The book
The Good Consultant
Most consulting books begin when the contract is signed. This one begins much earlier — with a referral, a first conversation, a difficult question, a client who isn't quite sure what problem they're actually trying to solve.
The manuscript follows the complete lifecycle of a consulting relationship: from the referral and first conversation, through understanding what to promise, shaping and winning the work, joining the client, creating change, leaving well, and building the reputation that leads to whatever comes next. It answers one question: how do you become someone people trust with difficult technology decisions? Not through theory — through stories, observations, principles, approaches, and reflection.
It isn't a consulting handbook, a technology book, or a management book. Consulting is simply the environment where judgement is tested every day — the same judgement that creates confidence, navigates uncertainty, improves conversations, and leaves organisations stronger than they were found. It's equally for founders, CTOs, architects, investors, and board members as it is for consultants. Reading it now means watching it get written.
Why I'm writing this
After twenty-five years of consulting, I've realised that the most valuable lessons were never the frameworks, technologies or methodologies. They were the observations that quietly changed how I think. This book is my attempt to capture those observations while I'm still learning them myself.
Most chapters follow this rhythm. Frameworks — DDD, Domain Storytelling, Event Storming, Team Topologies, Wardley Mapping, AI — show up in the Approach, but only ever as supporting actors. They're never the main character.
A defining idea
Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
Good consultants aren't hired because they already know the answer. They're trusted because they know how to discover it. Consultants don't carry a collection of answers — they carry a toolbox for navigating uncertainty: Event Storming, Domain Storytelling, Wardley Mapping, Team Topologies, facilitation, architecture, observation, interviews, experiments, AI, pair programming. None of these are answers. They're ways of discovering better ones, and knowing the difference is one of the quieter skills this book keeps coming back to.
The hidden thread
Every stage of consulting introduces a healthy tension.
The book doesn't resolve these. It explores how experienced consultants navigate them — because judgement is the ability to hold a tension well, not eliminate it.
Field Notes
Observations, not opinions.
Throughout the manuscript you'll find recurring Field Notes — short, standalone observations gathered across decades of consulting, and three years of deliberate pair programming with teams across different organisations. They're not tips, and they're not lessons. They're things I noticed about trust, leadership, behaviour, engineering culture, collaboration, and judgement, offered as observations rather than conclusions.
One of the strongest predictors of a successful pairing session wasn't technical ability. It was whether both people left believing they had contributed something and learned something.
Read the chapter this is from →
Currently in progress
Why They Called You, Fire Seeking, Storytelling, Kind Isn't the Same as Good & Why Good Developers Behave Badly
The first five chapters to reach a full draft — why the invitation itself is worth reading before the problem, becoming curious before becoming comfortable, why the best stories help people see reality for themselves rather than explain it to them, why being liked and being good aren't the same job, and why developer dysfunction is usually a systems problem wearing a people problem's clothes. The rest of the manuscript is still mostly notes; this is where the writing is happening right now.
The manuscript
A journey in six parts.
Not a finished table of contents — a living list, organised the way the book itself is organised: as the lifecycle of a consulting relationship, from the referral that starts it to the reputation that outlives it. Some chapters are a full draft, most are still notes and an intention.
Part I — Before the Contract
Great consulting begins before the proposal.
This part follows an opportunity from the first conversation through to shaping an engagement that both sides can responsibly commit to. It isn't about sales technique — it's about creating confidence without manufacturing certainty. How it ends here is also, in a sense, where the book ends: the reputation built by finishing one engagement well is usually why somebody starts the next conversation.
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Early draft
Why They Called You
The First Conversation
What are they really asking for, and why are you in the room?
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Early draft
Fire Seeking
How do I notice the problems everyone has learned to stop seeing?
- Early draft
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Promises and Guarantees
Sales & Practice
What should we promise, and what can we genuinely stand behind?
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The Discovery Before Discovery
Shaping the Engagement
How do we know what we're selling before we've done the work required to know?
Part II — Joining
Earn the right to influence.
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On Joining
What do the first ninety days actually reveal, if you're paying attention?
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Trust Is Your First Deliverable
Trust
How do I earn trust before trying to create change?
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Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
How do I stay useful when I don't yet know the answer?
- Early draft
Part III — Understanding
See before you solve.
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Curiosity Never Expires
Curiosity
How do I keep noticing, once I already know enough to stop?
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The Fastest Route to the Wrong Answer
Problem Space
How do I avoid solving the wrong problem?
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Every Organisation Tells Itself a Story
The story a company tells about itself shapes which facts get repeated and which get quietly dropped.
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Simple Is Never Simple
Simplicity
Why is "just make it simple" the hardest advice to follow?
Part IV — Helping People Think
The consultant doesn't own the conversation. They improve it.
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Designing Better Conversations
Facilitation
How do I help people think together?
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Finding the Space to Contribute
How do I know where my contribution actually helps?
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Being Right Isn't Enough
Influencing
Why doesn't being right change anyone's mind?
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Someone Owns This Decision
Decisions & Accountability
Who actually owns this decision, and do they know it?
Part V — Creating Change
Ideas matter only if organisations can absorb them.
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Choosing When Every Option Looks Plausible
Solution Space
How do I choose, when every option looks reasonable?
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Early draft
Why Good Developers Behave Badly
Developer Dysfunction
What makes good engineers develop bad habits?
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Pair Programming in the Age of AI
What happens when your pair is a model, not a person?
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The Last Competitive Advantage
AI & Judgement
What remains uniquely human?
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What Organisations Learn to Tolerate
Toxicity
Why do healthy-looking teams quietly tolerate what's hurting them?
Part VI — Leaving
The engagement ends. The relationship doesn't.
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Leaving People Stronger
What's the only measure of a good engagement that matters a year later?
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On Leaving
Why does the way you leave say more than the way you arrived?
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Reputation Compounds
What turns a finished engagement into somebody else's referral?
This isn't a book about becoming indispensable.
It's about helping people become more capable, more confident, and better equipped to make decisions long after you've left.