About
Jack of all trades, master of nine. And the nine are what get your project built.
I'm Nik Kerry, director of Bristol Internet Ltd, trading as bristol.digital.
For over 25 years I've written software for a living. I'm a coder first: hundreds of web applications built for clients, contract work inside around 40 organisations, including GOV.UK, and the servers underneath them secured, including at a university. I've written accounting ledger software, where every penny has to reconcile. I build and run my own platforms.
Around the code, I've done the jobs that usually sit either side of it: project management, consultancy, branding, advertising, design, SEO, DevOps and security. That combination is the whole point of working with me.
One person who can do every part
A typical project passes through a lot of hands. Someone works out what the business needs. Someone designs it. Someone builds it. Someone puts it on a server and keeps it secure. Someone markets it. Someone manages all of them. Every handover loses time, money and detail, and the gaps between the specialists are where projects go wrong.
I can do every one of those jobs:
- Engineer it: architecture, data, integrations, and the decisions that are expensive to change later
- Code it: the actual building, not just the diagram of it
- Design it: screens people can use without a manual, and a look that fits your brand
- Run it: servers, deployment, monitoring and security, so it stays up and stays safe
- Manage it: scope, priorities, cost and a clear view of what happens next
- Market it: positioning, SEO and advertising, so the thing that's built gets used
- Improve the process around it: because automating a bad process just produces bad results faster
So a project can stay with one person who understands all of it, from the first conversation to a working system in use. That's how I can implement quickly without needing a roomful of other people, and why the cost stays under control.
Range: why generalists do well in a fast-changing world
In Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein shows that in fields with clear rules and fast feedback, like chess or golf, early specialists thrive. But in messy, changing environments, the kind he calls "wicked", the people who do best are often those with broad experience across many fields. They spot patterns that specialists miss, borrow solutions from one area to solve problems in another, and aren't trapped by the way things have always been done in a single discipline.
Business technology right now is about as wicked as it gets. AI, automation and the tools around them change month by month. There's rarely a rulebook, and the right answer usually draws on several disciplines at once: some engineering, some design, some process, some marketing.
Epstein also describes "lateral thinking with withered technology": combining well-understood, proven tools in new ways, rather than chasing the newest thing for its own sake. That's much of what I do: putting dependable, proven technology together so that it solves your problem now.
Value over perfection
I value my free time, and I respect yours. That shapes how I work: I'd rather get the most out of a project than drag it out. No padding, no endless meetings, no building things nobody needs.
I'm a free thinker, and I care about value more than absolute perfection. A system that works this month and improves from real use beats a perfect one that never arrives, and keeps costing money while it doesn't. So I build in steps: get something working, learn from it, improve it.
It's a common-sense approach, and it's why I'd rather build a first version in front of you than spend weeks presenting what I could do.
Credentials
- ExO Consultant, OpenExO, December 2019: certified to help organisations understand how exponential they are and how to adopt the Exponential Organisations model. View credential
- ExO Sprint Coach, OpenExO, March 2020: certified to guide organisations through the ExO Sprint transformation process. View credential
Things I've built
My portfolio has 25 years of selected work, with the stacks and methods behind it.
- FormifyPro: turns a 30-page PDF into an online experience.
- BeRentalReady: a verified, portable tenant profile to share with any letting agent.
Where I work
On site or remotely across the UK and Europe. Further afield, remotely, or on site with travel costs.