Panel: “How Leadership Impacts Transformation Success”

Throughout my career as an engineer and engineering leader, the business saw my role and teams as cost centers. Cost control was mainly achieved through reducing the workforce, which had its own challenges. However, my passion lies in aligning software engineering efforts with business outcomes. Product and technology are integral to the business. We can connect engineering work to business outcomes. Today, we have the practices, technology, and data visibility to address this effectively.

My goal is to lead software engineering initiatives that align with business outcomes. We will enhance senior leadership’s understanding and alignment, invest in people, and leverage team design, technology, and modern industry practices. Our ways of delivering software aim to become a benchmark for competitive success.

“The problem is that most of us are working with an outdated playbook: plays that we have been programmed to run from an older paradigm of leadership—the Industrial Revolution.” – David L. Marquet

The leaders of organizations that delivered software in the previous era need to relearn how to deliver it today. To win, you will have to unlearn, relearn, and

Rethink Your Understanding^®

Regardless of the bottom-up or top-down approach, the success of organizational change depends on top leaders’ experience and understanding. Outdated models and a lack of understanding of leadership can lead to conflicts and unsuccessful change attempts.

“It’s not what you know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you think you know.” — Mark Twain.

Become a Relearning Organization: You’re Never Done

Adaptive leaders always look for ways to improve because of today’s rate of change and understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. My goal with this site is to give you an inside look at my leadership style, how I serve and collaborate with others, my view on digital product delivery, and how I recognize success in product and technology.

About Me

Vice President Engineering | Technology Leader | Industry Collaborator | Effective Software Delivery | Embracing AI

Vice President Technology connecting software engineering efforts to business outcomes. Promoting better outcomes and fostering a culture that consistently embraces change.

Board Director Value Stream Management Consortium

I’m a technology leader who’s spent the last 25+ years not just delivering software—but rethinking how it’s delivered.

Today, I lead Parchment Technology at Instructure, guiding global teams across engineering, QA, agile leadership, and platform operations. My focus is on building high-performing, self-directed teams that work with clarity, autonomy, and a deep connection to business outcomes.

Over the past decade, my own journey has been just as transformative as the teams I lead and support. I’ve shifted from traditional project delivery to embracing a modern, product-focused operating model. Along the way, I’ve worked with senior leaders to drive meaningful change—introducing Agile, DevOps, Value Stream Management (VSM), and flow-based metrics to help teams deliver faster, more reliably, and with real purpose. But tools and frameworks are only part of the story—what I’ve learned is that real change comes from leadership: mindset, trust, and the ability to let go of old ways of working.

I founded rethinkyourunderstanding.com to share what I’ve learned—through articles, talks, and a podcast that turns stories into meaningful conversations about engineering leadership, developer experience, and connecting technology with business results.

I’m committed to giving back to a career that’s been both challenging and incredibly rewarding. Whether through writing articles, delivering talks and presentations, or engaging in discussions within community forums and leadership round-tables, I’m dedicated to fostering collaboration and driving impactful conversations. I enjoy building strong connections with leaders across organizations to drive growth, foster innovation, and promote collective progress. By working together, we share ideas, learn from one another, and make a lasting impact.

Outside of my day job, I serve on the board of the Value Stream Management Consortium and mentor emerging leaders. I’m also a lifelong learner—since 2018, I’ve read nearly 200 books on product strategy, systems thinking, organizational design, leadership, and software delivery. This curiosity keeps me growing.

If there’s a theme to my career, it’s this: technology works best when we stop treating it like a cost center and start leading it like a strategic partner. My mission is to help others see—and build—that future.

Learn more from my mission, collaboration, and posts.

Connect or follow:

philclark RYU

Today’s Agile, Lean, and DevOps software delivery communities are one of the most amazing and inspiring resources. While building engineering and product delivery excellence, we want to learn better ways to lead organizational optimizations and improvements. As an advocate for effective software delivery and engaged teams, my goal is to pull from my transformation experience to continue to collaborate with incumbent senior leadership to change behaviors and mindsets and talk about what is possible.

The most significant impact on my career has been working in different eras of software delivery. The shift in mindset, the pace of change, vast community publishing, improvements in culture, capabilities, visibility, automation, and inspiring people have kept me highly engaged. Collaboration in the Agile and DevOps communities has reinforced my passion for what delivering great software looks like.

I appreciate that I have had the opportunity to learn from and share my experiences with some of this generation’s transformation, culture, and delivery thought leaders. I am amazed when I compare our teams’ journeys to the industry journeys. This includes comparing our challenges with the change impact on customer experience, adopting practices that improve flow, delivering complex product technology solutions faster with high quality, and providing an engaging employee experience.

Much work needs to happen to help organizations deliver digital products efficiently. Sharing experiences helps. Let’s talk.

Stay curious, learn to unlearn and relearn, and rethink your understanding.

What I talk about

It takes a Team

“Let me be clear, you only get things done through committed teams” – Mark Fields, former Ford Motor company CEO

Great people at all levels and great teams help drive the journey together.

I am grateful for the variety of talented teams, leaders, mentors (personal and virtual), coaches, peers, industry collaborators, publishing’s, and my experiences that have helped me to shape my understandings. The journey thus far has been a very challenging and rewarding one.

“You’re either a learning organization or you’re losing to someone who is.” ~Andrew Clay Shafer

Incredible Conversation

Conversations can help you and your team learn how others are framing their journey, identify what to amplify, and sparking questions to find unexpected sources of inspiration to succeed within their own context.

I have participated in discussions about digital transformations, contexts, and practices with thought leaders and participants from various organizations.

Non-Affiliation Disclaimer: This web site is not endorsed by, directly affiliated with, maintained, authorized, or sponsored by any organization. All company names are the registered trademarks of their original owners. The use of any trade name or trademark is for identification and reference purposes only and does not imply any association with the trademark holder of their product brand.