Twenty-odd years across agency, in-house and freelance. Zero to one, then scaled and optimised. I’ve learned the gap between visionary and pragmatic, and I’ve learned to hold both.
Here’s what that actually looks like, broken into the shapes it tends to take.
// Product Strategy
I take products from zero to one. Then, if they need it, from one to scale. Different skills. I’ve learned where one stops and the other starts.
I worked on Tyl by NatWest, helping them re-enter merchant services after years shut out by regulators. I worked inside Google Android, where two patents came out of building things nobody had built yet.
Product-market fit needs testing against, over and over. That’s the job I actually do.
// Interaction Design
How something works matters to me as much as how it looks. I started as a front-end developer and accessibility specialist, back when interaction design wasn’t yet a job title anyone recognised.
I design for the point where a person meets new technology and has to make sense of it fast. Connected products. AI interfaces. Financial dashboards people check five times a day out of anxiety. The interesting problems are usually about trust and clarity. Decoration is easy by comparison.
I was technical reviewer for O’Reilly’s Designing Connected Products, on the strength of having actually built the things it described.
// Design Leadership
I’ve led teams as Head of Experience, Group Director and Senior Group Product Manager, and titles in between, at Just Eat, Critical Mass, Whereismytransport and Possible.
I structure teams and define how they work, then get out of the way. I’d rather give people room to be wrong and learn why, than stand over their shoulder and limit their growth.
I lead the way I design. Curious first, rigorous second.
// Advisory & Mentorship
Sometimes the useful thing is a second opinion, from someone who has actually shipped the thing you’re stuck on.
I mentor neurodivergent creatives through ADPList. I’ve spoken at Cyborg Camp, UX Brighton, LIFT and Design Jam. I sit on Council, a European think tank for the Internet of Things.
If you need someone to stress-test a strategy, run a workshop, or just tell you honestly whether a plan will survive contact with real users, that’s this.
I'd love to tell you more.