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Watch: Navigating structured delivery in financial services as an independent

                                                            Kebone thumbnail

Financial services is one of the most demanding environments an independent professional can operate in. Regulatory exposure is high, the margin for error is close to zero, and the gap between what business expects and what technology delivers can quietly grow for months before anyone formally surfaces it. By the time the misalignment becomes visible, it has usually been expensive for long enough that trust between teams has already started to erode, making a clean reset even harder.

Kebone has spent over 20 years navigating exactly this, delivering complex programmes across organisations like Capitec, Liberty Health and Momentum, working at the intersection of business stakeholders, governance structures and technical teams. She has walked into projects two years behind schedule and brought them to completion. She has managed multi-vendor environments where nobody agreed on what done looked like. And she has built a practice grounded in the belief that collaboration, structure and transparency are not process requirements. They are delivery requirements.

Watch the full recording here:

What you'll take away from the session:

  • Why financial services delivery is categorically different from other sectors, and how the regulatory and governance demands of the industry, when approached correctly, become a structural advantage rather than a constraint on speed and flexibility

  • The exact approach Kebone takes when she inherits a struggling project: how she creates a foundation document, resets stakeholder alignment around a single shared view of what was requested versus what is being delivered, and rebuilds momentum from there

  • Why communication breakdown between business and IT is the single most common cause of project failure in complex programmes, what it looks like in practice and the specific structural interventions that prevent it from taking hold

  • How to manage scope creep effectively in regulated environments: when to say no outright, when to negotiate, and how to escalate the impact of a new requirement clearly enough that decision makers actually engage with the time and cost tradeoff rather than simply approving it

  • How she landed her first independent contract, what the transition from permanent employment actually looked like in practice and why relationships built and maintained over years remain the most reliable pipeline for experienced independent professionals

  • How her coaching practice Purposeful Living grew out of her own career journey, and why her core message, that purpose rather than performance is what determines long-term fulfilment, changed not just her personal life but the quality and confidence of her independent work


If you are an independent professional working in complex delivery environments, or building your way towards them, this session is worth your time.

What makes delivery in financial services different from other sectors?

 The margin for error is minimal. Financial services sits at the intersection of regulatory obligation, technical complexity and high-stakes business outcomes. A missed requirement or a communication breakdown between business and IT can trigger compliance exposure, not just a delayed milestone. Kebone's view is that this regulatory discipline, when treated as a structural asset rather than a constraint, sharpens delivery practice across every other environment too. 

What is the most common reason projects fail in complex delivery environments?

Communication breakdown between business and IT. Business states requirements in business language. IT interprets and builds. Neither party checks the gap systematically until it is large enough to cause visible problems. Kebone's approach is to sit between both functions: translating requirements in both directions, documenting decisions and surfacing misalignments early through structured stand-ups and governance checkpoints. 

How do you take on a project that is already behind and rebuild momentum?

 Start with a foundation document: bring together the original request, what is currently being delivered and where the gap sits. Then call all stakeholders into one session and get explicit agreement on what success looks like from here. Kebone used this approach on a project two years behind schedule and brought it to completion. The key is creating a shared reference point before trying to accelerate delivery. 

How did you land your first independent contract?

Through a connection: someone who had worked with her before called when a project needed a programme manager. Her advice is to make sure your work speaks for you when you leave engagements, because those relationships are your most durable pipeline. Alongside that, staying visible on platforms and through agencies ensures you are findable when opportunities arise that your direct network does not surface. 

 
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