Joe Hardy

Tech Leadership • Music and Arts • Social and Community Impact • Media

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I build great teams

I am a senior technology leader with 25 years of experience.

I understand how to engage people, to get teams aligned and to focus on what's important.

I believe that the individual's attachment to their work will transform the output you get from it.

I believe that flow and focus, creativity and autonomy, direction and empowerment are essential attributes in the DNA of a good team.

Most importantly, I know that a team's effectiveness should be measured by the outcomes they produce.

I use elements of Product Thinking, LEAN, Agile, and many additional techniques and approaches which have really only clicked into place via experience and practice.

But with that said, every team is different, so every environment requires listening, understanding, empathy and inquiry before action.

I love building amazing teams.

Here's who gets it

Joe is a gun!

That's it

Hire him
— Clive Dickens, VP TV, Audio, Content + Product @ Optus Sport
I saw Joe bring together an awesome team of talented and creative people. He did this from scratch – literally from Post-It notes on the window through to a high performing team which met some audacious and seemingly impossible goals. Joe embodies ‘digital’ and start-up culture but, moreover, he’s a great communicator, leader and strategist.
— Paul Cooper, Managing Director @ estrat
Joe built the most outstanding team and culture I have ever had the privilege of being a part of.
— Ryan Armstrong, Software Engineer @ Google USA
[Joe] really led with both a customer focus and business lens and demonstrated a strong will and pragmatism towards each and every situation
— Peter Roumanos, Product @ Canva

Services

  • Consulting CTO. I can validate your technology strategy, execution and resourcing and make sure you're on the right track for your company, department, venture or project. Or if you have a team that needs help getting on track with an existing strategy, I can help you with your journey of improvement.
  • Music Event Organisation, Bookings and Programming. Drawing on my strong experience as a live music organiser and curator, I can help you navigate the best of Sydney and Australia's underground and put on a cracking gig or party. I play a mean DJ set too, solo or with SydneyMusic co-founder Caitlin Welsh as SydneyMusic DJs
  • Studio Production and Mix Engineering. I have a great ear for creating immersive, unique, atmospheric interpretations of music. I can work with you in-studio or work with your sessions remotely.

... and what I bring to the table

  • Human-centred, bullshit-free leadership, analysis and communication
  • Strategy facilitation and development
  • Culture advocacy and support
  • Team health check - WFO, WFH, hybrid
  • Planned work optimisation
  • Goal-setting methodologies including OKRs and outcome-led frameworks
  • Product Management and Product-led Delivery frameworks and methodologies.
  • Unplanned work reduction techniques
  • Incident response protocols
  • Risk review
  • Project or strategy feasibility analysis
  • Absolutely no talk about AI

Currently

SydneyMusic.net (2022 - now)

I'm the creator and co-founder of SydneyMusic.net, a not-for-profit community discovery project. The communities we're interested in tend to enjoy loud music performed live, but we think the concept behind SydneyMusic could be used in a diverse range of applications.

We have no revenue model and no funding, save for a limited amount of merch sold on our online store. Our only focus is on making Sydney's incredibly rich music community more visible.

It's our mission for 2024 to figure out how to make this sustainable while staying true to the project's central aims.

Media: FBi Radio interview (June 2022), ABC Radio Sydney 702 interview (August 2022)

Previously

Companies I've worked with ...

... include Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment, Squiz, Southern Cross Austereo, Freeview Australia, EMI, Universal Music, Junkee Media, SSW, CultureCounts, Praxa.

The Gate and other live music ventures

I co-founded and ran The Gate (2010 - 2013), a live music initiative championing emerging music and providing high quality production values in a DIY paradigm. We sought to pay artists fairly within a completely sponsorship-free and non-alcohol dependent financial model.

Central to our mission was making live music accessible to all ages while placing an emphasis on community.

A partial list of artists ...

  • HTRK
  • Mount Eerie (USA)
  • Heather Woods Broderick (USA)
  • Seekae
  • Jamie Hutchings
  • Collarbones
  • Fishing
  • Tim Fitz [Middle Kids]
  • Jordan Ireland [The Middle East]
  • Pole (GER)
  • The Paper Scissors
  • Wintercoats
  • Julia Holter (USA)
  • Joseph Liddy [of the Skeleton Horse]
  • Swimwear [Tim of Dappled Cities]
  • Galapagoose
  • Peter Hollo [raven, FourPlay, Tagents]
  • Seaworthy
  • Loon Lake

We collaborated with Mistletone, Astral People, Life Aquatic (Jarred Beeler aka DJ Plead), WhoTheHell.net, Preservation, Polaroids of Androids, Pablo & Rusty's Specialty Coffee.

Music Production

Partial list of credits of releases

Gotye - Hearts a Mess (Joe Hardy's 3am Mix)
Remix production

The Basics - With This Ship (Joe Hardy remix)
Remix production

Telafonica - Heartbeatings For Those With Heartbeats (Joe Hardy remix)
Remix production

The Familiars - Your Friends / Start It Up double A side
Production

Garage Hymnal - Bring On The Day
Writing, guitar, loops, ambience

Sound good?

Talk to me