After completing my Master's in Modern Historiography abroad, I returned to the Netherlands and made the switch to IT. Working in a fast-growing organisation, I gained a tremendous amount of experience in a short time: within a year, I was training new colleagues, overhauling our core process, and was part of the Agile transition team.

I was drawn to Agile from the start because its approach and philosophy are simple, with an eye for both technology and people. However, that doesn't mean simple is easy. When you start using Agile, it basically just exposes everything that isn't running smoothly—in your tech, processes, communication, or even your strategy. After that, you have to tackle these issues one by one. The challenge of getting from good ideas to concrete results has always interested me. It’s one thing to read it in a book, but how do you really make it work?

I now have 15 years of experience across diverse organisations and sectors: from government to scaleups, from healthcare to energy. In that time, I’ve been able to see what works and what doesn’t. I believe that an approach where you listen to people and involve them in the changes ultimately leads to the best result. You can have a brilliant process or proposal on paper, but in the end, other people have to make it work. If you don't take the time to explain the 'why' and the 'how' (more than once!), even the best ideas will often die a quiet death. By keeping a change as simple and focused as possible, and by implementing it in steps wherever you can, you dramatically increase the chance of success.