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Testing smart, not hard - Quality assurance for lean teams
Get your product out there in stealth mode and test it before launching into mega marketing. In the early days of ionMy, the temptation was to shout from the rooftops. We’d won awards for our business plan, we had an idea we believed in, and we thought the world was ready. So, when the chance came up for a paid spot on Channel 9’s Your Business Success TV show, we jumped. There we were: a TV crew, a glamorous morning show, and our baby software being broadcast across the nation. It felt exciting, like we had arrived. The problem? We hadn’t. The software was still too green. Clients hadn’t yet shaped it with real-world use. The marketing splash cost a fortune and returned little in tangible results. Looking back, it was far too early for that kind of exposure.
The founder’s balancing act - Managing projects without losing your mind
One of the hardest parts of founding a software company is realising that you cannot, and should not do everything yourself. Yet most founders try. We become salesperson, project manager, chief troubleshooter, HR, sometimes even bookkeeper. At first, it feels heroic. Then it becomes exhausting. In my early days, I prided myself on spinning multiple plates at once. Running client projects by day, wrangling coders at night, attending industry events on weekends, all while trying to raise a family and build a product from scratch. I wore “Cyclone Sonja” as a nickname with pride because yes, I did storm through problems at pace. But even cyclones lose energy eventually. The truth is: you can’t do it all. Nor should you.
From Idea to impact - Turning vision into software
When I was first sketching out the bones of what became ionMy, it wasn’t glamorous. There were three of us around the kitchen table, a government grant of $10,000, and a business plan presented with laundry bags full of fake money. Our first “server” sat under my desk. We didn’t have all the answers, but we had enough to get moving. That’s the real truth about software: you can’t wait until it’s perfect. Software is never perfect. If you stall until every feature is mapped and every scenario is resolved, you’ll never ship anything. In our case, the first version was clunky. It started with HR. Later it became compliance, governance, and risk. And later still it grew into something award-winning. But that only happened because we took that scrappy, imperfect first step. Clients don’t shape your vision in a vacuum—they shape it through use. By getting the product into their hands, we found out what mattered, what needed to change, and what could be dropped. My advice? Start where you are, with what you have. Don’t wait for the grand unveiling. Start small. Adjust. Move forward. That’s how ideas become impact.
Why your customer is more than just CX - lessons from Australian startups
Customer experience (CX) is a common rallying cry. But, as technology companies scale, a narrow focus on CX risks missing the bigger picture because your customer is more than just a recipient of experiences. They are a dynamic, evolving partner in your business journey. For startups aiming to build lasting value, it’s time to expand the conversation beyond CX, and rethink what “customer-centric” truly means. It's time to treat your customers as more than just users: time to make them part of your story, and build a business and community that lasts.
Why every software project needs a pro on the team
In software, shortcuts aren’t savings. They’re often the seeds of failure. It's why having an experienced professional developer on your team is not a luxury. In fact, it’s essential if you want your project delivered on time, on budget, and built to last. A professional developer isn’t the cheapest line item in your budget, but they’re often the most cost-effective, because the only thing more expensive than hiring expertise is paying for failure.
Scaling fintech - How customer support can drive your product
In the world of financial services and fintech, trust is everything, but you only get one shot. It's why having a strong relationship with customer support and operations, isn't just a "nice to have", it's a core part of your product discovery. They should be woven into every stage of the product lifecycle, from initial discovery to final delivery. The way you handle them is just as important as the new features you build.
Building AI solutions that actually deliver
AI is the new shiny tool that every organisation feels compelled to bolt onto their strategy. Boards are asking, “What are you doing about AI?”. Founders are promising investors that they’ll “be AI-driven”. However, AI is not the solution, it’s a tool. The challenge and opportunity is to identify small, high friction workflows where AI can eliminate pain and drive measurable outcomes. Nail those and you’ll unlock compounding value over time.
What Aussie software needs to learn about the US market
Australia produces world-class software talent. What we do not yet produce, at scale, is world-class software exports. Our startup ecosystem is increasingly productive at the early stage. Yet, we have limited international revenue concentration, underdeveloped go-to-market capability, low exposure to US-based customers and a tendency to treat “product” as a collection of features. This needs to change if we want to build businesses ready for the US market.
5 tips on making the leap into technical leadership
Technology career paths aren’t always the same, but most of us start out as juniors taking small steps forward as we learn our craft as developers, technicians, testers and more. Then one day, with no fanfare we find that we’re a senior member of the team sharing our wisdom and experience with the new juniors. It’s a very natural transition for most. And then comes the jump to leadership where decisions need to be made, people managed and far less time is spent being functional. This is a far harder leap for many. Here are five things every technical person needs to understand if they want to make the leap into real leadership.
AI vs entry-level jobs
Everyone seems to be confidently predicting the future at the moment, and it is all about AI taking away jobs. You can pick any industry and alarmist headlines seem to be everywhere you look. But I am not sure that this is the whole story. I wonder, are we really thinking about this correctly? Where is the ambition? Where is the positivity?
Towards an innovation strategy that puts firms, users and places at the centre
Australia’s innovation debate has drifted towards an overly narrow frame. The Strategic Examination of Research and Development (SERD), Ambitious Australia, is a welcome intervention. It addresses real weaknesses in funding architecture, foundational research capacity and institutional coordination. The difficulty is that SERD treats the research system as though it were the innovation system. It is strong on the supply of knowledge but largely silent on the conditions under which new ideas are taken up, adopted, and applied by firms, governments and communities. The report reinforces a conception of innovation that is too research-centric and university-centred. This Innovation Insight argues for two linked shifts. The first is to begin from innovation as the successful application of new ideas, rather than from the production of research outputs. The second is to widen the frame beyond science and technology to include creative practice, social innovation and the place-based ecosystems in which these interact.
Does AI pose an existential risk? We asked 5 experts
AI will change the world. AI will bring “astounding triumphs”. AI is overhyped, and the bubble is about to burst. AI will soon surpass human capabilities, and this “superintelligent” AI will kill us all. The big question is will it?