Good work
is a team
sport.

When I was asked to build a Software Quality Assurance function at TRIMEDX, I had an opportunity to do something I'd never done before: build a team from scratch.

I got pretty interested in what makes software teams effective. I read Accelerate, dug into the research behind the DORA State of DevOps reports, and started questioning some of the conventional wisdom about how development, testing, and operations should work together.

One thing became increasingly clear: quality wasn't something you could inspect into a product at the end. And high-performing teams weren't built by getting everyone to work harder within their own little silos.

We worked to bring testing closer to development, build automation into the way teams delivered software, and make quality something everyone owned. What started as building a QA function eventually became part of a much bigger effort to help engineering teams work better together.

We went from having no in-house QA function to building test automation into delivery across five core product areas.

But the part that stuck with me wasn't really about testing.

It was discovering how much better work could be when people understood what they were trying to accomplish, trusted each other, had room to make decisions, and actually enjoyed solving problems together.

That experience helped shape a conviction I've carried ever since: help teams have fun building cool stuff, together.

Leaving TRIMEDX after ten years wasn't an easy decision.

I had a great job, people I loved working with, and plenty of opportunities to keep growing. But I had an itch I couldn't quite shake.

I'd spent much of my career helping other people and teams succeed. I loved it. But I wanted to stretch myself, take a chance on something new, and find out what I could do.

So I took the leap and helped launch a venture studio.

I was employee number one, working alongside the founder to turn an ambitious idea into an actual business. There was no playbook.

One day I might be talking with potential customers, the next shaping a product, hiring a team, or figuring out something neither of us had ever done before.

I loved it.

We explored five ventures, testing ideas and making decisions about where to invest our time and resources. Three didn't make it past our go/no-go decisions. Two went on to raise meaningful investment capital and land national contracts.

It was a wild couple of years. Some ideas worked. Others didn't. I learned a ton, occasionally the hard way.

And I came away with an even bigger appetite for turning possibility into something real.

During my ten years at TRIMEDX, I had a front-row seat to a major enterprise digital transformation. I'd seen what worked, what didn't, and how hard it can be to change the way a large organization builds technology.

When MISO came calling, they were looking for someone who could bring an outside perspective to their own product transformation.

That sounded like a lot of fun.

I spent my first several months learning how MISO works, what drives the business, and how technology supports the mission of keeping the electric grid reliable.

And I started noticing something.

The organization had more than twenty strategic priorities. Those priorities multiplied as they moved through management layers, making it difficult for product teams to understand what mattered most and where to focus.

At the same time, product teams closely mirrored the organizational silos of the business. That created unnecessary dependencies and made it harder for teams to own meaningful outcomes.

The problem wasn't a lack of talented people or good intentions. The teams needed clearer direction and a better environment in which to deliver.

That led me to help drive a conversation about rethinking our product operating model, drawing on ideas from Team Topologies. I brought leaders together to examine team boundaries, dependencies, and how we could give teams more focus and autonomy.

The work reinforced something I've come to believe deeply: transformation isn't primarily about introducing new roles, processes, or frameworks.

It's about helping people see what's getting in the way, agree on what matters, and create a better way to work together.