Why this matters

I’m Patrick McClory. Over the past 20 years, I’ve been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time, building relationships with hundreds of teams and companies. I've had the honor of being invited in as a trusted advisor at technical, operational, and strategic levels. I’ve built consulting firms and product organizations, big and small. I’ve helped my friends do the same, and I love diving into new problems to solve.

I’m not a technical purist, nor am I an “ends justify the means” kind of person. I’ve found that understanding context at every level helps create better technology, better teams, and better companies. Success often comes down to balance, trade-offs, and working towards a goal—while staying flexible enough to adapt to change and seize opportunities. Sometimes that means taking a risk with a new process, toolset, or unproven technology to accelerate product and business growth. Other times, it means repurposing existing technologies for speed, stability, or handling undifferentiated work. While it might seem obvious what the “right decision” is in those situations, they’re rarely black and white. That’s why context is crucial—it gives you confidence in your choices.

If “context is king,” then why should you stick around and spend time here? My answer is simple: I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve seen many companies and teams make mistakes on a lot of projects. But that experience has also led to amazing opportunities, helping teams leverage technology, automation, and all the cool DevOps/cloud stuff to achieve their goals and avoid unnecessary headaches. All with a few basic practices.

I design and engineer for failure—and make it safe to fail. I dive deep to understand how to leverage new technologies and love contributing to the open-source community whenever I can. Whether it’s solutions and product design, operational management, or scalability concerns, I enjoy figuring out how to make something that works today, tomorrow, and evolves with a company’s long-term direction. Seeking context has become second nature for me because it consistently helps me build great things.

Often, it all starts with a conversation about people, process, and product. Technology isn’t unimportant—it’s just one piece of exploring what’s possible. And if you’re wondering where the call to action is, here it is, hidden in this “about me” page: If you’re looking for a strategic partner who can move seamlessly from low-level engineering decisions to architecture design and into product management—helping align technical capabilities with your organization’s strategy—that’s my specialty. Let’s connect and see how even a short engagement might benefit you. Drop me a message at patrick@mcclory.io or go over to the Consulting page to learn more.

If you’re here for (sometimes humorous) insights into what I’m working on—usually with a healthy dose of detail (sorry, StackExchange)—stick around and check back often!