Meet our founder

Dan Apps — Product and AI Consultant, Creator of the BackBuild Framework

Dan has spent more than 17 years inside complex organisations helping them build digital products that actually work. He’s led teams, shaped strategy, fixed failing programmes, and partnered with brands including The Economist, Aviva, Bupa, Sky Broadband, Marsh McLennan, Compass Group, and Discovery Group. Alongside his consulting work, Dan is a contributing author for Mind the Product, where he shares his insights on product leadership and overcoming delivery challenges.

Across those years, one pattern kept repeating. Teams were talented, busy, and motivated, yet progress stalled. Engineers waited for clarity. Designers worked on screens that didn’t unblock anything. Leaders guessed which people they needed and when. Dependencies only surfaced halfway through delivery. Money burned, pressure rose, and delivery slowed.

Instead of accepting this as “just how software works”, Dan built something to solve it.

The BackBuild Framework

BackBuild was born on real projects, under real pressure. It started as a survival method to stop multimillion-pound programmes drifting into chaos. By mapping a product backwards from the finished state, BackBuild reveals the true order of work — the sequencing, dependencies, constraints, research needs, design flow, engineering spikes, and team shape required to deliver cleanly.

Over time, it became a repeatable framework that helps organisations avoid the most common causes of delay and waste. Today it sits at the heart of Dan’s consulting work, giving leaders a clearer way to structure, predict, and de-risk complex delivery.

Why Dan Started ARCANED

Dan founded ARCANED to give organisations something they rarely get: clarity. Not more process. Not another buzzword. Just a practical, grounded way to build digital products with fewer surprises and far fewer false starts.

His approach blends product leadership, transformation experience, AI advisory work, and the BackBuild methodology. The aim is simple: help teams move faster with less risk and give leaders a delivery model they can trust.

What Drives Him

Dan’s style is direct, calm, and quietly forensic. He notices the things most teams miss — misaligned incentives, hidden bottlenecks, fragile assumptions, and sequencing issues that silently derail delivery. Clients often bring him in for his ability to diagnose problems quickly and create order where there wasn’t any.

He cares about craft, integrity, and building products that genuinely make sense to users. And he believes organisations deserve tools that make delivery easier, not harder.

Outside Work

Dan lives in Sussex with his family. When he’s not helping companies untangle their product direction, he’s usually reading about emerging technology, running, or inventing superheroes with his son.

Also a proud member of Diamond Business Group and Brighton Chamber