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Most people don't know their problem is solvable. It usually is.

I'm James. Since 2012 I've been taking technical problems apart for organisations of every size: AI, websites and apps, the numbers, the rules, and the way the work gets done. If you have a problem, I've probably met one of its relatives. I'll still be excited to meet yours.

● James Nicholson42.88° S, 147.33° EHobart, Tasmania

Where I can help

Every piece of technology has people at both ends: the ones it serves, and the ones who keep it running. Here's an online shop, from the people down to the wires. The same layers sit under a booking system, an intranet or an app.

  • Area 01

    Technology

    Build something new, or get more from what you already pay for. From the storefront down to the network under it.

    • Claude
    • Next.js
    • Shopify
    • WordPress
    • Salesforce

  • Area 02

    Measurement

    Numbers your team can act on, and trust when they do.

    • Google Tag Manager
    • Google Analytics 4
    • Meta
    • BigQuery
    • Hotjar

  • Area 03

    Trust

    Do right by everyone who uses what you've built: their privacy, their access and their safety.

    • Australian Privacy Principles (Privacy Act 1988)
    • Google Consent Mode
    • Accessibility
    • 1Password
    • European Union

  • Area 04

    Workflow

    Give your team their week back. The tools they use every day, joined up and doing the dull parts.

    • Apps Script
    • Microsoft Copilot
    • Playwright
    • ClickUp
    • MoSCoW prioritisation

Who I have worked with

Some of the brands I have partnered with, directly or through their agencies. Large ones, small ones, and a few in between.

  • L'Occitane
  • Lovisa
  • Subaru
  • G8 Education
  • SkyCity
  • Caterpillar
  • Telstra
  • Loan Market
  • Sylvia P
  • Flight Centre
  • Roogenic
  • Urth
  • Thermomix
  • Homesales
  • Ray White

What working with me is like

Plenty of people can do what I do. What nobody else can do is deliver it the way I do. The person who asks for the work has to have a good time too, or they'll never try anything new again, and that's a worse outcome than any bug. So here's the process from your side of the table.

An illustration in faceted paper shapes: a laptop open on a code editor, a notebook and pen, and a steaming mug of tea with an NB tag on the tea bag.
img · the desk, mid-problem · 1:1

  1. You tell me what's going on

    In your own words. You might already know exactly what's wrong, or only that something is. Either way, you don't need the technical name.

  2. We talk, off the clock

    I don't usually bill for meetings. The conversation is where the good work starts, and nobody should have to watch a meter to ask a question.

  3. I look before I quote

    I ask for access and read the real thing. Without that I'd be guessing (confidently, perhaps, but still guessing).

  4. We agree what it is

    Sometimes you've already found the problem and need someone to fix it. Sometimes it turns out to be something else. Either way, you get it in plain words, and the technical version in writing for whoever needs it. If it isn't worth building, I'll say so.

  5. You see it working early

    The smallest version that works comes first, so you can react to something real rather than a document.

  6. You talk to the person doing it

    No account layer. The person who answers your question is the person who read the code.

    Organisation chartYou on the left, me on the right, joined by a line. An empty dashed box sits where an account layer would be.YouMe

    The account layer, shown at actual size.

  7. You own all of it

    Code and accounts in your name, written up so your team, or the next developer, can run it. Nobody gets locked in, me included.

Making complex things as simple as possible is most of the value. The rest is explaining them well.

— the working principle

In their words

Some of the people I've worked with, on what it was like. I asked nicely, and nobody was bribed with tea. Read them all on Google.

  • Tristan KingFive starsJames is very knowledgable, thorough and professional. Super helpful and forward-thinking. Would recommend!

Something not working the way it should?

Tell me what you can see going wrong, in your own words. You don't need the technical name for it. Working out the cause is my job, not yours.

Send me a messageBook a call

Why I'm like this

An illustrated portrait of James Nicholson, smiling, in round tortoiseshell glasses and a white T-shirt.
img · James Nicholson · Hobart

I'm from Tasmania, and for fifteen years my work was music. Arranging is mostly deciding what each player actually needs in front of them. That habit stayed.

In 2012 I went to the Mainland for a holiday, and it turned into a career: web analytics, then the integrations, apps and sites that platforms couldn't do, then machine learning, from simple RNNs to large-scale Transformers.

I still write code at the weekend, with an editor, something I don't understand yet, and a pot of tea. I started NEOBADGER in 2017, and I'm back in Hobart now.

Read the whole story

Where the work goes

I live and work in Hobart. The organisations I work with are across Australia and overseas: small owner-led teams, not-for-profits, government agencies, and publicly listed companies in the US, the EU, and here in Australia.

My working day runs across Australia, Asia and the Middle East, the whole of the European day, and the start of the day in North America.

A lot of it comes through agencies in Europe and the US. They bring me in as the specialist when a problem is harder than usual.

Every map on this page comes back to Tasmania. That is not a design choice. It is simply where the middle is, if you ask anyone from here.

The arcs are not labelled. Who I work with is their business.

See when I'm free

Where the work goes: the mainland, and overseas. No names, on purpose.

Hobart, Tasmania. Frequently left off maps, which does wonders for the privacy.

Fig. 6 — Tasmania and the NB monogram, in the page's own characters. # is Hobart.
A Tasmanian headland at dusk, seen from the air: grass hills falling to a calm sea under a pink and blue sky.
img · Tasmania. The view I do my thinking with.

Writing

I write things down when they take me more than an afternoon to work out. Some take several afternoons and a few pots of tea, which is why the posts run long (I have made my peace with that).

All articles

  1. SEO in an AI World: Generative SearchArtificial Intelligence
  2. DNS over TLS: The Acronym Nightmare That Protects Your PrivacyData Privacy
  3. Red Teaming: Taming Rogue AIArtificial Intelligence
  4. Are You Really Tracking That? The Art of Construct Validity for CROGoogle Analytics
  5. Introduction to Email Security: You Can’t Unsubscribe From ThisSecurity
  6. Breaking Down Australia’s Privacy Law Overhaul: What Marketers Need to KnowData Privacy

Contact

Tell me what the problem is. You don't need the technical name for it: working that out is part of the job. If I am not the right person for it, I will say so. I reply myself, from Hobart, which is ahead of most of the world (by time zone, and in several other ways I am too modest to list).

Goes to James. Nobody else reads it.