Digging In with Ben Nichols, Chief Delivery Officer

Digging In is a regular series of blog posts profiling UDig employees.  We hope this series helps you get to know our team and understand why we dig what we do! Today, we are sitting down with Ben Nichols, Chief Delivery Officer. 

UDig: Tell us a little bit about your background and your role at UDig.

BN: I’ve spent my career in delivery and client services leadership. From Booz Allen Hamilton to CapTech to Method I’ve had a front-row seat to how different consulting and tech organizations build (or lose) trust with clients. At UDig, I serve as Chief Delivery Officer, which means I’m the connective tissue across our three practices — Engineering, Design and Strategy. My job is making sure the work we promise in a pitch is the work clients actually experience once we’re in it together. 

UDig: Why UDig? What made us the right decision for you?

BN: After years at bigger, more layered organizations, I wanted to be somewhere I could actually shape how delivery works, not just manage around it. UDig is at a stage where a Chief Delivery Officer can still get their hands dirty — building frameworks, developing practice leaders, and having a real say in how we go to market. That kind of builder’s seat is hard to find. 

UDig: What does “ideas to impact” mean to you?

BN: It’s the whole reason my role exists. Anyone can have a good idea in a workshop — the hard part is the unglamorous middle: staffing it right, holding the delivery framework together, keeping practices aligned so the idea doesn’t get lost in translation on its way to the client. “Ideas to impact” is really “ideas to delivered, measurable, felt impact.” That’s the gap I spend my days closing. 

UDig: What do you hope every client says after working with UDig?

BN: That we felt like an extension of their team, not a vendor keeping the clock running. If a client walks away saying “they understood what we were actually trying to do, and they delivered it,” that’s the whole job done right. 

UDig: What did you want to be when you grew up?

BN: An F1 driver. I had the skills but I knew I would never fit in the drivers seat.  

UDig: What’s the most played song in your library?

BN: In general, it’s the Jonas Brothers because my Apple account is hooked up to the kids karaoke machine. 

UDig: What trivia category would you be best at?

BN: Useless facts and movie quotes.

UDig: How would you spend your day if we told you to take the day off?

BN: I really love a good purge — I would probably do an audit of my garage and reorganize it for the 10th time.  

UDig: In 3 years, what do you hope to see UDig accomplish?

BN: I want our three practices, Engineering, Design, and Strategy, operating in true lockstep instead of three good teams doing good work in parallel. I want the UDig Experience framework to be so embedded that it’s just how we deliver, not a document anyone has to reference. And I want Strategy to have grown into a practice that’s obviously as sharp and in-demand as our Engineering and Design work already are. If we get there, “One Team, One Voice” stops being a phrase from an offsite and starts being just… true.