About
I'm Luke. I run Neutral Working from Czechia.
I've worked in QA, development, and product for the last decade — currently agency-side, building features for iGaming brands, where the work ranges from leaderboard rollouts across six casinos to CRM platform migrations to "the launch is in two weeks and nothing works." Most fractional POs come from one of those three backgrounds. I come from all of them, which is why my engagements tend to leave behind systems rather than slide decks.
I also build my own products under the Neutral Working brand. A football management roguelike (Kickoff Clash). A scouting platform for football clubs (Chief Scout). An e-commerce site (Crumble.cz). They're at different stages and they teach me different things — mostly that being on the receiving end of a vague brief is character-building.
The brand is called Neutral Working because it's an anagram of my name, and because the work I do is mostly about removing drama from product delivery. Most teams don't need more excitement. They need fewer surprises.
How I work
- Plain English over jargon. If I can't explain a decision to a non-technical founder, the decision isn't ready.
- Ship over strategise. Strategy is the work you do to figure out what to ship. The point is still to ship.
- Cut before adding. Most products are 30% too big.
- Systems over heroics. If the work only happens because someone is grinding through it, the system is broken.
- Honest scope. I'll tell you what I think will and won't work before you've signed anything.
What I'm not
I'm not a designer, although I work with good ones. I'm not a full-stack engineer, although I can read your codebase. I'm not a marketing consultant, although I'll tell you when your product positioning is hurting your delivery. I'm not a coach — I do the work.
Where I work
Remote, primarily with teams in the UK, EU, and US East Coast time zones. I'm in Czechia (UTC+1/+2). I work in English and can run client-facing work in French if needed.
Ready to talk?
30 minutes. No slides, no pitch. You describe what's going on, I tell you what I'd do about it. If we're a fit, we book the work.
Book a discovery call