Insight

Leading through ambiguity: Lessons from Google’s matrix-like madness

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What do you do when the only certainty is that nothing is certain?

Staying effective when nothing stands still is a skill. In some organisations, ambiguity isn’t an occasional challenge, it’s built into how the place runs. Priorities shift mid-quarter, product names change overnight, and clarity is something you build yourself, not something you’re given.

This is what leading through a matrix-like madness looks like, where the pace is fast, the answers are fuzzy, and you still need to make decisions that stick.

These lessons are taken from a conversation with Katie Brewis, Strategy & Commercial Finance Director at Google. With a background that cuts across consulting, strategy and tech, Katie’s perspective is grounded in what it feels like to lead when things are moving fast, the answers aren’t clear, and ambiguity is just part of the normal.

Martix madness: It’s real, and it’s relentless

If you think Google is all free lunches and futuristic product launches, think again. Under the hood, as Katie puts it, it’s an enormous matrix. Multiple product lines. Hundreds of marketing priorities. Ten different businesses being supported by a single marketing organisation.

And within that sits Katie’s team of 15, partnering with a marketing organisation of 600, managing hundreds of millions in budget, and trying to pin down ROI for a campaign that might not even aim to drive immediate revenue.

“The complexity is real,” she explains, “and it’s always shifting.”

One day you’re looking at regulatory strategy. The next, you’re elbows-deep in a carbon pricing model. The challenge isn’t just in the work, it’s in switching between roles, audiences, and expectations, constantly. That’s where Katie’s concept of the “dolphin move” comes in.

“You’ve got to be able to swim deep into the detail, then bounce up to the big picture. The hard bit is the vertical shift. It’s exhausting, but essential.”

Gemini, grey areas, guessing the future

Let’s talk ambiguity. The launch of Gemini, Google’s take on ChatGPT, has been fast, messy, and… evolving.

Katie’s team is still trying to define the commercial model, work out what “good ROI” even looks like, and support a product that changes faster than you can update a spreadsheet. So how do you lead finance in that kind of setting?

“You have to build what-you-need-to-believe models. The product’s evolving, the data’s limited. But you still need to make decisions.”

And that’s the real job, according to Katie. Not waiting until everything is reconciled and confirmed, but shaping decisions in the grey.

“It’s about being okay with uncertainty and helping others act despite it.”

“We are in the midst of figuring out what’s the commercial model of a new product. What is the marketing strategy? How do you think about defining ROI? And is moving fast all the time because the product’s moving fast. It’s changing names continuously for a start.

There’s a lot of uncertainty about the commercial model. And so for a finance professional as well, you need to be very comfortable with building what you need to believe scenarios and framing that ambiguity to help people make clearer decisions.” – Katie Brewis, Strategy & Commercial Finance Director at Google

Slowing down to go fast

Ambiguity isn’t just in the numbers; it’s in the people side too.

Katie describes herself as someone who’s naturally impatient, laser-focused on change, and not afraid to push. It served her well, until it didn’t.

“There was a project where I was trying to get super clear on ROI for marketing. But I was too focused on speed. I wasn’t listening enough. People around me had valid points about why it wasn’t that simple.”

That experience stuck. It taught her to go slower, listen harder, and bring people along.

“It’s not about losing your drive. It’s about making time to understand what others need before you charge ahead.”

Now, she’s working the same way on another big initiative. Lots of conversations, lots of back-and-forth. “It’s better. The idea’s stronger, and more people are behind it.”

Leading when your team’s asleep

Google is global. That means Katie works odd hours. Her US team comes online at 5pm UK time, which means her day is split work, family dinner, then more work in the evening.

“It works for me,” she shrugs. “I get a lot of quiet time to be productive.”

But the challenge goes beyond time zones. It’s also cultural. Leading a global team meant changing how she showed up. At one point, she was covering parental leave, leading a team in the US, APAC, and EMEA, most of whom she didn’t know.

“You can’t be the same person at every scale. When you’re in a room with 10 people, you joke, you’re relaxed. When you’re addressing 100 people you don’t know during a redundancy period… you adapt.”

She found herself being more cautious, less jokey, more deliberate. That’s not easy for someone who thrives off bringing warmth and energy.

“But it made me appreciate why some leaders seem more ‘corporate’. When you’re leading at scale, you sometimes have to be.”

The AI shift: Already here, already old news

For a company at the forefront of AI, it’s no surprise that Katie’s team is already using it daily. One person automated reporting decks that used to take six hours. Another used Gemini to categorise hundreds of suppliers in minutes.

“Compared to last year, it’s completely different. And even what we did at Christmas already feels outdated.”

She sees AI changing not just workflows, but team structures and skills. Prompts matter now, but maybe not for long. Eventually, tools might get smart enough that even prompting gets automated.

There’s excitement but also caution.

“We risk losing some skills. Like summarising. If we get too reliant on AI to do it for us, we stop being able to do it ourselves. And that matters.”

And then there’s the clutter. Katie shares a story from Bain: one client used AI to fill out a complicated form, and the other used AI to extract the info. The result? More complexity, not less.

“Two AIs talking to each other, adding more and more data. No human would’ve done that. Sometimes it’s better when people are still in the loop.”

Finding ROI in emotions

One of Katie’s biggest areas of focus is marketing. Not just budgeting it but making sense of whether it works.

And that’s tricky when the campaign is all about emotion.

“A brilliant ad that builds love for the brand doesn’t drive immediate sales. But if you’re selling a phone for over a thousand dollars, building sentiment now might drive a sale next year.”

That means Katie’s team has to do the maths on maybes. Probability models, long timeframes, layered assumptions.

“You need to build belief models. If this many people see it, and this percentage of them feel differently, and that eventually leads to sales… then maybe it’s worth it.”

It’s fuzzy. But that’s the point. Her job is helping people make sense of that fuzziness and back it with numbers where possible.

“I talk to my team a lot about this idea of a dolphin move. We all probably have preferences whether you operate at a detail level or a big picture, but actually if you’re going to be successful you need to be able to dolphin up and down. The hard bit is the switch.” – Katie Brewis, Strategy & Commercial Finance Director at Google

Lessons in values (and difficult conversations)

Leadership isn’t just about frameworks and strategy decks. It’s also about knowing who you are and standing for something.

Katie talks about a mentor, Natasha, who made that real. “She was so clear on her values. What she would accept, what she wouldn’t. You didn’t have to guess.”

That clarity builds trust. And it’s something Katie’s tried to bring into her own style, especially when it comes to feedback.

“I’ve learned that being direct, having difficult conversations, that’s part of the job. But people will accept it if they know it’s coming from a good place.”

She jokes about trying to bring a growth mindset to her mum. “It didn’t work there. But I do think you can help people open up to feedback. You just need to make them feel safe first.”

Katie’s advice for Finance Leaders

  • Act strategically, whatever your title says: You don’t need to wait for the CFO badge to think like one. Katie’s advice is simple: be curious. Ask how things connect, challenge existing ways of working, and explore the longer-term ripple effects of today’s decisions. Strategy isn’t a job description, it’s a mindset.

  • Switch between detail and direction
    Her “dolphin move” sums it up well. Learn to swim deep into the numbers when needed, then surface to steer the wider conversation. It’s tiring, but it’s what makes finance leaders valuable.

  • Help others make decisions in uncertainty: When the data’s incomplete and the timeline’s tight, Katie builds “what-you-need-to-believe” models. Not every call will be right, but creating structure in the grey helps teams move forward.

  • Bring people with you, not just the plan: Katie learned the hard way that speed doesn’t always equal impact. Listening more, pushing less, and slowing down early can make ideas stronger and the support broader.

  • Keep emotional intelligence on the table: In global teams and high-stakes moments, warmth still matters. The tone might shift depending on the scale, but the goal is the same: lead in a way people trust.

Listen to the episode of the STOIX Podcast

To hear Katie Breiws’ full conversation, watch the complete podcast episode here:

To connect with Katie or explore more of her experience and insights, head over to Katies LinkedIn profile.