Personal User Manaual

Welcome my Personal User Manual! If you'd like to create your own check out this template.

About Me

I am from Northern Ireland, studied Management at the London School of Economics and spent some time at UC Berkeley studying Computer Science with a focus on Machine Learning. I am the Co-Founder and CTO of Stackfix, where we're building an AI-powered marketplace that enables businesses to buy, implement and optimise the right software in seconds.

Previously, I co-founded another startup, Telescope (we used ML for sales outreach) and was a software engineer at Skyscanner where I worked on Identity Infrastructure.

In my spare time I'm a pretty avid reader, so do tell me if you've read something great recently. I also try to golf as much as possible and play around with some programming languages and frameworks we don't (yet) use at Stackfix (currently Rust and Clojure mostly).

How to Contact Me

I work in the office by default so feel free to chat in person, if you feel the discussion is best done synchronously. If it can wait, or if async communication is okay, then I prefer Slack (I tend to check Slack & email every couple of hours and batch my replies). I know it can be a little weird to Slack message someone that's sitting right beside you but I've found it's pretty effective, to avoid pulling someone out of context.

I try to clear all emails and Slack messages every evening, so if something important comes up feel free to message outside of working hours, I'll make sure to get back to you before the start of the day.

Preferred Working Style

Typically I prefer quiet work with minimal disruptions. I use my calendar as a todo list so having larger blocks of time to focus is important to me.

I tend to structure my day to do as much focused work before the afternoon as possible. If you have something to discuss, or you want to pair on a task, I'm always up for that but if it could wait until the afternoon that would typically be ideal.

What Motivates Me

Solving problems that actually matter. I derive a lot of joy in the act of problem solving, but knowing the problems we're solving are actually valuable to someone is what makes it really worthwhile.

I am passionate about learning, so when the opportunity arises to try a new technology or approach that is always motivating. With that said, I do try to find the balance at work of using the right tool for the job (i.e. choose boring technology).

I enjoy the process of gathering data, learning and iterating. In many ways I find that more fulfilling than getting it right first time.

What Demotivates Me

I don't particularly enjoy writing documentation for products and services that already exist. Although I do enjoy writing design documents and documenting services as they are being built, so I think it's the piecing together of stale information that I find a little frustrating.

I enjoy debating the merits of different approaches and feel I learn a lot from others, through that process. However, when discussions become a battle of opinions over data, where data is available, I find that to be demotivating.

My Values (and what I value in others)

Dedication with empathy. I admire people who are driven and who value the truth but hold other’s feelings in equally high regard.

Integrity. I believe that that technology is a massive positive force of good but that we must decide to act with integrity when we put anything out into the world.

Commitment. I value people that back up their ideas with action.

My Blind Spots

I'm always open to directed constructive feedback, feel free to drop me a message with anything you think might be helpful. Here are some areas I'm trying to improve on:

  • Balancing planning with learning-by-doing. I have a tendency to plan a bit too much when I should be just getting stuck in, learning and iterating.
  • Celebrating small wins, more generally jumping off the hedonic treadmill.
  • Testing frontend code, something at which I'm woefully under-practiced.
  • Giving more direct feedback. I enjoy working in, and want to create, high performance teams. Taking and giving directed & constructive feedback is crucial to maintaining that culture.

I really enjoy learning from the experience of others, so please feel free to share your thoughts on any of the above. It's also a huge bonus if you have book or talk recommendations.

My Pet Peeves

  • Debating with opinions when data is available
  • People who interrupt others. Sometimes it's hard to get the timings right (particularly over video calls) but if I ever do this to you please call me out!
  • When people view work (or life) as a zero sum game