Exclusive window into the world of an exceptional technology leader - Nick Hull, Head of IT Development, Mishcon de Reya

I sat down with Nick Hull this week, here's a 10 minute snapshot of our conversation which aims to shine the light onto his journey, experiences, and perspectives that have shaped his success.

Nick is now looking for his next opportunity so please like/share with your connections/colleagues/peers and reach out if there is a suitable leadership role within your organisation.

If you are starting to think about your next role or currently interviewing, worth thinking about how you would answer the questions below, good practice!

Q: How would you describe your role Mishcon?

A: It was the operational and strategic leadership of and active participation in a hybrid team of software and project delivery resources. In addition to the role of a traditional in-house development team, we covered end-to-end lifecycle of both ‘buy’ and ‘build’ projects. Designing and building app in some cases, working ion strategic goals, and vision, always.? Involved in everything from process improvement or re-engineering, transformation of product and platform selection. From concept, requirements and design, through the normal Agile delivery processes and onwards to QA and post-live support.?More recently, also the introduction of Low-Code solutions and a citizen developer community.?

Thinking about your time at Mishcon…..?

What are you most proud of??

Probably two things, above all else.?From a personal perspective, the team that I was able to build, how well we worked together, supported each other in good and bad times and achieved much.?

In terms of tangible deliverables, from being asked a hypothetical question of “Could we build a billing application internally?”, refusing to accept that it was too big a challenge or couldn’t be done. To being able to put together an amazing group of individuals to design, build and deliver such an app a couple of years later.? It stretched my knowledge and experience, as did it for each member of my team.? A different challenge to overcome each week, but something we conquered, and I am proud of the achievement and all that I learned in doing so, as well as the friendships that were formed from both adversity and the realisation of success.

How would you like to be remembered?

I think as someone who is dedicated to every project or task I’ve worked on and gives everything to accomplish goals.? Someone who is fairly modest and shies away from personal accolades, but instead to do this for the stakeholders I represent and work for. Also, as a leader who put people first and was there for my team members in good times and bad. Nudging in the right direction when they needed it, supporting them through difficulties and encouraging to develop and further their career and themselves.? Going beyond the call of duty for your team members, even when you don’t have to.

What would say are your noticeable accomplishments that demonstrate your leadership?

Whilst development and project delivery has been my most recent focus, I have always been able to use prior experience (in my case in service management and operational support) in positive ways.? There’s the old joke that operation teams measure time using a clock, whereas development teams use a calendar, and it’s easy to forget the immediate and urgent needs of our operational colleagues.? As a Tech leader in my last role, I always ensured that my dev, BA and QA resources were attuned to those needs.? This included setting up a dedicated Development Support Team, whose priority was fixing immediate or urgent bugs.? I took on the role of ITIL Change Manager, as a secondary function (to alleviate the pressure on my operational colleagues and facilitate change approvals and risk management) and, finally, I took on the role of coach and mentor to staff outside my team, to help them through operational and procedural difficulties and increase understanding.

On the more technical level, I am a big fan of proof of concepts, MVPs and evaluating new technologies, languages, methodologies or platform,? through practical approach, real-world examples and fostering technology change, innovation and transformations.

Can you provide an example of when you have implemented technology change and what was the impact?

During my early days of my Mishcon role, I spotted what could have been thought of as a ‘gap in the market’. I was hearing from a number of sources around the firm that it was impossible to assess, centrally, how busy (or not!) our lawyers were.? Also which areas, departments or teams were overloaded and which were under-utilised.?? Several teams had somewhat local ways of doing this, but nothing was shared.?? I suggested the concept of an application which would encourage all lawyers, at least once a week, to record their current capacity level as a simple Red, Yellow, Green status.? Red meaning, essentially “I’m over-loaded”, through to green which meant someone was actively seeking more work. On top of this input tool, we gave lawyers some statistical information on their current time recording, targets, recent work etc., to help jog their memories and log a more accurate assessment of their current capacity for work.

Then, to add the greatest value, we created a ‘collective’, summarised dashboard which allowed a wider view of the information, across the firm or broken down into departments, teams or other business units.? For the first time this enabled not only current status to be visible, but patterns.? Resources could be seconded from one less busy area to those with an influx of work.? It also made recruitment a little easier to control.? No longer would this be the default position, when now we could be aware of capacity availability elsewhere in the firm.

The app was built, end-to-end in about 6 months.? It had been live for around 2 years at the point that Lockdown hit, but needless to say it became a useful decision-making tool around redeployment and furlough decisions.? Quieter departments (e.g. Real Estate, where practically no transactions were taking place) could be temporarily seconded to busier departments, such as Employment and Insurance, who were experiencing significant demand on their time. It is an example of where an initial idea can flourish into something beneficial and thanks to the CTO at the time and Mishcon partners for indulging this idea and supporting its development.?

What’s your approach to leadership?

My approach is always People, Process, Technology, deliberately in that order.?

Get the right people in the right roles, give them structure and processes to work from and the technology will deliver more easily.? Generally, my CV will state that I am a confident, adaptable and effective people manager, leader and coach, with a track record of building, motivating and retaining successful, well-performing (culturally and geographically diverse) teams.?

I always feel that building a new team from scratch or augmenting an existing team is a little like working on a jigsaw puzzle, in that with each new piece (or in this case, person) added, the picture forms more clearly each time.??

Each team member is valuable and has a role to play, irrespective of experience or seniority. Your junior team members are your leaders of the future.? Don’t be afraid to promote from within.? I’ve had Service Desk analysts and apprentices who had gone on to be excellent developers and QAs, with encouragement and opportunity.? So, as a leader, I try to balance keeping focus on our duties, deliverables and targets, with not forgetting the people working hard to achieve them, both with me and for me.?

That means supporting them, both overall and on specific short-term issues or blockers, encouraging them, giving them opportunities to learn and mentoring or coaching them.?Generally, people learn new skills more by doing, than watching or hearing about it.? However big the project, you can always find a role for your more junior team members to participate, even if it is as simple of fixing a couple of cosmetic bugs.?? I strongly believe that no-one should be left behind and that career development and opportunities for existing team members are as important as recruitment and the opportunity to add new skills and experiences to any team. Also, give team members some of your time, don’t just assume they will magically grow in confidence and ability, without your small gestures of help.? For example, I always give my team members a dedicated slot in my calendar each week, fortnight, or month (depending on their need), so that they know they have a point in time (soon!) where they have my time and attention.? Of course, if they need it sooner or more urgently, that is also possible, but just having that was a re-assurance.? I remember, in my junior days, being told by a manager at the time that he was ‘much too busy’ to meet me and that’s a feeling of disappointment that’s difficult to forget when you are struggling with something.? On the other hand, I had some great mentors and it is those people I still remember positively, to this day.?

I always say to my team members, whilst you are in my team, I feel responsible for the development of your career and your skillsets.? If after 3 or so years you decided to depart for a better, more senior role, more opportunities, better salary, based in any way what you learned here. Whilst I’d obviously be sad at your departure, no-one would be prouder of your achievement!???

What’s your approach to stakeholder management/ engagement?

In my Head of Development role and working closely alongside business analysts and designers, I very much saw us as the representative and voice of stakeholders and, as such, wanted to represent them throughout the project, almost to be an evangelist for them.? The teams I build are to help form strategic relationships to support stakeholders and their key business initiatives, to take their steer and interpret that into feature design and delivery timescales, prioritisation and, of course, cost.

It’s not unknown for delivery teams to want to develop the ‘cool and exciting features’, possibly at the expense of what stakeholders actually need, so being their representative helps keep that essential focus.? Our role is to deliver efficiencies, things to make our stakeholders lives easier or to help an organisation be more compliant. Buy-in and sign off, also immensely important as well as extending the service beyond go-live, when they most need it.

How do you stay updated with the latest technology trends? What excites you?

I read a lot, use tools like LinkedIn Learning, Pluralsight and other online learning resources.? I follow a number of interesting companies or groups on LinkedIn and try to catch at least 2-3 hours of something new, each week, however busy I am.?

Generally, I start with a quick intro video on some new technology and depending on what it is and its potential impact, I delve deeper.? Actually, one of the things I miss from being in the office 5 days a week, is that 2 x 1 hour a day opportunity to read or watch something.

Why would someone hire you??

I’d like to think, based on the experiences I have had to date and the potential of things still to come from me.? I’ve worked across a number of roles, built teams, delivered projects, supported platforms, but my energy and appetite to learn more, both in terms of life and work experiences and, more tangibly, platforms and technologies, never reduces.? I am also a people-leader who will help take care, nurture, and support your most valuable asset as an employer.? Your people.?

Having taken a short career break, I’m fully recharged and ready to go, once again!

What’s your ideal role/ what are you looking for??

I’m looking for a new challenge, perhaps even a new a new industry, should the opportunity arise, although I’d like to feel my Legal technology experience could still be put to good use.

Somewhere where I can use my prior experience across managing both operationally and strategically.? Technology teams and associated delivery resources, critically though I am passionate about managing the delivery of programmes and projects and using industry standard methodology and standards that I’ve experienced.?

Of course, it’s a balance of wanting to bring something to a new role, alongside the need for continuous learning, career and improvement opportunities.?