Public sector or private — the measure of good technology is whether it meets the needs of the people depending on it
That's been the standard across 30+ years — from city and state government infrastructure to consumer platforms, a chapter at Google, and federal-scale systems engineering and solutioning as a member of the U.S. Digital Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Justice. That's the question I bring to every engagement — public sector or private: is this technology actually working for the people who depend on it?
I've engaged with organizations in every capacity — embedded inside government, in full-time leadership at digital services firms, and as an independent consultant brought in at critical moments. That range means I understand how to add value in whatever structure works best for you.
A discovery sprint is a focused 8–12 week engagement where a small cross-functional team interviews stakeholders at every level of an organization, reviews systems and data, and surfaces the root causes of a problem — not just the symptoms. The goal is not to solve the problem in that timeframe. It's to make sure the organization understands the real problem before committing to a solution.
I learned this methodology directly at the U.S. Digital Service, where it was developed and refined across hundreds of federal engagements. I've since applied it across many engagements at agencies spanning city, state, and federal government — helping organizations avoid costly misdirection and invest in solutions that actually address what's broken.
I don't offer a menu of generic deliverables. I bring 30+ years of hard-won pattern recognition to your specific inflection point — and stay in the work long enough to see real change take hold.
I'm most valuable at inflection points — the moments when getting the next decision right compounds into lasting advantage.
The sector changes. The standard doesn't — technology that works for the people depending on it.
In 1996 I was supporting New York State's Department of Social Services infrastructure at Unisys — Unix clusters, frame relay networks, help desk through to level 3 support. By 2000 I was managing field operations across 30 City of New York sites as a technical liaison. By 2004 I was running the Network Operations Center for New York City's Human Resources Administration, leading a team that replaced proprietary systems with open source infrastructure.
That foundation — built inside city and state government before most people were talking about digital transformation — is what makes my work different. I know how government technology actually operates at every tier: the procurement constraints, the legacy dependencies, the organizational dynamics, and what it genuinely takes to modernize without breaking things that real people depend on.
From city networks to federal platforms: After a decade in the private sector at Google, Zagat Survey, Sony Music, and Johnson & Johnson, I brought that experience back into government — serving as Director of Digital Services for Prince William County, Virginia, and spending four years at the U.S. Digital Service embedded across five federal agencies. That's where I learned the discovery sprint methodology, developed and refined across hundreds of federal engagements.
Trusted by the firms that do this work: I've served in full-time leadership at digital services delivery companies — Director of Engineering at Phase2, Vice President of Product Development at Pluribus Digital — and have been brought in repeatedly as a trusted technical strategist by digital service delivery firms working across city, state, and federal government. The repeat engagements are the proof.
Today I run HCGi — Holmes Consulting Group Inc. — to do the work I'm best at: helping organizations at inflection points build technology that lasts. I believe great technology organizations are built intentionally — aligning architecture, people, and process with long-term mission, not just short-term speed.
Let's talk about where you are and where you need to get to
Public sector or private, the work starts with understanding the real problem. If you're at an inflection point, I'd like to hear about it.