A thousand thanks and one jump

Last week I left the Energy Systems Catapult after almost a decade. Next week I start at Indra Renewable Technologies , a tech start-up with big ambitions. The break between has given me a chance to reflect.

Here are 10 things I've learnt from my last 10+ years at work. It grew from 10 bullets to a 10 minute read. It explains what I've learnt and thanks the 1,000s who helped me on the way.

1) Climate Change starts with a D

It takes decades to commercialize new energy inventions. Luckily we already have all the key tech we need to tackle the Climate Crisis. Back in 2008 the CCC set it out neatly. "All we have to do" is generate zero carbon electricity and use it to power our lives.

At the time I was working at Orange on products and services that were to transform the telecoms sector. One thing in particular - the launch of the iPhone - sticks in my mind. I know this sounds weird but to me it seemed to change everything without doing anything new.

Let me try to explain. The sector had been launching most of the key techs for some time. Orange's clever designers had even created its own Appstore ( Alexander Sanchez , Karl Humphreys , Andrew McGrath , Clive Grinyer ). The critical difference was Design: the way Apple put the tech together, not the tech itself.

And in that moment, I realised Design was also the key to solving Climate Change.

2) Career change is uncomfortable

The trouble was I was working in telecoms, not on Climate Change. I'd spent five years switching roles to land my perfect job. I was whizzing to Paris twice a month on the Eurostar and had a drawer full of snazzy new mobile phones to test. Yet I felt a bit lost. Work seemed to lack purpose.

I dropped to a 9 day fortnight and spent the 10th volunteering to try out alternative jobs. I'm still grateful to Andy Brown (my boss back then) for giving me that time and to social entrepreneurs Faisel Rahman OBE , Aaron Patrick Barbour and Craig Davey for "hiring" me.

I was convinced. Climate change was the challenge for me and Design was the key to tackling it. The problem was, no one seemed to share my view. Worse still, there was no simple path to changing career. I knew we'd need a sea of talented people to solve the problem, but the road ahead looked very bumpy!

The only route I could find was to go back to college and start again, but I felt scared to leave my cosy, corporate job. Spurred on by my friends and family, I took a deep breath and went for it. Like countless others, the 英国帝国理工学院 MSc in Environmental Tech was my first step. Thanks to great teachers like Mike Tennant and class mates like Sean Frisby , Vanessa O'Connell and Matthew Lynch I got through it with a smile.

Years later looking back, I'm so glad I did. If you're convinced you should change career, but held back by fear, my advice is go for it. As my wife told me, "you regret the things you don't do, not the things you do".

Thankfully there are now lots of resources available online: climate-job-sites, blog on how to turn your career green, and recruiters like Climate17, Climate People and Green Jobs Board (health warning, I've not tried them myself).

3) Step back, look up and get more done

As I jumped the global economy crashed and my first daughter arrived. It was 2008 and business was more focused on survival than climate change. So I turned to the public sector for work.

I was lucky to start out on the bottom rungs of the best ladders at the Climate Change Committee and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero . I learnt how policy can drive (or block) climate action (thanks to generous teachers: David Kennedy, Mike Thompson , David Joffe , Emily Beynon , Steve Smith , Kiran Sura , Benjamin Combes , Eric Ling , Alex Kazaglis , Claire Thornhill , Owen Bellamy , Liz Owen , Samuel Thomas , Stephen Elderkin , Jon Saltmarsh , Hunter Danskin - and so many more)

Then I found a public-private partnership called the ETI. It was figuring out how tech innovation could cut carbon more quickly. It sounded like the perfect place to apply my past experience. Somehow I convinced Andrew Haslett I could help decarbonise heat and joined a talented team including Jo Coleman OBE , Scott Milne , Liam Lidstone and many more.

When I arrived the Chief Engineer, John Batterbee , sat me down. "Decarbonising heat isn't that hard a technical challenge", he said. "After all we've put men on the moon! First, you need to find out what people actually want from low carbon heating."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

So he explained. "With automotive, we know exactly what consumers value. We know what they will pay for each second you can take off the 0-60, the colour of the paint, the covers of the seats. We need that kind of information. We need to understand what consumers want from low carbon heating."

It made sense to understand the problem properly before we tried to solve it, but I felt stunned. I'd worked on heating for years and no one had ever asked what consumers actually wanted. I'd hoped the engineers would have solutions ready to test. I hadn't realised they needed me to specify what good looked like first. I'd moved my whole family to start a job that was far tougher than I'd expected. Then my second daughter arrived and the pressure built.

I was sleep deprived and stressed but not alone. Working with Rebecca Sweeney , Gareth Haines and a crack team we set out on a 2 year odyssey to understand home heating. We used research and monitoring to look beyond what people said to see what they were actually doing. Then we used models to relate their behaviour to the amount of energy they used.

We found out what consumers needed from low carbon heating, but I'd found it hard to jump from expert to manager. I spent too much time scrutinising specialists and too little looking at the big picture. In future I realised I would have to step back from the detail and enable others to do their best work.

Thanks to Tadj Oreszczyn , Sebastian Junemann , @Gary Raw, Andrew Mellor (especially for that tough conversation), sarah harrison (for keeping me on track afterwards), Sarah Deasley , Rokia Raslan (for introducing me to #agile), Victoria Haines , Val Mitchell , Gareth Morrell , Lauren Kahn , Mehul Kotecha and many more.

4) Give up control

People had no idea what their heating cost or what they found comfortable. That made it impossible for them to tell us what they needed from a new heating system. Whatever they wanted they found it very hard to get.

Some turned heating down to try and save money, but ended up getting ill or causing damp. Others left it on so they didn't have to walk into a cold home, but spent more than they wanted. Nobody knew how to use their controls to get the best out of their heating system.

Then it hit me. If we gave people better controls the way they used them would show us what they wanted from low carbon heating. There was one snag and it was a big one. Heating controls manufacturers wouldn't let households share this data with us.

So, we raised funding to build our own. It took a while, but we got there. Then we built a control system and used it to figure out exactly what people wanted from their heating (thanks to Steve C. , Steve Haigh , Martin Dinnage , Tim Ensor , Jody Osborn , Simon Rubens , Raina Brody , Rafik S. , Sam Watkins , Chris Harrison and many more). The system worked so well people wanted to keep it, so we let them (see 9).

On a personal level, I'd given away far more than heating controls. I'd delegated detailed decisions about how to design and deliver the system. This felt tough at the time, but ultimately led me down a new path (see 10).

5) The rebirth of cool (or comfort)

We learnt how to show people the costs of heating their homes in different ways (with Claire Rowland ):

• Whole home, hot all day for one price;
• Some rooms, warm for some of the day for another price.

This changed them completely. Most went from having no interest in their heating to tinkering with the settings to get it just right. Quite clearly, people wanted to control how much they spent getting comfortable. They wanted to get as much value as they could for the money they spent.

So, we wondered, why couldn't people buy their Heat as a Service? The level of service they bought would reveal how much they valued their heating. That would tell service providers exactly what they wanted from low carbon heating. When their boiler blew, they'd be happy to go low carbon, as long as they got the heat service they wanted for a fair price. After all, if you enjoy a meal, you don't ask what oven it was cooked in!

We felt excited about how energy services could transform the energy sector. We could see exactly how they could give people the heat they wanted at home, without the carbon.

Sadly our enthusiasm was not shared. Everywhere we turned we met resistance. We thought we'd never get the chance to move the idea forward. Then we moved to the Energy Systems Catapult and we found a way.

6) Show don't tell

Over the next few years we overcame various objections to Heat as a Service.

First, people said it was a nice idea, but would never work in practice. So, we built a prototype that showed how it could work. Then, they said it could never work commercially. So, we sold it to homes at a profit and helped businesses develop their own offers. Next, they said it wouldn't increase uptake of low carbon heating. So, we showed it made people hundreds of times more open to owning a heat pump. Finally, they said people on low incomes couldn't afford it. So, we showed how it could target support to help people out of fuel poverty (see 8).

As ever it was a huge team effort. Edmund Hunt converted the idea from a PowerPoint slide to a real service. Stuart Cooper designed a beautiful experience. Jody Osborn , Amal Anaam , Tom Furlong and Shenay Kinyok shared users' feedback. Chris Gedrim and Matt W. put it on mobile phones. Steve C. , Rob Adams , Jack Fraser and the devs got it built. Denis Richard and Emma Harrison protected us so we could be creative.

I publicised the findings, wrote blogs, spoke on podcasts, presented it to the UK's Climate Assembly and appeared on TV (thanks for the opportunities Guy Newey , Rebecca Willis , Nathan Gambling , Stuart Brennan ). And slowly the world started to listen, explore it and invest in it.

No one will believe in your ideas if you don't. But belief is not enough. To convince others, I learnt you have to make the story interesting. Then they will listen to the facts so you can win both hearts and minds.

7) Better together

Lots changed when I moved to the Energy Systems Catapult . We went from a drab business park in the sticks to a plush, penthouse office in the city. From working on one mega-project to over a hundred smaller ones in a year. From working with a few managers in London to innovators across the UK.

I had a team to build, a revenue target to hit and a budget to manage. We went from ivory tower spectators to delivery partners with a mission. And our numbers were good. Our revenue went from nothing to ￡600k, to ￡900k, to ￡1m, to over ￡5m.

At my leaving drinks my CEO, Guy Newey , asked me a great question, "Looking back, what are you most proud of?" I thought back through the last decade. The start-ups we've supported, the impact we've had and the memories flooded past me.

Brainstorming with my first team-mate Kathryn Williams , feeling small outside the mammoth NEC. Recruiting her mat cover Rebecca Wilkes , neither Kathryn nor I quite believing our luck. The team growing gradually, sub-teams forming. Specialists becoming leaders, joiners becoming leavers.

My answer to Guy's question was easy, "our team", I replied.

I would have achieved nothing alone. It's been a privilege to bring such a diverse bunch together. What a fantastic group they are and what brilliant things they'll achieve. Thanks for everything: Alistair Fox , Amal Anaam , Bethany Mabbutt , Danica Caiger-Smith , Dave J. , Debjit Aikat , Edmund Hunt , Gabriele Faulhaber , Harris Qureshi , Ian Jones , Irene San Jose Garcia , Jody Osborn , Judith Lombardo , Rebecca Wilkes , Rob Adams , Rose Chard , Rowanne Fleck , Sam Watkins , Stephen Skippon , Dr. Stephen Worrall , Stuart Cooper , Tanya Beri , Tom Furlong , Vinícius Juliani Pereira, Vivien Kizilcec , William Baker . Thanks also Eric Brown and Richard Halsey for the chance to lead and for teaching me how to do it well.

8) Fair Future

The team were building a smart zero carbon future, but we worried it might not work for everyone. In particular, Rose Chard explained, millions can't access the internet, don't have the money for low carbon kit or permission to install it in their homes. How would they thrive in a Net Zero world?

So I helped Rose Chard 's create Catapult's Fair Future Programme. Then I changed our team's mission to "help everyone enjoy a net zero future". It wasn't always easy, but over the years we've had some success.

We ended up working with every player in the energy system: BEIS, Ofgem, Citizens Advice, energy networks (SSEN, WWU, UKPN), energy suppliers (e.g. EDF), innovators ( Kensa , Sero ), the NHS (thanks to Neil Penny, Hein le Roux , Amy Fellows and colleagues) and many more.

On a personal level I've found it humbling to hear how vulnerable people can struggle to get the energy they need. We can't get to net zero without bringing everyone with us. Innovation can help low carbon policies, products and services work for all. I'm confident that the work we started will continue to grow and grow.

Thanks Rose Chard for making it happen and Philip New , Eric Brown , Nick Winser CBE FREng , Laura Sandys CBE and Guy Newey for giving us the chance to try.

9) Ideas are cheap

In 2019 I travelled to Manchester to talk to Ofgem about how data could put people at the heart of the energy system. I was very nervous. Mary Starks and Martin Cave and others welcomed me with smiles and so I began.

Business, I explained, could use data to design low carbon energy services people love. Ofgem could use data to target support at those who need help most.

People seemed excited.

Of course, none of this will happen, I continued, until the energy market changes. But there's a ‘Chicken and egg’ problem. Civil servants can't design policies for businesses that don't yet exist. And innovators can't design business models for policies that don't yet exist.

The mood dipped.

Don't worry, I smiled, we have a solution. We gave people smart controls creating a Living Lab of smart homes. It's there for the public and private sectors to work together to crack this chicken and egg problem.

The talk went well and I left excited about the future, but policy-makers never used our Living Lab. It's now 2022 and as we can all see, the energy retail market is in bad shape.

Since then, the Living Lab has come on leaps and bounds. Under Rebecca Sweeney 's and Marc Brown 's leadership it's grown from 100 homes to over 1,000. It has heat pumps, EVs and all manner of smart kit (thanks to Matthew Wagstaff , Rowanne Fleck , Tara Dunning , Jim McHugh , Claire Rowland and many more). Together, we've used it to help many businesses design better low carbon innovations.

It's still there and I think it's still a great idea to use it to design a better energy retail market. Who knows perhaps the next wave of government policy makers will agree. Regardless, what I've learnt is that ideas are cheap. It's making them happen that counts.

10) Start by starting

Over the years there have been lots of ups and downs. Many mistakes, dead ends and wrong turns. In my darkest hours, a few things have sustained me most.

People power

It's been a joy to nurture talent and enable others to grow. Rebecca Wilkes , Kathryn Williams and Gabriele Faulhaber built a consumer panel from scratch. Rob Adams moved from managing projects to designing experiences. Danica Caiger-Smith switched sectors, pithed to big audiences and led a team. Irene San Jose Garcia weaved data science into our most exciting (and top secret) projects.

Great things happened once I set out an inspiring vision and gave people the freedom to deliver it. They started blending complementary skills in new ways. Empowered people have achieved more than even they dreamed was possible.

Lean into lean

I remember briefing c.30 engineers at the kick off to our smart heating controls project. The project was late and the team worried they wouldn't be ready by winter. My boss John Batterbee asked me to cut the scope in half. Exasperated I had a go then sat down.

The engineers were still worried so my boss asked me to half the scope again. I was furious and terrified. I'd spent months defining the scope. It wasn't my fault we were late. Why should I have to cut the scope and how could I know what to leave in?

But it worked. I kept the simplest, most critical features and we shipped on time. I learnt a key lesson: test your key assumptions as soon as possible.

Thanks to Daniel Kirk for the reminder. It's helped me enable Edmund Hunt to build ZeroCarbon.Vote and Rose Chard to pilot Warmth on Prescription.

Be the change

Catapult's Energy Launch Pad team ( Paul Jordan , Eric Appleton , Neil Whittaker ) run an incubator that helps low carbon start ups grow. I've met many of them over the years. Every discussion I've had has left me energised by their journey.

They remind me of my first job at a start up after college. I joined a brilliant team of engineers, designers, user researchers and strategists embedding technology into everyday objects ( Bill Sharpe , Kenton O'Hara , Axel Unger , Simon Poole , Michael Measures , Gerald D. , James Martin , Tim Capon , Peter Macer , Richard Harper and more). I learnt so much and had a blast.

It's more urgent now than ever that we all do what we can to cut carbon emissions. To succeed we need to take a few risks, suspend disbelief and try what might seem impossible. So, intoning Tom Whitwell 's brilliant mantra I've decided to start by starting. It's time for me to stop giving directions and jump back behind the wheel.

My next stop on the road to Net Zero is to help John Fox + co power the switch to EVs. I can't wait to get started. Hope to see you on the journey.