---
title: "Tom Sutton: from development exec to creative director | Andy Sockanathan"
description: How TV development exec Tom Sutton turned 25 years of experience into his own company, The Development Sprint, with 1:1 coaching from Andy Sockanathan.
image: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1ihZ6qL2YSATwhPQPfZQ_Y6DiKuXMeHe7=w1200
---

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Case study

# From development exec to creative director

Tom Sutton started coaching with me in February. By May he had launched his own company, The Development Sprint, and since then it has gone stratospheric.

![Tom Sutton](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1rC1DTa40DkawA5iWJOmq761erhkHnSub=w800)

The outcome, October 2026

Tom launched The Development Sprint in May. Five months on he has run seven sprints for over a dozen clients, from live channel briefs to whole new slates for indies. Amazingly, he now earns double what he was making as a jobbing freelancer.

This is my conversation with Tom Sutton. Tom had spent 25 years in TV, the last six or seven as a development exec, and was doing two or three days a week of bits and pieces. He didn't need a new career. He needed to see the business sitting inside the one he already had. So we built one. Here's how he got there, in his own words.

![Tom Sutton case study](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1ihZ6qL2YSATwhPQPfZQ_Y6DiKuXMeHe7=w1600)

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## Can you tell us a bit about your background?

I've worked in TV for about 25 years. I started in production and moved into development, and for the last six or seven years I was a development exec at lots of different companies, including Shine, BBC Studios and, most recently, Studio Ramsay.

When that last big job finished in September, I started consulting and freelancing, doing lots of little bits and pieces, and thinking, what else could I do with my career and my skills?

 

## What was going on before we started working together?

I was doing two or three days a week on average, and enjoying it, but wondering if there was something else I should be doing with my skills.

Then I saw your LinkedIn post asking if anyone was available to do a bit of research into TV. I'm always looking for other avenues, other people to talk to, other ways of doing things. That's how we connected.

 

## What made you want to work with me in particular?

I'd seen the path you'd taken, out of development and into something new. Not that I was necessarily going to be a coach, but you'd taken your career in a new direction using the skills and knowledge you'd built up over the years.

And you've done the jobs I've done. You know the industry and the core skills, so I didn't have to explain myself or how TV development works. There was a shorthand there straight away.

 

## Was there a moment where something clicked?

I think everyone assumes career coaching means you get a plan on day one. Here are the avenues, here's who to contact, here's a career for you.

What was really great about working with you was that it wasn't that. You broke everything down and made it simpler. Who am I as a person? What do I want to be doing with my life? What do I love doing more than anything else, and how do I carry that on in a new form? It's tricky, but it works really well.

 

## What was the turning point?

I realised a lot of the core skills I have, and the things I love, are things I was already doing for work. This wasn't me transforming into something new. It was asking, how do I take my creative and development skills and use them in a fresh way, and find an angle on the TV business nobody's thought of before?

I'd never thought of myself as a business owner. So we stepped back and looked at the industry together. Where are the opportunities? Where are the pinch points? Development budgets are squeezed. I wasn't getting the big long contracts I used to, and that was true across the industry. Companies have small teams or no team at all, and bringing in freelancers one or two days a week isn't really solving it. That's not something I'd have thought about without those conversations.

 

## So what is the Development Sprint?

It's inspired by sprints in the tech industry: big, concentrated, almost production level energy on a development project. Instead of a company patching together freelancers, they hire me and a bespoke team for five days. We agree the problem beforehand. It might be a slate that needs filling, a format that isn't quite working, or development money that needs spending well. By Friday we're delivering the materials, and then we're gone until you need us back.

It works for the company because they don't have to commit to three or six months of contracts. It works for freelancers because they get good, full weeks of work. And it uses something I didn't even realise was a skill: my contacts. I know how lots of companies work, I know commissioners, and most importantly I know the freelance market, where the strong people are and who works well together.

 

## What's changed in how you work?

You gave me the confidence to think of myself as the boss, a creative director in charge of something, rather than a freelancer for hire. That mindset switch is the thing you've taught me more than anything else. I wake up in the morning and do what I want to do. It's hard work, and the pressure comes from me, but it's really exciting to become that person.

I now contact people I haven't heard from in ages, people more senior than I'd have approached before, and say, I've got something you might be interested in, can we jump on a Zoom? Three months ago that would have filled me with fear. Now I send cold LinkedIn messages too, and I'm much more direct, because I'm confident in myself and the business.

 

## What's next?

I've spoken to lots of people at every level of the industry and lots of different indies. I've got lots of people potentially signing up, so the next step is launching the business fully and running my first sprints.

It's within TV, but also agencies and other areas, where the sprint model could work in lots of different directions.

 

## What would you say to someone thinking about working with me?

Definitely do it. Speak to Andy and see what he can do for you. I've spoken to so many people recently who've had a certainty for a long time about who they are and what work they do, and now the doubts are creeping in, but they don't know where to go.

I've had that myself. Where do you start? It's really difficult to do without someone there to guide you, push you, and help you think of yourself in different ways. It's not about training me. It's about harnessing what's already in there. I couldn't have done it without you.

## Want a story like Tom's?

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