About Peter Kappus

I help teams to get clear on what they're doing, why they're doing it, and how to get better at doing it – all while enjoying the journey.

I’m passionate about helping organisations to improve.

For more than 25 years, I’ve been an engineer, a project, programme, portfolio manager, facilitator, trainer, coach and consultant helping teams in world-leading organisations to deliver their day to day work, find clarity and inspiration, realise outstanding outcomes and find joy along the way.

I employ powerful goal-science frameworks like Objectives & Key Results – OKRs, lean/agile practices, and ultra-inclusive facilitation techniques like Liberating Structures to help teams consistently challenge the status quo and redefine their peak performance.

Clients include the UK Government, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Wikimedia Foundation, Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Novartis, multiple private asset managers, Genomics England, Exscientia, the Automobile Association, and many more. Check out my CV.

Here’s a short video with the What Matters crew

My back story

I was born in London in 1978, grew up in St. Louis MO where I attended the John Burroughs School, finished high-school in Denver, studied computer science then got a degree at CU Boulder, moved to New York City at the end of 1999 to work for Kimble Musk who was dating my friend and former teacher Jen Lewin. I slept on their couch in Tribeca when I first arrived in NYC before getting my own flat in Park Slope.

I worked for Kimble for about a month before getting fired. Amid my fears of moving back into my parents’ basement in Michigan, I found a job at “The Stock Market” which turned out to be a stock photography agency – not a Wall Street firm – but a great place to hone my technical skills and learn about the wider world of making tech and business work together.

I sat in the back with a bunch of Ukranian engineers. We took customer support calls, applied a pretty cavalier approach to engineering with Active Server Pages and Perl to run a multi-million dollar e-commerce site and went out after work to places like the Russian Vodka Room.

In 2001 the Stock Market got bought by Bill Gates who moved a bunch of people, including me, to Seattle. I was happy to move out west after September 11th. My girlfriend and I promptly broke up, I learned to snowboard and started hiking. I met a couple of terrific designers David Conrad and Jay Dokken and later became a technical director and partner in their design agency “Design Commission”. We grew the business from 2 people to 12 and opened an art gallery in our downtown Seattle space.

We worked for clients like Microsoft and a very young Twilio and welcomed some amazing artists to our gallery space.

In 2006 I met my now wife who got a job in London in 2009 and asked how I felt about moving “back” to the UK. We figured we’d check it out for a few years and have been here ever since!

I’ve been privileged to help build a successful digital agency, a research, analytics, trading, and reporting platform, a more digital UK Government and a better BBC.

I’ve been a web developer, a project, programme, portfolio manager, flat-pack furniture-assembler, linux systems administrator, CTO, and coach. I’ve learned to value diverse perspectives, experimentation, and strong relationships.

I’ve been a meditator since I was young but started practicing Buddhism in 2019.

I’ve also been known to make art and improvise on the piano.

I’d love to know what you’re working on. Drop me a line!

Check out what I’m doing right now, read my weeknotes or subscribe to my newsletter.