rely on people to be perfect, design so mistakes are hard to make.
For programme roles
- The £6M Thread Pull
Thousands of circuits, a team of 9, three-way verification and a rollback plan on every change.
- Huawei out of the Core
High-consequence core change under government scrutiny, de-risked with a proven verification method. Active SC clearance.
- Vendor incentives
Vendor governance: mandatory site templates and validation before payment, still in use today.
- Neither Two Weeks Nor Five Months
Delivered in 2.5 months against a 4-5 month baseline by parallelising work, pre-booking critical resources, and triaging by risk, with zero escalations.
- The Light Test
Root-cause discipline: two failed remote fixes, then a physical trace between exchange buildings, then a new standard step added so it couldn't happen again.
- Poka-Yoke
Paired underperformers with an expert, audited their output for two weeks to confirm real progress, and rewrote instructions so steps couldn't be skipped.