It’s easy to think up ideas, especially if you keep them vague and aspirational. It’s harder to be specific about what you need to build and why. And to be confident that you can deliver it.

It’s even harder to focus on the ideas that improve members’ outcomes and that make money. And to kill the ones that don’t.

I’ve had to face these harsh realities many times with many organisations. I’ve built roadmaps that articulate a clear vision and describe the steps to achieve it. I’ve juggled the myriads of demands and interests to present clear options and consequences.

A coherent and credible roadmap is the key to growing a technology company and to take clients with you, so you don’t get knocked off course. It’s a lot easier said than done. My experience and objective approach can hep you build yours.

“They’re always late and when we get it, it’s not what we wanted.” If clients are saying this, it’s a sign of a broken product process.

Other symptoms include late changing requirements, last minute delays, features that never get used and discussions that go round and round in circles without any clear conclusion.

I’ve set up product processes and teams that take ideas from inception to delivery in a scalable and repeatable way. And that don’t stifle innovation or smother the organisation in bureaucracy.

Dashboards, VFM, PFM, PFL, CDC. There’s no shortage of short and longer term regulatory acronyms to contend with.

Which ones should you focus on? How might they affect your business model? What should you charge for and what is covered by the support element of the license fee?

I have been responsible for responses to tax simplification, auto-enrolment and pension flexibilities amongst other things. I understand the practical implications, the effect on the market and have a track record of build products that meet clients’ needs and make money.

When you prepare your approach to an RFP, you face some difficult dilemmas.

The RFP may be over-ambitious in its requirements and timescales. Or it may envisage a pre-determined solution, which you would like to challenge. You need to balance winning the tender with committing to a solution that you can both deliver and make money from.

I have run many tender and pre-sales processes; both for public and private sector tenders I can help you to design an optimal solution that identifies and addresses the client’s needs and add firepower to your bid team.

You want to improve member engagement, offer a pensions dashboard, consolidate a new scheme, improve your retirement options.

But how? Is your technology eco-system good enough? Should you build or buy? Which suppliers should you choose and how do you know you’ll get what you want?

I’ve designed and delivered software to do all the above and more. I can help you define your needs, design solutions, select suppliers and manage the programme so you get what you want.

You’ve got great, knowledgable colleagues, but they’re super busy. They can’t do their day jobs and support the new implementations you have.

I love to role my sleeves up and get stuck in. I can supplement your permanent teams in whatever ways they need; writing analysis and requirements specifications, building test cases, supporting the roll-out etc.

I can be very flexible and have the experience to take a load of their shoulders from day one.