Richard Russell Coaching

ADHD Coach

I split my time between Luxembourg and London.
Available for NED and Fractional Hybrid roles also.

Product Leadership Coach

Whether you’re scaling a product-led company or transforming how you work, I can help you move faster, with less pain *

* There's always pain. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.

But we can make the pain worth it.

My product and engineering background from Google, Amazon and my exposure to countless startups and corporates means I understand where you're coming from.

My experience across every function (marketing, strategy, partnerships, operations, customer service and more) and in many industries (SaaS, Consumer Internet, Retail, Travel, Logistics, Banking, Insurance, MedTech, Crypto, Media, etc) means I know where you want to go.

The key for most of my clients is helping them empower themselves so they can empower their teams. This means transforming from tactical and functional to strategic and cross-functional, developing courage to take the right risks, and balancing the need to hold firm on some topics while disagreeing and committing to the rest of the executive team on others.

If this sounds like you, book a free chemistry call and we can get to know each other and see if there is a fit.

Scaleup Leaders

I host a video podcast and write a newsletter for and about leaders who are scaling up.

Creator & Host

Amazon

Two roles, firstly driving pan-European technology projects to improve the European customer experience, and secondly in consumer localization, where we translate and localize millions of product listings each day across all Amazon’s marketplaces

* Acting Director for Consumer Localization from Jul-Nov 2015 with multi-discipline team of 100
Leading 2016 planning with 2.5x revenue growth (goal met in October 2016), and 2017 planning with 2x revenue growth

* 2015 Q4 Localization output exceeded previous seven quarters combined, and 2016 year end goal met during 2016 Q2

* Cut the time to launch new languages by six months (50%), without affecting revenue or customer experience

* Led “language of preference” program for global consumer websites, delivering second language experience on multiple marketplaces (e.g. Amazon.de and Amazon.co.jp in English), and a program of ongoing expansion to new market segments

* Proposed and secured funding for a broad technology transformation program covering hundreds of interdependent services to allow Amazon’s consumer websites to use non-latin languages

Senior Manager Product Development

High Street Labs

Developed Wlcome (yes, welcome without the e) a mobile loyalty app for brick-and-mortar stores, using geo-location to automatically check a customer into a store location to provide personalised service, loyalty rewards, and payments.

I developed the proof of concept, then product managed ongoing development with offshore dev team. I launched pilot in two coffee shops with 60 weekly actives after 1 month. I learnt a huge amount about marketing and innovation - the hard way!

In November 2013, after becoming a father, I took an interim role as Chief Product Officer at MoPowered, a listed mobile commerce startup.

MoPowered provides a SaaS solution to online retailers, enabling them to sell on the mobile channel. I took on management of the R&D division (Engineering, Product, QA, UX and Security).

- Implemented an agile transformation, accelerating release cycle from quarterly to weekly

- Halved merchant integration costs, reduced maintenance cost per issue from days to hours

- Implemented UI overhaul to enable metrics-driven user experience improvements, increasing basket size and conversion rate for our customers, and enabling improvements across multiple clients at once

- Created a hiring pipeline, set up recruiting process, and trained team on interviewing techniques, doubling team size from 8 to 18 people in 4 months.

- Proposed strategy to reduce cash burn, reducing locations and headcount, bringing key functions in-house, and focusing on product development, implemented by new management after I left

Founder

Google

I was part of the engineering team reporting through the sales division. Over four roles, I was responsible for: delivering Google AdSense technology to European partners including search engines (eg Ask Jeeves, Seznam.cz), portals (AOL, Yahoo), publishers (eg El Pais, De Telegraaf, Le Monde), and broadcasters (eg Channel 4, Sky); developing eCommerce payment partnerships for Google Checkout (eg Kiddicare, eBuyer); negotiating partnerships for global public transport agencies (eg TfL London, Deutsche Bahn, and MTA New York) to put their data on Google Maps; and managing a client solutions team supporting advertising agencies (WPP, Publicis, Omnicom) buying ads through DoubleClick BidManager.

- Recruited and managed a team of 5 in London and Paris offices, receiving a 94% rating as a manager from my team, representing top quartile performance across the business

- Built tools used by DoubleClick Bid Manager Sales & Services teams saving >20 FTEs globally

- Executed EMEA Bid Manager upgrade project, exceeding US counterpart team on all key metrics

- Developed tools to enable scaling of map data operations, launching 4x faster with 50% fewer FTEs

- Product managed european Checkout features including VAT, Chip-and-PIN, and Contactless Payments

- Managed AdSense Broadcast, Publishing and Portal partnerships worth £100M/yr with 80% YoY growth

Senior Engineer & Manager

Deutsche Bank

Ran a team which would now be known as DevOps, managing the build and deployment process and environments for Deutsche Bank’s market-leading online wholesale foreign exchange, bonds and derivatives trading platform, Autobahn, working with traders from DB and white label clients.

- Promoted to team lead, developed release process and launched new product 3x faster than before

- Planned and executed the first successful Business Continuity Test in Global Markets eCommerce

Lead Deployment Engineer, Global Markets eCommerce

Yellow Goanna PTY LTD

IT Infrastructure Consulting - clients included The RSPCA South Australia, The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service, Austrics (Trapeze), a Satellite ISP Startup, and a B2B Accounting Startup
- Deployed a Satellite ISP and Education CDN in schools around rural South Australia
- Consulted for an online accounting startup, advising on technology strategy
- Developed and run a diploma level IT course for TAFE SA

Systems Administrator and Consultant

Department for Environment and Water

Managing production, development and testing Solaris server environments for mission-critical services for Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH), a preceding agency of DEW.

Systems Administrator

Trapeze Group

Developing a new user interface for a public transport management product.

Programmer - AUSTRICS (Acquired by Trapeze)

Helping leaders do more with less | OKRs & Leadership | ex Amazon & Google

* There’s always pain. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.
But we keep it to a minimum—and make the progress worth it.

You've read the books.
You're working harder than ever.
But the changes aren't sticking, and you're slipping behind.

Ever felt like that?

The three usual suspects:

𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: Teams pull in different directions
𝐎𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐆𝐚𝐩𝐬: Decisions stall in deadlock
𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Bold slides, but nothing ships

If you don't change, you’ll miss opportunities, exhaust talent, and watch faster players overtake you.

And it will keep getting worse.

I help you break that cycle — fast.

I’ve led large teams at Amazon and Googl, helped 20+ startup executives navigate these challenges successfully and worked with corporates up to Fortune 500 scale. I love helping leaders like you bridge the gap between technical excellence and business leadership.

These challenges show up differently for every leader, but here are some recent results:

🔥 Series C CEO – Unblocked strategy, shipped a scalable fix in weeks, then raised a Series D.
🔥 Series A CEO – Broke the decision bottleneck, strengthened delegation, and cut attrition.
🔥 Series C VP Eng – Beat impostor syndrome, shaped strategy, and stepped up to CTO.
🔥 GM, Traditional BU – Shifted a 70-person product org from tech-focused order-takers to customer-centric empowered teams.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?

Here's how I can help:

✅ Focused coaching, one-to-one or with your leadership team, to get you unstuck fast
✅ Facilitated strategy, OKR, planning and review workshops to create momentum
✅ Develop proven leadership habits to help you maintain progress
✅ Targeted training to upskill teams

As an individual, this will help you:

👉 Move from functional leadership to company-wide impact
👉 Build alignment across growing teams
👉 Navigate relationships with co-founders and stakeholders
👉 Transition from BigTech or Corporate to Scaleup leadership

For your organisation, this will help you:

🎯 Build your management operating system
🎯 Develop clear vision, strategy, and goals (OKRs)
🎯 Create cross-team alignment and buy-in
🎯 Build execution and review cadences that drive consistent results

Message me to explore if we're a good fit.

Richard Russell

“Best Conference Ever”
“One and a half days of inspiration”
“We made so much progress”

Real quotes from leaders at a transformation conference for a Swedish company that I really enjoyed leading over the past two days.

Heading home now - tired, but energised and happy.

I could do this again. :-)

Performance Coach for ADHD Leaders | Business Coach for Product and Scaleup Leaders | I help you move faster — with less pain*

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I'm on my way to Stockholm for a transformation workshop with a client.

Looking forward to this!

Who doesn't love to receive feedback like this?

"The conference was one of the best, if not in fact the best conference I have attended" - from Håkan Johansson, Lead Business developer,  Tietoevry Industry.

At the end of the conference, I asked each of the 45 attendees for one word that described their experience. The number of people who said some variation of "hope", "inspiration", "progress", or "team" was overwhelming - such a thrill to hear.

I loved the energy, enthusiasm, and potential in this team - and it was a privilege to lead them through this conference kicking off their transformation project. I'm excited to see what they come up with.

I’m in Sweden, at this lovely villa in the snow. The conference starts in 90 minutes and I’m all set.

Yes, most of the preparation happened last minute. I spent a few weeks percolating ideas, with very little to show for it. Then the deadline looms, adrenaline kicked in and I focused like a weapon and got the whole workshop built in a day.

I used to think of this as procrastination and beat myself up for not getting it all done ahead of time.

But now I know this is how I do my best work. The time before the deadline is my brain doing the work in the background. Making connections, testing insights, iterating through concepts.

I have made peace with it, and it works.

How do you do your best work?

Is ADHD really a “deficit” or a “disorder”?

Technically yes, that’s what the definition says.

But practically, it’s just a difference, which at least 5% of the population share - and likely more.

The real deficit and disorder is in our expectation that everyone should be the same.

Yes there are disadvantages to having ADHD. But the with every disadvantage comes an advantage.

Distractability —> Curiousity
Impulsivity —> Creativity
Hyperactivity—> Drive

The challenge is not how to compensate for the weaknesses so much as how to maximise the advantages.

Build a career that fits your brain.
Don't try to adapt your brain to suit someone else's ideal career.

Most careers demand attention to detail and consistent execution. Fast brains tend to fail at this.

 You'll be told to adapt, be more consistent, get organized, try harder, hustle more.

But here's the truth: you're trying to wear someone else's career.

It's like wearing someone else's underpants—fun initially, but gets weird fast, and you're gonna end up with a career wedgie.

So start with your brain.

Find out what your real strengths are. Not just what you're good at, but what gives you energy.

Because if you build around that, your work amplifies you instead of fighting you. That's when you can be world-class.

Ask yourself:
→ What do I do effortlessly that others find hard?
→ What lights me up?

Design around the overlap. Build a career that works for you.

If you agree, hit the share or like button.

If you're a fast brain leader frustrated by the gap between your potential and actual performance, you probably know what to do.

Exercise, sleep, nutrition, habits, productivity systems—it's not rocket science.

But here's the problem: knowing isn't doing.

When you're a fast brain leader, you know what to do, how to do it, when to do it, why to do it.

But actually doing it? That's the hard part.

There's one key thing that makes the biggest difference:

Being surrounded by people who are trying to do the same thing.

* Your spouse as a supportive partner
* Friends who get it
* A coach (reach out if interested)

But one of the best ways is community

That's why I'm setting up Fast Brain Leaders—a community for people working on closing that gap between potential and performance.

We share the same challenges.
We support each other through them.
We've just started.

Check it out at fastbrainleaders.com

Is ADHD overdiagnosed?

No.

About 5% of the population have ADHD.
About 0.5% of the population have a diagnosis.

Yes, we're seeing a lot more awareness and a lot more diagnoses now than ever before. 

But when telescopes were invented, and people got hold of them and started pointing them at the night sky, we started seeing more stars than ever before. 

That doesn't mean that the new stars we saw were "over-detected" or were created by the telescope. We just got better at seeing them.

Same with ADHD.

We are more aware. We're better at assessing it. There are more people qualified to make assessments than ever before (but still nowhere near enough). So we're seeing more of it.

If you're finding yourself frustrated by the gap between your potential and your performance, and you find some things hard that other people find easy, and if "trying harder" or "discipline" just doesn't seem to work for you, maybe you should get checked out too.

Who cares what the nay-sayers think? This isn't about them - it's about you, and finding out what works for you.

But even if you can't find an assessment (there can be long waiting lists), you might benefit from non-medical help like coaching or community. Nothing stops you from getting help without a formal diagnosis.

“See, in my world, leftover pizza is not a thing. If I order a pizza, I’m going to eat THE PIZZA. Not a slice or two, but THE PIZZA. There won’t be leftover pizza. Heh. Leftover pizza. Even the name sounds funny. It’s like leftover wine. It’s not a real thing for the majority of us with ADHD.” - Peter Shankman , Faster Than Normal

ADHD-dar: that seemingly supernatural ability of people with ADHD to find and befriend other people with ADHD in any group setting, even when they aren’t (yet?) diagnosed themselves.

FAQ: Yes I am still offering product leadership, scaleup exec team, and transformation coaching.

I’ve been talking about ADHD coaching for leaders a lot because I love it, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped doing what I was doing.

If you need help with:
- transition to the product model (eg from projects or feature factory)
- strategy development and execution including OKRs
- becoming a leader whether as a CEO, CPO, executive or even first time manager of product manager

I’m here for you. 

I work with leaders from vc-backed startups (eg series B-D CEOs), Fortune 500 companies (eg VP product), and individual leaders.

There’s still time left if 2025 to get help within this years budgets.

Connect and send a DM for a chat.

“You just have to try harder.”

Every ADHDer’s heard this — from teachers, bosses, even friends.

And for most people, it’s good advice. Doing important things gives their brains a dopamine hit — the “feel-good” that powers motivation.

But ADHD brains work differently.
We’re already trying harder.
The problem isn’t effort — it’s chemistry.

We don’t get dopamine from what’s important.
We get it from what’s interesting — things that are novel, challenging, urgent, or fun.

That’s why what’s easy for most people can feel impossible for us, and what they find hard can light us up.

So stop trying harder.
Start working with your brain:
make tasks interesting, share the load, trade strengths.

Effort isn’t the issue.
Alignment is.

I’m excited because the founding group of fast brain leaders kicks off tomorrow (Thursday) at 4pm UK/5pm Europe, and every Thursday after that.

Interested?

Send a DM!

Most day planners make fast-brain leaders feel worse, not better.

You open them up and they’re full of:

abandoned weeks
half-finished days
old goals you don’t even recognise
and the quiet shame of “why can’t I just stick to this?”

I’ve tried everything:
Bullet journals, GTD, digital calendars, beautiful spreads, colour coding…
And every system eventually collapsed under the weight of its own expectations.

Here’s what finally worked for me:

👉 A one-page daily plan you throw away at the end of the day.

No backlog.
No planner guilt.
No flipping through old failures.
Just a clean slate — every single morning.

I’ve been using this for months now, and it’s the first planning system that genuinely works with (not against) a fast brain.

I recorded a short video showing exactly how I use it, including:

how to time-block your day realistically
how to choose your One Thing
how to adapt the plan when life inevitably changes
why throwing the page away is the magic

🎥 Watch the video here:
https://lnkd.in/eWaV37Z4

📄 And if you want the free Fresh Start Daily Planner PDF:
https://lnkd.in/eukdqBTp

If you struggle with consistent days — or feel a bit ashamed looking at your old planner — this might help you reset your relationship with planning altogether.

A fresh start, every day.

Sometimes when people connect to me I ask them if they are just here for the content or if they are dealing with ADHD themselves.

It’s a way to open up conversations - and seems pretty natural to me as an ADHD coach who mentions it in my banner, my headline and most of my content.

But last week, the question upset someone who considered it too personal and “unprofessional“.

What’s your take?

Bear in mind that my reason for posting about ADHD on LinkedIn, and the reason most people connect with me is because a core part of my business is helping people with ADHD, and so my question is basically “are you looking for my help?”.

Just listened to Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal’s three episodes on Google (links in comment).

Had two realisations:

1) Google’s best days were approximately 2006-2012 - not coincidentally, the years I was there. I can’t claim credit for everything, but I played my part!

Released or acquired in that period: YouTube, DoubleClick, Android, Docs, Chrome, Nexus (now Pixel), “the cat paper” (which led to the Transformer that is the T in GPT), Drive, Workspace, Appengine (now Cloud), Checkout (now Wallet), Analytics, Calendar, Transit and Traffic (on Maps), Play store, Photos, Hangouts (now Meet), Translate, etc

2) Google is not a product company. It’s a technology company. Every really successful product is built on a technical insight (and brilliant infrastructure), not a product or customer insight.

Similarly, Amazon is an operations company. Microsoft is a sales and marketing company. Netflix is a media company.

Apple and Meta (Facebook) are the only big tech product companies.

What’s your thoughts?

Throwing away my day plan at the end of every day was the key that unlocked the power of day planning for me!

I used to use the Time Block Planner from Cal Newport, but flicking through the days and weeks of failed plans always got me down and made it hard to restart.

Try this method: https://lnkd.in/eMqaAuih (free pdf template)

Story-Driven Learning

• Empowered 1,500+ professionals from tech firms to refine their communication through keynotes, workshops, and coaching sessions.
• Specialist in aiding tech companies beyond their Series B/ 50MM milestone.

Speaker, coach and trainer

• Delivered 3,000+ tours, narrating Berlin's rich history through evocative storytelling.
• Achieved consistent 5* Tripadvisor reviews, collaborating with every major touring agency in the city.

Berlin Tour Guide

• Collaborated with top-charting German artists like Culcha Candela and Kontra K.
• Pioneered the music project, Saltbread, with the single 'Wild Heartbeat' featured as BBC Introducing Track of the Week.

Music Producer, Sound Engineer & Songwriter

Storytelling and presentation skills help you move FASTER and break FEWER things.

They help with the 3 essential elements of your success:
1. Alignment: turning abstract goals into a clear path forward. They turbo charge your vision and strategy.
2. Clarity: simplifying complex tech concepts for investors and the public. This can turn scepticism into belief and investment.
3. Engagement: making your product irresistible, your mission meaningful and your values applicable

And without these skills, progress could be slow because of stuff that’s avoidable: slow decisions, disengaged teams, and a value proposition that failed to resonate.

Here’s how I can help:


1. Training 📚💼

Give your team the skills to work in a fast/ hyper-growth organisations
• Sales
• Storytelling
• Negotiation
• Public speaking
• Presentation skills
• Meeting facilitation
• Leadership communication
• Slide design and data storytelling
• Delivering and receiving feedback
• Conversations and active listening

Available online/ in-person.


2. Workshop Facilitation 🧑‍🏫💡

Work with me to uncover and craft stories that help you navigate through change, growth, and scaling challenges.

This can be done as a one-off, or over several months to ensure we achieve a real transformation.


3. Coaching 👤📈 

I work 1:1 with executives and leadership teams to prepare them for pitches, conferences, IPO roadshows, or to engage their team. 


My clients include: Raisin, HelloFresh, Babbel, Cleverbridge, Adjust, Moneybox

Testimonials

★ "Now I can engage stakeholders on highly technical issues so they understand and I feel more confident." Javier Sagastagoitia Calleja • Head of Search at Hello Fresh

★ “Rob’s shared tools that not only helped me in presentations, but also in everyday communications with my team.” Marcelo Castro • Engineering Lead & Scrum Master at Raisin

★ “Rob creates a positive vibe for the audience and explains how anybody can achieve this as a presenter.” Oleksii Polishchuk • Head Of Software Development at Seven Senders


I also host the "Leadership for Unicorns" podcast where I talk to leaders from high growth and  tech companies about the challenges they’ve encountered and the lessons we can all learn.

When I’m not working you’ll find me at tech events across Berlin, I continuously engage with the latest in culture and innovation, ensuring my approaches remain cutting-edge.


Let’s connect 📧

If you’d like to talk about booking me for an event or possible collaborations, please drop me a message either here or at hi@robdwillis.com.

Rob D. Willis

Here's what kills more strategies than bad execution:

Your sales team, marketing team, and product team all telling different versions of the same story—confusing stakeholders and eroding trust before you've even launched.

Rain Bennett calls this "the gaps in your connective tissue." As a fractional Chief Storytelling Officer, he's spent 20 years helping companies close those gaps before they become cracks in the foundation.

His research with companies like Nike, Accenture, and small nonprofits revealed a pattern:

→ Nike beat Adidas in the 1970s by listening to high school athletes' stories before building products—not after
→ Companies with someone protecting the narrative are more innovative, resilient, and able to pivot when markets shift
→ Misalignment between departments destroys trust faster than a bad product ever could

The framework Rain shares for building vision stories that actually guide decisions:

- Resilient: Can adapt to change without being married to one technology or approach
- Inclusive: Makes every stakeholder feel like a co-author of your story, not a passive consumer
- Service-oriented: Focused on the transformation you create in the world, not just hitting revenue targets

The companies that survive disruption aren't the ones with 100-page strategy decks. They're the ones where product, sales, and HR all sing the same song—because someone is actively protecting that narrative thread.

What's the biggest gap between what your leadership communicates and what your teams actually tell clients?

Listen now—link in comments 🎧

P.S. Rain's three-part test for vision stories at 30:00 will save you from the "we want to be the leading provider of..." trap that makes every company sound identical.

I help leaders craft stories to make strategy stick - so teams live it and clients feel it | Strategic Story Producer | IMPACT™ storytelling framework creator, trusted by HelloFresh, Babbel, Raisin and Scout24

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