Is it rude to make a profit from your friends?


Lots of blinking stickers next to each other.

You're in a restaurant with a group of friends. The waiter won't let you split the bill, so you offer to pay for it on your card and have your friends send you their share. How much would you charge them for that service? That sounds absurd, right? OK, you might agree to split the […]

Continue reading →

These are no longer "unprecedented times"


A man angrily shouting on the phone.

It has been a full calendar year since my office sent me home for the last time. A few weeks later, lockdown was announced. For years, the biggest lie from customer service call centres was "Your call is important to us!" Then, a few years ago, it became "Due to unusually high call volumes, it […]

Continue reading →

Interesting Failures - Group Calling


Another in an occasional series of blog posts where I discuss products I've worked on which failed. It boiled down to this. Was there a way we could make normal people want to be on a conference call with their family and friends? Let me explain. ARPU - Average Revenue Per User - that's all […]

Continue reading →

Interesting Failures - Visual IVRs


Another in an occasional series of blog posts where I discuss products I've worked on which failed. It was the early 2000s and the large mobile telco I worked for had just spent billions of pounds on a 3G license. 3G was the future! Sure, faster data would be nice, but the real money was […]

Continue reading →

Astrology For Businesses


A circular zodiac chart.

A few years ago, my work sent me on a training course. It involved the usual things, trust exercises, team bonding, and personality profiles. I filled in a few forms, answered some questions, and the very professional looking lady marked up my paper and said, "I see that you're a Scorpio. That means you're focused […]

Continue reading →