On the newest episode of Tech Leaders Intel, Lewis Bicknell sits down with Mark O’Brien, a senior platform manager with the Leeds Building Society. At the start of his career Mark didn’t expect to find himself in such a role having earned a degree in mathematics and working in fields such as development and architecture. He took up a service operations role for LBS and changed the way it works, transformed from batch process-oriented to event-driven organization, which helped fine-tune the Society’s web presence and make it more responsive for potential homeowners using technologies such as AI and SRE. All of which helped the organization elevate its customer experience through gleaning insight from the large amounts of data they collect.

Moreover, Mark didn’t see himself cut out for management. However, he enjoys leadership, building durable professional relationships, and bringing people together from various teams to work on problems. It is through these lenses that Mark approaches his everything related to his work and career, and it’s fascinating to listen to him apply it to the innovations emerging today. Join Lewis and Mark as they discuss:

• Managing people vs. managing managers
• The importance of building meaningful long-term relationships with suppliers
• Keeping options open for career advancement vs. focusing on obtaining a particular role
• The impact of technology failures being made real for ordinary people
• Delivering solutions vs. delivering experiences
• The key differentiator of being purpose-driven rather than profit-driven
• His sense of the technology challenges for 2024

…and of course, much more. Mark is ultra-focused on using technology to the bottom of issues that hamper the customer experience for homebuyers, and we are sincerely grateful for his wisdom on this episode of TLI! You can connect with Mark on LinkedIn, and find out more about his work at leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk.