Charlie Ward

“I rate Charlie among one of the most conscientious and effective Product Managers I've had the pleasure to work with. He's a ruthless prioritiser, brings evidence-based decisioning to the table, and can say "no" in ways that stakeholders can understand and accept. When he joined our team, he inherited three confused technology-lead briefs without clear target audience, vision, strategy or business case. He wasn't long taking control, working his softly-spoken magic to quench the many fires and bring calm, focus and direction to the project. He knows when to delegate, and when to grab the reins. Our team was dominated by some strong personalities at the time, and Charlie earned their trust through simple but effective communication, staying calm and considerate under fire, staying empathetic to the goals and motivations of other teams (without giving in to design-by-committee), and knowing how to sell his vision to engineering and commercial stakeholders. He was always open and clear to admit what he didn't know, which is a rare and special quality, and worked very hard to learn new principles and concepts with ease. Personally, I shared a desk with him for the last 6 months, and we had a great time together, supporting each other, sharing responsibilities, and driving product, user research, and design and activities. Charlie is hands-on, interested, energised and useful, and I miss working with him very much. Hopefully we will have the chance to do so again in the future.”

“I really couldn't give a strong enough personal endorsement for Charlie. He was our first employee at Forever Beta when there was just three of us working it all out, so he has played a huge part in our growth from a Ad Agency in Archway into a Creative & Innovation company with offices in London, New York and Manchester. From new business development, pitching and client service he's done the lot as well as being an important cultural and operational mainstay for the company. Charlie earned his stripes as a versatile account handler and has now successfully transitioned to innovation manager; a role in which he is thriving and will be hard to replace. Smart, focussed with bags on energy and commitment, I'd be sad to see him go especially as he's such a nice guy.”

“Charlie has a very unique mind in our industry. He's not only got great ideas, but he has the mindset to break them down into the tiniest, clearest and most practical details of how to make them a reality. And all governed by spreadsheet thats tracking investment and return. Really amazingly thought through. He's eager to learn and grow, taking feedback with a smile and determination to improve. Above all though, he's a master of nihilist humour.”

“Charlie is not only a great 'doer' but a brilliant 'thinker'. He asks good, challenging questions and works as a team to find the answers to them. Charlie is also incredibly entrepreneurial and passionate in and outside of work - always teaming with ideas on how to improve things from agency culture to great-tasting chicken wings. For real.”

“It's pretty hard to describe Charlie using only words, as you won't fully get to appreciate just how ace he is, but I will attempt to do so: Relentlessly positive, always constructive, you know with Charlie that he will deliver. Whether it's being creative, organising, project managing, or simply sorting out a lastminute task, he gets it done, no matter what. Rarely have I met some who can just do such a range of tasks with such little bother. Add in the fact that he's funny, super smart and very decent person, then you have a quite outstanding human on you hands. In summary: ace squared...”