And That's a Wrap: Reflecting on 2025 at Firewood

As I'm writing this, it's clear that 2025 has been a memorable year for Firewood. A year of hard-won progress, steady growth and moments that challenged us to adapt and evolve. In the constant cycle of delivery, deadlines and responsibility, it's easy to overlook just how much there is to be grateful for. So I’d like to invite you to pause and reflect as you read this.

For Firewood, 2025 has been a year of contrasts and resilience. The year began with us hosting the SME forum for the Major Projects Association in January, bringing together small and medium-sized enterprises to share perspectives on delivering major projects. From there, we continued our work with London Stock Exchange Group on a major transformation programme spanning data, technology and operational change. Our focus was on developing a comprehensive test strategy, defining objectives, resources, schedules and methodologies, and ensuring quality assurance kept pace with a complex, fast-moving delivery environment. Strong delivery and positive feedback led to our involvement being extended into 2026.

We continued our long-standing relationship with Network Rail, carrying out annual supplier audits for the organisation responsible for Britain's railway infrastructure. This year's reviews followed our established approach: defining scope based on previous assessments, gathering and validating evidence, and producing detailed reports with clear assurance outcomes. The work gives Network Rail's leadership independent, year-on-year confidence that suppliers continue to meet their requirements.

Through an associate network referral, we began an exciting engagement with a Premier League football club, providing executive-level delivery support to a large-scale CRM transformation programme. The work has involved delivery leadership, cross-functional coordination and technical oversight, ensuring solutions align with architectural standards while helping the organisation adopt modern delivery practices. It's always rewarding to work with new clients, and this engagement reflects something we're proud of: our ability to support organisations across a wide range of industries and sectors. The programme is progressing well and continues into 2026.

As a long-standing supplier to Nuclear Waste Services, we continued to support the organisation on its P3M capability improvement journey. NWS was established to safely manage the UK's radioactive waste, and we have been helping to establish robust foundations across governance, quality standards, strategic planning and talent development. This year, building on our previous work, we developed and launched a Project Professional Career Framework for their GDF Programme, complemented by a learning library, clearly defined role profiles and practical guidance to support adoption and ongoing capability development.

We closed the year with a fascinating piece of work at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, conducting a P3M3-aligned maturity assessment to baseline current capabilities and inform future improvement. We provided clear maturity scores across project, programme and portfolio levels and facilitated improvement planning workshops, resulting in a structured roadmap of priorities and progression pathways. This also gave us another opportunity to utilise Lumina, our capability assessment tool, in a real-world setting. The work has equipped the team with practical insights to strengthen delivery and governance going forward.

A particularly exciting initiative this year was the launch of FlameFront, our thought leadership forum. FlameFront publishes practical, real-world insights for project professionals from internationally recognised experts including Jeffrey Pinto and Lavagnon Ika. We also introduced a masterclass series, with Tony Siegel and Iain Baxter hosting sessions this year and more international authors and recognised leaders joining the programme in 2026. Alongside FlameFront, we launched new SaaS products as part of our continued investment in tools that support better project decision-making. Resonate, our AI-powered platform, transforms project reporting by turning voice updates into structured, meaningful insights. Lumina, our capability assessment tool, was also launched this year, with further enhancements planned.

We also continued to raise our profile across the industry this year. We sponsored and participated in several major events, including the APM Annual Conference and APM Women in Project Management Conference. At the Annual Conference, we chaired the Innovation Stream, hosting speakers and moderating Q&A sessions. We also delivered a presentation on achieving sustainability in technology projects, which was well received and led to invitations to present again at HMRC’s Project Conference and at NISTA. Beyond the formal programme, we made hundreds of wonderful new connections and enjoyed watching delegates play our games, win our prizes and share a good laugh. We were also honoured to be among a select group of technology firms invited to 10 Downing Street to explore how AI can help address national challenges.

Despite so many positives, 2025 was not without its challenges. Market conditions remained uncertain, and businesses of our size often feel that more acutely than larger competitors. Shifting client demands, tighter budgets and the rapid pace of technological change all required us to make difficult decisions and stay adaptable. But we close the year in good shape, with a strong pipeline and real momentum heading into 2026.

One thing is certain: none of this would have been possible without our clients, key partners and trusted associates, who continue to engage with us in an open and collaborative spirit. And of course, the Firewood team, whose passion for improving how projects are delivered sits at the heart of everything we do.

We have some exciting work ahead in 2026 and we look forward to sharing more as the year unfolds. Follow us on LinkedIn and visit our website to stay up to date.