Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands
I've spent 25+ years operating at the intersection of software engineering and business strategy — helping companies close the gap between ambitious goals and the messy reality of turning them into reality. Most companies know what to do. Few actually do it. That gap is where my work lives. It led me to write Moving the Needle with Lean OKRs (Business Expert Press, 2021), which has since found its way into boardrooms and engineering teams across Europe. Lean OKRs are my core instrument for strategy execution — a measurement discipline that connects business outcomes directly to the work engineering teams do every day. I also co-authored Chapter 3 of the Research Handbook on Project Performance — making the case for Lean OKRs as a value creation model for software product companies, as an alternative to traditional project management. These days I work as an Architect of Digital Transformation at Xebia, where I help organizations translate strategy into engineering decisions — including the teams now figuring out what AI actually changes about how they work, decide, and measure outcomes. If you're working on strategy execution, outcome-driven ways of working, or making sense of AI beyond the hype — let's talk.
Helping Surepay with Fraud Product Vision, Strategy and building Product Development capabilities. Coaching leaders and product management.
AI is not a strategy. Having a plan to change your organisation around it — that's a strategy. At Xebia, I work with leadership teams on exactly that: shaping AI and digital strategy, building the execution model to back it up, and guiding the organisational change that makes it real. Hands-on, no-nonsense work with CTOs, engineering leads, and the teams doing the building. Author of Moving the Needle with Lean OKRs.
Moving the Needle with Lean OKRs: Setting Objectives and Key Results to Reach Your Most Ambitious. https://www.movingtheneedle.com/book
Keynotes, podcasts, private exec sessions on strategy execution, OKRs that stick, and operating cadence.
I help software & digital leaders install a day-agnostic weekly rhythm that connects strategy to delivery. Services: - Needle Focus™ (½ day): executive snapshot, readiness decision, 30-day route, Needle Leader Certification™ included. - Needle Launch™ (≈2 weeks): two live weekly reviews, one lever (habit or experiment), dashboard that people use, Evidence or Elimination™. - Needle Loop License™ (annual): monthly clinic, quarterly audit with Needle Score, template updates, Captain/Coach recert. Add-ons: Move-Ready Foundations™, Needle Academy, Support Credits. How we work Fixed scope. Fixed fee. Your tools (Sheets/Notion/Slack/Teams). No weekly DMs.
Phil Mander & Bart den Haak discuss a wide range of topics relating to modern software engineering ranging from strategy and leadership to Extreme Programming practices LINK: https://anchor.fm/extreme-adventures/
Helped the product org with the development and release of their Partner services program and preparation of the global rollout with UK en US.