How to transform teams like a Growth CTO - Mike Jones
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Show Notes
Ever wondered what it takes to turn a struggling tech team into a high-performing engine of growth?
Mike Jones has done it not once, but twice - taking uSwitch from a £5M acquisition to part of a £2B exit, and transforming Love Holidays into a travel powerhouse that sends more people abroad than Heathrow could handle in a month.
But Mike's superpower isn't just technical expertise - it's understanding how structure, communication and culture need to evolve as companies grow. A former ThoughtWorks consultant turned scale-up specialist, he's developed frameworks that help teams transition from scrappy startups to scalable enterprises while keeping their innovative spirit alive.
Key Talking Points
- The three critical pillars for scaling tech teams: organisation structure, business-focused communication, and letting people leave their mark
- How Mike transitioned from explaining technical concepts to business outcomes, leading to better exec team alignment
- Why autonomous, cross-functional teams built around long-lived problems outperform traditional functional structures
- Managing stress through exercise and breathwork while scaling companies
Links & Resources:
- Mike's LinkedIn
- Mike's Blog
- Book Recommendation: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Podcast Recommendation: Chris Williamson
- Referenced Tool: Obsidian for note-taking
Today's Exercise: The Leadership Journal
This note-taking system helps leaders stay on top of rapid context switching while extracting meaningful insights from day-to-day work. It combines bullet journaling with scheduled reflection time to turn chaos into clarity.
Steps to Apply:
- Schedule two daily 5-10 minute meetings with yourself - one to start and one to end the day
- Use bullet journaling symbols to categorize information (• for tasks, ▲ for delegated items, ○ for events)
- Review notes at day's end to extract tasks and action items
- Start each day by reviewing previous notes and intentionally choosing priorities
- Set aside 30 minutes weekly to synthesize key ideas into a "second brain" system
- Track evolution of ideas and decisions by maintaining searchable archives