Ben Holliday

This is my blog where I’ve been writing for 20 years. You will find posts about digital transformation, design and leadership. You can also find me on Bluesky and LinkedIn. In 2022 I published a book for TPXimpact, Multiplied.

Design

Van Gogh, Sunflowers

How do you see and respond to the world? A story that’s relevant to the question of AI and creativity. Read more

Good design is structure for the work

Revisiting hypothesis-based approaches and the importance of ideas that end with a question mark. Read more

You are here… or they are here?

How it’s wired into us that we’re the centre of the map. Read more

Technology as the infrastructure of everything

Understanding DOGE and why organisations still need to reset their relationships with technology. Read more

The messy middle

Why change is hard. Exploring how it involves understanding people and team dynamics to try and unlock progress and new ways of doing things. Read more

Digital in an AI-era

Breaking down organisational challenges and responding to change with technology. Read more

The importance of the stories we create for ourselves

Philippe Petit’s World Trade Center high-wire stunt in 1974 and the stories we take as true. Read more

Test and learn in UK government

A response to Pat McFadden’s ‘test and learn’ speech. Read more

Smallness

Exploring why it’s possible to grow an organisation while staying beautifully small. Read more

Analogue because of digital

The problem with the language of ‘analogue to digital’ when we have a health system that’s already full of technology. Read more

Making as a form of thinking

What we can learn from the work of Antony Gormley, British sculptor and artist. Read more

Bets on digital transformation for 2024

Exploring my predictions for the coming year in digital transformation. Read more

Optionality and digital transformation

Exploring the importance of test and learn approaches and the attitudes we have towards failure. Read more

An example of ‘good’ UX not being good enough

A story about upgrading my mobile phone contract with EE. Read more

Hold it lightly

The importance of caring deeply about your work, but learning how to hold that responsibility lightly. Read more

Putting value on design time

How we need to value design time over the outputs of design. Read more

2 years later and a book announcement

Ready for everything, or ready for anything?

Why it’s not smart to design for everything. Read more

Sinking sand

How often is it that we’re not able to see where we’ll get stuck in our work? Read more

Could-be-anywhere-ness

A story that starts with planning decisions in Coventry, and the problem of design losing any sense of the places and communities it represents. Read more