David Tyler, Founder and CEO of Outlier Technology is the latest regional professional in the hot seat as the p.ublished group of newspapers gives him just 10 minutes to answer our 10 burning questions.

What does a typical working day for you involve?

I work from home mainly, so the biggest initial challenge of the day is maintaining the separation between home and home office. Doing the school drop off and having an opportunity to clear the head before the day starts is a must.

And the day always starts with high quality caffeine.

We work across quite a few clients, so I need to check in on all of our projects and engagements - Teams, Slack, email etc. No matter what, staying engaged with the team and clearing the path for them is really important to me. Without the team we’re nothing and if they’re held back, we’re all held back.

We do have routine but days are rarely the same. I can be helping with data engineering strategy in the morning, advising on AI project scope and expectations in the afternoon, jumping on pre-client engagement calls, it’s a very mixed bag.

We’re growing so there’s a good level of pressure to stay on top of our content strategy, business development and marketing so we make sure we allocate time to that every week. Alongside all of this, I try to allocate time to stay on top of our product development projects.

Inevitably that cross over into home time happens - break for dinner and a bit of family time and then back to it for a couple of hours. Sometimes it feels like your time is sliced razor thin, and the context switching can be a killer but simple things like keeping a log of everything to be done tomorrow before I finish up for the day is a nice way to park the work brain and decompress for an hour or so before bed.

What makes your company special?

I started Outlier because I wanted to do things a bit differently to the companies I’d been engaging with over the years. They were always tied to vendors - "we’re a Microsoft shop", we use “Oracle”, "our teams only use Databricks". It always surprised me, because this places technology and vendor before problem. You need to solve this problem in a Mircrosoft/Oracle/Databricks way. It’s a guaranteed way to invite bounded rationality into problem solving.

For us the technology is a tertiary aspect of problem solving - we focus on the definition of the problem in a much detail as we possibly can. We actively walk through the problem from as many angles as we can to get a real fundamental understanding of the problem and the context for it.

We very often find that the solution just falls out of the process of defining the problem. Very often that solution can be a subtle tweak to something that’s already in place - it doesn’t have to be some grand and elaborate technology transformation. If it is though, we make sure it’s exactly the right technology and more importantly, the right integration to be successful.

We can’t afford to have lots of consultants "on the bench” and honestly that’s not our model - we’re not bums on seats. We hire really solid people and we focus on building domain knowledge so we can talk our client’s language.

Do you dress up or down for work?

I don’t have a dress code so to speak, but I do make sure I get changed before and after work. It’s another little signal that it’s the start or the end of the working day which is important I think when working from home.

What piece of advice would you give your 18-year-old self?

Every job or project, no matter how big or small is an opportunity to develop leadership skills. Start with yourself - be the leader you need to be for yourself. Don’t worry if you’re swimming upstream when everyone else is swimming downstream - you can’t assume everyone is correct because they’re going with the flow. Step back and ask why, don't just follow the herd. And remember that a failed experiment is one that doesn’t take place, not one that gives you an answer you didn’t want.

What’s your favourite Yorkshire venue for an event or team away day?

There’s so many to choose from it’s hard to pin down a favourite. We love that York has so many independent bars, shops and venues so it’s always nice to find something local where the owners are directly connected.

How do you prefer to travel for business?

For longer trips we’re usually on the train - especially London or Edinburgh. For more local it’s usually way more convenient to drive.

What’s your favourite place in Yorkshire to relax?

My wife and I had a nice stay at Middleton Lodge - the food was amazing and the atmosphere was lovely. Other than that, we’re just immersed in family life and endless DIY.

Where is your favourite place to eat in Yorkshire, and what dish do you recommend?

Skosh in York is great - it’s difficult to pick a single dish as they’ll all amazing, I think it’s tied with Meltons in York too - again the food is just outstanding so it’s difficult to pick a single dish.

What do you miss most about Yorkshire when you’re away?

I think it’s just friendly and relaxed. It’s the familiarity of the places and the genuine conversations you have with people. We’re not from Yorkshire, I’ve got family up here, but I’ve lived in lots of places, home and abroad, so it’s nice to have somewhere that it feels like we’re putting down roots.

Do you have any business rules that you swear by?

Pay your bills on time – when I was 18 my mum told me that a business that relies on favours is not a viable business. So don’t rely on your suppliers to manage your cashflow.

"It’s business” is admission that you know you’re behaving in a way that’s not acceptable but you don’t want to face the consequences of your actions. Sometimes things go wrong of course, but own them and be genuine - don’t just use “it’s business” as a personal absolution of sin.

Don’t pretend the door is always open. It’s a lie. There are some conversations that have to happen behind closed doors, there are some plans that can’t be revealed so don’t pretend you’re everyone’s BFF.



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