Skip to content
JKL Agile

About · Jon Kelly

I've spent my career inside the work I now coach.

I'm Jon Kelly. I founded JKL Agile because too much advice about delivery sounds simple from the outside and feels very different when you are the person accountable for making it happen.

I've managed data-centre infrastructure projects, led multi-million-pound global programmes for Citi, worked in front-office fintech as a business analyst, project manager and Scrum Master, served as a Scrum Master at Allstate, contracted as a delivery lead, coordinated work as a Release Train Engineer and coached at enterprise scale.

I've had to manage deadlines, dependencies, competing stakeholders, changing priorities and the gap between a plan and what a system can genuinely deliver. That is why my coaching combines curiosity and empathy with practical delivery experience. I can sit with the human challenge and help turn the conversation into action.

I take on a small number of engagements at a time. The goal is always to leave your people more capable of seeing and improving the system themselves — not more dependent on a coach.

A few things I believe

What I care about in this work.

  • People deserve better than being blamed for the system around them.

    Behaviour usually reflects incentives, structures and pressures. Change those and behaviour tends to follow.

  • Agile is a means, not the goal.

    Better customer and business outcomes, healthier systems and capable people are the goal.

  • Honest evidence can create a safer, better conversation.

    Flow and outcome measures let people talk about the work, not about each other.

  • Small practical experiments beat grand transformation theatre.

    Real improvement is a chain of small, honest changes with feedback in between.

  • The best coaching builds independence, not reliance on the coach.

    If you still need me in a year, something has gone wrong.

Career journey

I've sat in the seat.

The range matters. It's why I can coach the conversation in the room and understand the delivery reality behind it.

  1. 01

    Infrastructure delivery

    Project manager on data-centre infrastructure projects, learning early that plans meet reality at the interfaces between teams and vendors.

  2. 02

    Global programmes

    Programme manager for multi-million-pound global projects at Citi. Delivery pressure at scale, and the politics that come with it.

  3. 03

    Front-office fintech

    Business analyst, project manager and Scrum Master close to high-pressure business outcomes. Where the plan meets the trading day.

  4. 04

    Team coaching

    Scrum Master at Allstate. Helping a team improve the way it worked together — one honest retrospective at a time.

  5. 05

    End-to-end delivery

    Freelance delivery lead with accountability for turning plans into outcomes when no one else was going to.

  6. 06

    Multi-team leadership

    Release Train Engineer coordinating delivery across teams and dependencies, when the queue between teams was the real bottleneck.

  7. 07

    Enterprise coaching

    Agile coach helping leaders, teams and internal coaching communities improve flow and build lasting capability.

How I coach

Listening, coaching, mentoring, teaching — deliberately, not reflexively.

I move deliberately between listening, professional coaching, facilitation, mentoring, teaching and hands-on advice. I try to contract openly so you know which stance I am using and why. That means fewer surprises, more useful conversations, and no consultant theatre.

A cross-functional group mapping work together during a facilitated agile workshop
Real workshop sessions facilitated by Jon Kelly.

If you want a coach who understands both the conversation and the delivery reality, let's talk.

A scoping conversation is the fastest way to know if this is the right fit.

Talk through your challenge