Phillip Jones - Director of Tech Strategy and Delivery, Trainline

What's your proudest work-related achievement of the last 12 months?
The team, process and infrastructure that (even given our huge scale) enable us release thousands of micro-optimisations every month. This constant refinement of our customer experience enables us to sell more than 204 tickets per minute and serve over 80 million customer visits per month.
What's the number one skill today's IT leaders need?
Without question, emotional intelligence. As leaders we need to be self aware, mature and maintain high levels of self control. Reading people and cues enables us to better inspire our teams, coach individuals, influence others and drive strategy across the organisation. The ability to build trust with your team is essential in establishing high-performing teams that in turn drive growth and profitability. Every day in tech is different - we must be able to manage setbacks, handle high-pressure situations and celebrate the wins along the way. I believe leaders who embrace developing their EQ will find they benefit from greater results both personally and from the team.
How many people work in IT in your organisation?
300.
What's your top priority for the next 12 months?
We have a super-exciting roadmap for the next 12 months. My priority is to keep supporting the teams who iterate our products: ensuring we constantly reduce anything that slows them down or prevents them being effective.
What's your annual IT budget?
Confidential.
Top 250 UK IT Leaders
More on Leadership
Pat Gelsinger to replace Bob Swan as Intel CEO
Chipmaker says the move is unrelated to Intel's recent financial performance
Top four technology trends for 2021
Computing gazes into its crystal ball and outlines what it expects to be the big ticket items on IT leaders' agendas in 2021, including remote working, cyber security challenges, enterprise open source and automation
The 'Diversity Dialogue' - are you listening?
Catherine Harrison, HR Director, First Derivatives, explains how to evolve from an initiative ‘mindset’ to an approach that truly embeds diversity and inclusion values in an organisation
Congratulations to the winners of the Technology Product Awards
Here are the companies Computing's audience thought deserved to be recognised as the big names of UK IT
How to be a portfolio CIO
Computing talks to James Robbins, former CIO of Drax, Northumbrian Water, Northern Rail and more, about the switch to being a portfolio CIO, working for a range of clients in an advisory capacity