About
Curious by nature. Practical by experience.
I am Sam Taylor, the founder of 031Insights. My career has never fitted neatly into one lane. Over more than 25 years, I have worked across operations, project delivery, technology, business analysis and data, often finding myself at the intersection of disciplines.
I have always been curious about how things work and, perhaps more importantly, why they work the way they do. Give me a workflow to investigate, and I will naturally want to understand the people, processes, systems and information connected to it. That broader perspective often reveals opportunities that aren’t immediately obvious.
Turning a tangle of information into a clear plan, or a straight answer to “so what do we actually do here?”, is the part of the work I enjoy most.
A varied career, one common thread.
My path has taken me through very different industries and roles, in the UK, South Africa and Australia. These areas of experience overlap and inform one another.
- OperationsHow work really gets done under pressure
- Project deliveryHow to keep people, plans and vendors moving
- Incident and problem analysisTo look for causes, not just symptoms
- Data and reportingThat information is only useful if people trust it
- Systems and transformationHow to bring all of it together
Together, they mean I can usually understand both sides of the conversation: what the business needs and what the technology can realistically do.
How I like to work.
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Find the real question.
The first request is rarely the whole story. I take the time to understand what is actually going on, and I am not afraid to ask the slightly awkward questions that get us there.
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Listen to the people closest to the work.
They usually know exactly where things break down. I make sure their experience shapes the solution, alongside the views of leadership, vendors and developers.
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Learn what the problem needs.
I am not tied to one platform, methodology or job title. When a project involves an unfamiliar system, I get to grips with it, so the recommendation follows the problem rather than my comfort zone.
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See it through.
I take ownership of my part, find a way around the obstacles and stay involved until the change is genuinely working, not just documented.
The person behind 031Insights.
031Insights is my own business, and I like it that way. The person you speak to at the start is the person who does the work, and who stays involved throughout the engagement.
The name comes from 031, the old telephone dialling code for Durban in South Africa, where I grew up. It has stayed with me as a small nod to where I started.
These days home is in South East Queensland. I love animals, especially horses, and away from work you will usually find me outdoors with them or somewhere green and quiet.
The practical details.
View my resumeProfessional certifications
- Certified ScrumMaster (Scrum Alliance)
- ITIL Foundation
- Mastering Business Analysis certificate
- monday.com Core Certification
Platform partnership
- monday.com Partner
Tools and platforms I have worked with
monday.com, Jira, Confluence, Power BI, Power Query, Excel, Make.com, Visio, Lucidchart, Figma, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, SharePoint, and AI-assisted tools including Claude and ChatGPT. Getting to know new platforms is part of the work.
Tell me what you are working on.
Whether it is a specific problem, a project that needs an experienced extra pair of hands, or a sense that things could work better, I am happy to talk it through. No obligation and no sales pitch, just a practical conversation.