Erin Richards On Her Four Years At Nua Group: “I get to dig into complex, foundational problems that most people want to skip past.”

Erin Richards is the person clients call when things feel harder than they should behind the scenes. She has a talent for getting to the root of the issues companies experience and helps them build stronger foundations.

After more than a decade working in-house, including leading People Operations and HRIS at Fitbit through its acquisition by Google, Erin joined Nua to help more organizations by applying her expertise and out-of-the-box thinking. Four years later, that’s exactly what she’s doing. In this interview, she shares what consulting has taught her, why timing is important when it comes to having difficult conversations, and why her work continues to be meaningful.

Looking back on your four years at Nua, what's surprised you most about consulting life?

How much of the job is knowing what not to fix right now.

When I was in-house, if I could see a problem upstream, I could go deal with it. That was just how the work went. In consulting, you have a scope, and operating within that scope turns out to be its own kind of skill. I still see all the interconnected issues. I can't help it. But I've learned to document them, flag them as things worth addressing later, and help clients see how the current work builds a foundation for tackling them down the road. It actually works pretty well. My clients would probably say I still poke into more than they initially expected - but I'd like to think they've come to appreciate it!

What's one challenge that stretched you more than you expected?

Knowing when to say the hard thing, and when to wait. There's real skill in delivering an uncomfortable finding to the right person, at the right time, in a way they can act on. Too early and you create defensiveness before you've built enough trust. Too late, and the problem is already embedded. I've had to actively work on understanding a client’s readiness for change, and I'm better at it now than I was four years ago.

What has made your time at Nua feel worthwhile?

The work is genuinely important, and the team takes it seriously. That combination is rarer than it sounds.

I came to consulting because I wanted to apply what I'd learned across more organizations, not just one. Four years in, that's still what I'm doing - and Nua has given me the space to do it in a way that fits how I work. I get to dig into complex, foundational problems that most people want to skip past. And I have colleagues I can think out loud with when something doesn't make sense. That matters more than I expected it to when I made the switch.

Four years in, Erin continues to do the work that makes everything else run better. She helps clients fix the foundational issues that often get ignored until they start slowing teams down. Her thoughtful approach, sharp operational instincts, and ability to stay calm in tricky, complex situations make her an invaluable part of Nua and a trusted partner to clients. We’re lucky to have Erin on the team and excited for what’s ahead.

Want to work with Erin and the team? Get in touch.