How I Solve Problems
01. Define the problem
Most hard problems don’t fail because teams lack ideas.
They fail because the problem isn’t clearly defined, the decisions aren’t aligned, or the process makes progress feel like swimming in jeans.
So I start by slowing things down just enough to understand what’s actually at stake.
What is the business really trying to change?
What decision needs to be made--and who actually owns it?
What’s getting in the way?
Often, the thing we’re asked to make isn’t the thing that will move the business forward. Choosing the right problem early saves time, money, and frustration later.
Sometimes that leads to a campaign.
Sometimes it leads to a product shift, a new system, or a different way of working.
ESPN Testimonial
02. Creating the right conditions
Pressure doesn’t unlock better thinking. Safety, curiosity, and fun do. (Yes, fun.)
When people aren’t afraid of being wrong, they say the thing that needs to be said. When defensiveness drops, perspectives and patterns show up faster, and teams actually align.
I co-founded Funworks around this belief. After years inside agencies and organizations, I kept seeing the same thing: smart people, good ideas, terrible momentum. Not because anyone was incompetent—but because the process made progress way harder than it needed to be.
Funworks became a set of workshops, systems, and ways of working designed to lower fear, raise engagement, and help teams align quickly without losing the soul of the ideas.
Later, I saw the same friction show up in feedback. Great ideas slowed down by hesitation, politics, and the universal fear of accidentally offending someone three levels up. So we built Rally—a real-time tool to create safer, more structured feedback, align teams faster, and keep momentum moving.
The goal wasn’t just better creative.
It was more momentum.
(Or Funmentum, as we called it.)
03. Connecting the dots
Strategy, story, and execution succeed or fail together.
Strategy without story doesn’t stick.
Story without strategy doesn’t perform.
Execution without alignment doesn’t scale.
I help teams keep all three connected.
Some ideas start as instinct. Others start as insight. The best work gets better through close partnership between creativity and strategy, until what’s interesting becomes effective. And what’s effective stays interesting.
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