Your Ticket Isn't the Truth: The Conversation Is

"Not enough detail on the tickets"

If you've heard that before, you already know the trap. The moment teams try to fix ambiguity by writing more down, the real conversation stops – and misalignment quietly grows.

The usual response?
Write more down. More templates. More documentation.
But you can't scale clarity by writing more. More words create more ambiguity.

This session walks through the three failure patterns I've seen across various sectors: unclear tickets, tickets treated as facts, and organisations that optimise for documentation instead of understanding.

In one HealthTech platform, the term "Customer Type" meant something different to finance, marketing, and engineering – three definitions, multiple edge cases, and a mess of business rules nobody fully trusted.

You'll see why tickets are placeholders for conversations (not specifications), why requirements are hypotheses (not facts), and why executable examples in code and tests are the only spec that survives contact with reality – especially in a world where AI amplifies ambiguity.

If you've ever been stuck between vague tickets, late edge cases, or "just write it down properly", this talk shows what's actually going wrong – and the practical behaviours that turn it around.

Teaching AI in Secondary Schools: Using AI as a Case Study for Existing Subjects

Rather than treating AI as a new subject that requires additional curriculum time, this workshop explores how AI can be used as a case study within topics teachers already cover.

Using examples from Computing, Maths, Science, English, and Citizenship, the session demonstrates how concepts such as data representation, probability, uncertainty, language precision, bias, and critical thinking can be taught through the lens of modern AI systems. Participants explore the shift from deterministic to non-deterministic systems and examine how AI provides a practical, cross-curricular example for existing learning objectives.

The workshop focuses on making small, low-effort changes that fit naturally into existing lessons, helping teachers introduce AI concepts without increasing workload.

Workshop developed and delivered for secondary educators at the Cornwall AI in Education Summit.

Beyond “Just Try Harder”: Three Powerful Strategies to Prevent and Detect Software Bugs

We’ve all been there. Developers are told to “just try harder” not to create bugs, and testers are expected to “just try harder” to catch bugs before they reach production. However, this age-old strategy doesn’t address the root causes of software bugs and can even be counterproductive.

In this session, we’ll explore three strategies for creating an environment that minimises the likelihood of bugs: optimising feedback loops, using monitoring and observability tools and feature flags, and reducing change approval overhead to prevent and detect bugs.

This session goes beyond code quality, testing, legacy issues, or poor requirements. It examines some underlying factors contributing to bug creation and outlines how to tackle them effectively.

Delivered as a 10-minute lightning talk at LDX3 London
Delivered as a 45-minute talk at Agile on the Beach Cornwall, UK
Delivered as a 1-hour online session at Cambridge University Press Agile Fridays

From Zero to ChatGPT Hero in 5 Minutes

Get better responses from ChatGPT with five simple techniques: be clear, set a persona, provide examples, define the response format, and add context. With just a few simple tweaks, you can unlock ChatGPT's full potential and boost your productivity!

Delivered as a 4-minute lightning talk at Tech Cornwall Connected.