It’s nearly 2 years now since I left my role at the Department of Health, ending 17 years working directly for various parts of the state.

I’ve done quite a lot since then. I had a fairly lengthy pause to reflect, embarked on life as a freelance digital person for hire, and moved to the country.

In that time I’ve worked on projects for the Cabinet Office, Defra, the Genomics Education Programme, the Department for Transport, the Home Office, and the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government.

I’ve enjoyed the variety of the work. And I’ve worked with – and for – some great people. I’ve enjoyed managing my own time, choosing what work to take on and when, and how to balance that with life outside work. I’ve even quite enjoyed the minor peril of never quite knowing whether I’ll be able to find and sequence enough work to pay the bills each month.

I don’t have any regrets about the leap of faith I took to opt out of the security of the 9-5. But I’m about to change it all again because, starting this month, I’m joining Lagom Strategy.

Some of the most enjoyable and fulfilling pieces of work I’ve done over the last year have been with the team at Lagom, so I’m delighted to be joining Liam, Helen, Adam, Linda and the team on a more formal basis.

I hope that by joining Lagom I can help Liam and Helen to develop the business, providing a bit more capacity to expand the volume of work and the range of the offer it is possible to make to clients.

But I think they’ve already built a brilliant business, based around user research, discovery, and content strategy. I’ve already learned a lot from the rigour and creativity of their methods, which get great results, and always make Lagom projects a pleasure to work on.

For me, it provides me with a chance to get stuck into problems from start to finish, in a way that isn’t always possible as a freelancer on a day rate. It might just be a blend of all the best bits of the things I’ve been doing for the last couple of years. So I can’t wait to get started.