About me
Designer and design leader, crafting digital experiences for more than 20 years. I’ve worked in-house for blue chip companies, as well as in agency and consultancy roles designing for apps, websites, email campaigns, multimedia installations, intranets, kiosks, videos and even print and corporate branding.
As well as running design teams, I’ve also managed content strategy and Search Engine Optimisation (I generated double-digit SEO growth for Avis car hire across Europe by treating it as a UX problem and fixing the customer journey).
I’m as comfortable in the boardroom as at the whiteboard
The first task of design leadership is often to shape a vision which senior stakeholders can support and believe in. I do the work to build creative strategies backed by solid business decisions, and I’m able to sell those strategies to decision makers and clients at all levels.
Design is a team sport
I build and develop great teams by giving smart people a context in which to push their own boundaries, and supporting them in their discovery. As well as working for my own team, I’ve mentored people from all areas of business in human-centred design, design thinking and stakeholder management.
I don’t subscribe to any one project methodology, using design sprints, Kanban, or any other technique to drive collaborative creation. The only universals in my approach are that I start with insight (data, customer research, etc), and I optimise for a rapid test and learn cycle using prototypes and live code.
Insight drives creativity
Great work starts with good data, whether that’s analytics, customer research or any other insight, I like to build a rich understanding of the need we’re trying to address. My teams return to that data often throughout a project to quickly validate decisions and guide next steps using field and lab studies supported
by multivariate tests and other research methods.
I love solving big problems
Really tough challenges give me the opportunity to think through solutions, roll up my sleeves and sketch with the design team, or lead stakeholders through workshops and design sprints. I’m happiest when I get to apply lateral thinking to find new angles on a problem. It’s always fun to solve a puzzle, and helping a room of people to find the ‘ah ha’ moment is a particularly fantastic feeling.