Hello. I’m Neil, a digital leader in London, working for the British Film Institute (BFI). This is my personal online journal and scrapbook. I’m glad you’re here.
Work
I lead happy, high-performing digital and technology teams, making products users love, in organisations with a public purpose.
Increasingly, I’d say I’m a digital-first COO, creating the conditions for service design and agile delivery to thrive.
Since 2022 I’ve been doing that at the BFI, working to make it digital-first by its centenary in 2033. It’s a bit of a dream job, having always loved film and the BFI Southbank (which happens to be the place my wife and I had our first date).
In my last job I shook things up at Croydon Council.
Before that, I helped revolutionise government services at GDS where I led GOV.UK from inception to its 7th birthday.
I cut my teeth in Whitehall web teams and Downing Street grid meetings, having started out in magazines.
Life
I live in Crystal Palace in south London with my wife and our two sons.
I prefer films, board games and rollercoasters to concerts, sports and parties.
I’m alcohol-free, having realised by 40 I’d had enough. I like to think my not drinking is a rebellious, counter-cultural act – just like young me thought drinking was in the first place.
I recently discovered most people can see pictures in their mind. Incredible! I’ve never been able to do that – a condition called aphantasia – and as a result only dimly recall past experiences – a condition called severely deficient autobiographical memory (SDAM).
I think that’s partly why I’m into things that are a bit twisted, dark, surprising or subversive – because they’re more vivid and memorable.
I grew up on a farm in Devon, and lived in Nottingham for 4 years before settling in London.
This site
This is a personal blog.
I post here (more or less weekly) about what I’ve been doing, thinking and learning (and forgetting!) – including tangential stuff about work. But I save proper work stuff for proper work channels. Here’s more on what week notes are and why I write them.
I started this current blog in October 2023, but used to have one called Mission Creep at this domain from 2008-2011 (archived here). I might resurrect selected posts at some point. From 2012-2023 my blogging shifted over to work channels at GDS and Croydon Council and my personal stuff was all on Twitter and Insta. The demise of Twitter brought a resurgence of personal blogging and indie websites and I’m here for it.
Other past writing and talks
- Croydon Digital (now archived – I’ve reposted a selection here)
- Medium
- The Londonist
- Mind the Product
- GDS podcast
- GDS blog
- Inside GOV.UK
- Inside Inside Gov
- Mission Creep
I’m proud to be mentioned in:
- Digital Transformation at Scale, Greenway, Terrett et al.
- Sense & Respond, Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
And to have written the foreword for Content Design (Second Edition), Sarah Richards & Rachel Edwards.
You can connect with me on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Facebook, Goodreads, Letterboxd and Boardgamegeek. (I have dormant accounts on Twitter/X and Mastodon, ignore those)
If you’re wondering, the OJ in the URL stands for my middle names, Owen James.
Subscribe/say hello
My email is neillyneil at gmail, and you can subscribe below 👇