Brightec

The questions got good, very quickly. There was very little warming up needed at this year’s Brightec Exchange. People came ready to talk. To ask good questions, share what they’re dealing with, compare notes and admit to the things they’re still figuring out. The questions were just as interesting as the answers. And that made for a very good day. So thank you again to everyone who came along and got stuck in. To our speakers for giving us plenty to think about, and to everyone around the tables who shared so openly. Now the official photos are back, it feels like a good excuse to share a few of the people who made the day what it was. 📸 We’ve got lots more from the talks and conversations coming over the next few weeks.

Sarah Jackson (Friend) MSc CEng MIMechE opened the Exchange for us this year, and her stories kept finding their way back into the room all day. There was so much in what she shared about leadership, resilience and the lessons you only really learn by living them. We heard people referring back to her session in conversations long after it had finished. There’s a lot in Sarah’s experience that we can all take back into our own roles, so we’re looking forward to sharing more of her insights soon. Thanks again for being part of the day, Sarah ✨

Thank you so much to the Brightec team for inviting me down to the Brightec Exchange this year! I shared my thoughts on how AI is changing the way we work and how we are using it to transform the experience of our consultants at Alvarez & Marsal. Special thanks to Simon Brading for his thoughtful moderation and to my co-panelist Rob Redwood for his insights as always. I also must give a special shout out to my A&M colleague Sarah Jackson (Friend) MSc CEng MIMechE for kicking off the day with some amazing leadership lessons from her career in the British Army. Her experience and hard-won lessons learned came through in her presentation, and I found myself constantly referring back to her points throughout the day. Such an energizing and thought-provoking day, and huge thanks to everyone who made it special.

How well do you know the strengths of the people you work with? At Brightec, we all have a CliftonStrengths profile. It looks at 34 different talent themes, ranked according to what comes most naturally to you, and we focus particularly on getting to know our top 10. On Monday, we had Steve Boon from Strengths House back with us for a day to dig into them a little more. We talked about which strengths show up in challenging conversations, where our blind spots might be, and who in the team we could spend more time with and learn from because they bring something very different to us. Then in the afternoon, we put all of that to work. We took some real challenges and opportunities we’re facing as a business and worked in groups to turn them into plans. When we presented them back, we also looked around the room at the people whose strengths could help get each one moving. And they are moving. Plans are underway and the calendar invites are already landing 😃 Nick Holcombe took it one step further too, using Claude and a snapshot of our team’s results to build an interactive tool where we can explore our top 10, possible blind spots and the teammates whose strengths might complement our own. It was such a good day to spend together as a team. Learning a little more about each other, having lunch together, thinking about the business and coming away with things that we can more forward. Huge thanks to Steve and Strengths House – we're already looking forward to the next one.

Had a brilliant day yesterday at the Brightec Exchange… meeting some amazing people with some incredible insights… Simon Brading you know how to pull together an A list of people that open your eyes and challenge your thoughts and beliefs... Thank you to everyone that shared!!

And just like that, Brightec Exchange is over for another year 💛 What a day. So much wisdom shared, lots of honest conversations about the real challenges of leadership, and a room full of people willing to share what they’ve learned in their journeys so far. There’s a lot to unpack, and we can’t wait to share more of what came out of the day over the next few weeks. For now, a huge thank you to everyone who joined us, spoke, shared and asked brilliant questions. And we’re incredibly proud of the Brightec team who pulled the whole thing together. A lot goes into making a day like this happen, and yesterday was a special one.

Your roadmap is full, your team has ideas and your stakeholders probably have loads more. And plenty of them are good ideas – that’s what makes deciding what to build next so tricky. For Jotham Oakley, our Head of Product, this is where Product Management really comes into its own: creating a shared understanding of why you’re building something and what you’re trying to achieve. That clarity gives teams something to come back to when decisions get difficult, helping them weigh up priorities, manage scope and work out which ideas will move the product in the right direction. We’ve seen the difference that can make with our own clients. When the Virgin Trains Ticketing marketing team wanted more freedom to run campaigns through the app, getting underneath what they were trying to achieve helped us find a solution that gave them just that. They can now manage in-app messages and promotions themselves, without needing a new app release every time. Jotham has written about why he sees clarity as the real job of a Product Manager, and how a clear understanding of the ‘why’ helps teams make better decisions about what they build. Read the full post here 👇 https://lnkd.in/eqCXFXye

James Allwright is basically a discovery wizard. He's not the only one on the team; quite a few have deep experience and have spent years crafting how to get projects off to a flying start. But hearing James present to the team on Monday about the deeper principles and the why behind how we run our Discovery phases was really inspiring. He termed the purpose of a discovery as four things: - Build relationships. - Share a direction. - Turn over every stone. - Establish trust. But the bit I really loved was that he summed up the entire output in one word: confidence. Because amid everything that happens in a busy discovery phase, that's what clients actually need: the ability to make major project decisions, sign Statements of Work, and trust the team to deliver within budget.

An ice cream-worthy moment 🍦 Last week marked the end of the initial build phase of a huge project for us. Many, many hours of work from a lot of people went into getting it over the line. So some of us stepped out for an ice cream to celebrate. Because big wins deserve a bit of a fuss and, let’s be honest, it won’t be ice cream weather for very much longer. A very well-earned afternoon outing ❤️