About us
Curious people, usefully employed.
NewMethodThinking exists because of one stubborn belief: there is almost always a better way to do something. Our job is to find it, and then make it happen.
Why we started.
We’ve spent years inside other people’s systems: the servers, the software, the buildings and the business processes they all hold up. And we kept noticing the same thing.
Businesses rarely struggle because they lack technology. They struggle because the pieces they already have don’t fit together, because a process outgrew the reason it was built, or because nobody has had the time to step back and ask whether this is still the best way to do it.
When they go looking for help, they usually find someone selling a product. The product might be good, but a product is an answer, and nobody has asked the question yet. So the business ends up with one more system, one more login, and the same old problem with a newer interface.
We wanted to work the other way round: start with how the business actually works, find what’s really in the way, and only then decide what to do about it. Sometimes that’s a clever bit of engineering. Sometimes it’s connecting two things that were sitting side by side all along. Now and then it’s simply taking a step away.
And there’s a second gap. Advice is everywhere now: reports, searches, an AI that will list ten improvements in seconds. A list doesn’t open the panel, write the code or get the old system talking to the new one. We do. We bring the hands and the tools as well as the ideas.
We’re part of SilverServers, which has been looking after businesses’ technology in Kamloops since 1997. NewMethodThinking is where we put the part of that work we enjoy most: the puzzles.
What we believe.
Not a mission statement. Just the things we keep finding to be true.
01Traditional fixes miss the bigger picture.
Fixing one system at a time keeps each part working and leaves the whole thing clumsy. The real gains are usually in the spaces between the systems, which is exactly where nobody is looking.
02Simplicity is the hard part.
Adding is easy. Anyone can bolt on another tool. Taking a process down to what it really needs takes understanding, and that’s the work we care about most.
03The best answer isn’t always the obvious one.
The obvious answer is usually “replace it” or “buy something new”. The better one is often hiding in plain sight, in the equipment and software you already have.
04Work should be enjoyable.
For your people, who deserve less tedium. And for us, which is why we take on problems that make us lean in and say “huh, interesting.”
How we like to work
Serious about the work. Not about ourselves.
We’re engineers, tinkerers and builders who like nothing more than an odd puzzle. We’d rather show you something working than describe it to you.
- We talk like people, and we’ll explain anything in plain language.
- We say so when the answer is “leave it alone, it’s fine.”
- We’d rather fix the cause than keep coming back for the symptom.
- We enjoy this a bit more than is strictly normal.
What we notice in the first hour.
Walk us through a normal day and these are the things our ears prick up at. If a few sound like your place, that’s a good sign.
- Sticky notes on monitors with passwords, steps or phone numbers.
- A screen everyone walks past but nobody reads.
- “Oh, that one’s a bit funny, you have to…”
- A spreadsheet with a name like “FINAL v3 (use this one)”.
- Equipment with a manual nobody has opened since it was installed.
- The same question asked across the office more than once a day.
- A morning routine of checking things that are almost always fine.
- Two systems sitting side by side, with a person in between.
Got a puzzle? We’re listening.
A process, a building, a spreadsheet everyone is afraid to touch. Send us what you have, even if you’re not sure what’s wrong with it. We’ll take a look and tell you what we see.