About me
Who I Am
I'm a product designer and design leader. I'm a father of two boys who keep me busy. In my spare time I'm obsessed with cycling – both doing it and following the World Tour.
One of my strongest qualities is a compulsion to learn. When I get interested in something, I go very deep on it for a long time. Then I take that knowledge and find ways to apply it in other places. That pattern has defined how I've developed as a designer, as a leader, and as a person.
I'm drawn to complex B2B problems where design shapes what gets built, not just how it looks. I work best in small, cross-functional teams where individual contribution matters. I care about understanding people genuinely, and I think the best products happen when you're thinking about both the user and the business at the same time.
How I Got Here
I've always been a visual person. Growing up I sketched constantly, got into art and design technology at secondary school. Around fourteen I did work experience with a local web practitioner – my first real foray into web. I learned HTML, CSS, built animations in Flash as summer work. That practical, hands-on curiosity about making things has never left me.
At university I studied Graphic Design and Advertising. I thought the real skill was in the craft, but what actually stuck was learning to think about audience, empathy, and experience. Understanding who you're designing for and why became the foundation for everything since.
In the early part of my career, I worked across three agencies – small design studios and product teams. Each taught me something different about solving complex problems, working across disciplines, managing stakeholders at different levels. I worked with clients like the BBC, Expedia, Carlsberg, Ascential. I learned the value of customer research, how to build from zero, how to hand over a product to an in-house team and have it actually thrive. That formative period gave me breadth I still draw on.
Then I moved in-house. At Zencargo I built a design and research practice from scratch, growing it from two people to thirteen. I led the platform's biggest reimagining post-Series B, working deeply with systems thinking and data. I learned what it means to build a practice, develop people, and make decisions under real constraint.
Most recently at Hook, I joined as the sole designer and product person. I'm doing both the craft work and the strategy work – something I'd deliberately moved toward after years in leadership. It's taught me what genuine influence on what gets built actually feels like when you're not managing a team but you're still shaping direction.
What I Value
Function and form together Good design is function and form moving together. You can't have great visual design without good UX, and equally, something that works brilliantly but looks neglected is a failure.
Validation over assumption Put something in front of people, learn from it, iterate. That shift from "what we think is right" to "what actually is right" changes everything.
Speed and depth aren't opposites Quick iteration teaches you about the system, which surfaces bigger questions that need deeper exploration. Then that depth informs the next round of fast work. It's a cycle, not a choice.
Systems, not screens I think about design at the level of how things connect, how data flows, how decisions in one part of a product affect another. That's where good design happens.
Pragmatism over perfection Perfect is the enemy of shipped. I'm always asking: what's the smallest thing we can deliver of real value right now? Some things I fight hard for. Others I'll compromise on because they don't matter as much.
How I Work
Understand the problem space and discover through real users Before designing solutions, I spend time understanding what the business is trying to achieve and what the people using it actually need. I talk to real customers, understand their problems, their needs, what's getting in the way.
Start small, learn fast, prototype and validate I move quickly into rough prototypes – sketches, wireframes, code – to test ideas and get real feedback. The smallest deliverable that teaches you the most is the goal. Perfect is the enemy of shipped.
Collaborate throughout I work with stakeholders to align on what we're solving and why it matters. I work closely with engineers to understand what's possible and what things actually cost to build. Diverse input produces better solutions than working alone.
Iterate continuously through research Testing rounds inform the next iteration. Desk research – competitor analysis, pattern review – happens alongside. I stay close during build, get honest feedback before wider release, and maintain a warranty period after shipping.
Define success and measure it Throughout the process, I work with the team to define what good looks like – what metrics we're tracking, how we'll know if something worked. This closes the loop between shipping and learning.
Skills
Design Craft Product design across the full process, from generative research and discovery through to high-fidelity UI design. Design systems (Figma, Storybook, Zeroheight). Working directly with engineers in delivery. Visual quality and strategic thinking moving together.
Product Thinking & Strategy Defining roadmaps, shaping prioritisation frameworks, leading discovery, writing specifications. Working directly with CEOs and VPs to set direction. Understanding sequencing, trade-offs, and the relationship between product decisions and commercial outcomes.
Research & Customer Insight Building research practices from scratch. Leading research at scale (300+ sessions at Zencargo). Hands-on customer research throughout my career. Knowing when to go deep with qualitative insight and when to move quickly with assumption-based prototyping.
Cross-Functional Leadership Zooming between 10,000-foot strategy and granular detail. Working with CEOs and boards. Supporting sales with strategic deals. Presenting to investors. Operating as connective tissue between engineering, product, customer success, sales, and marketing.
AI Product Experience Agent configuration UIs, agent approval workflows, knowledge base architecture, prompt engineering. Designing AI-native product experiences at a time when very few designers have depth in this space.
Team Building & Leadership Hiring and leading design and research teams at multiple stages of growth. At Zencargo: built team from 2 to 13, developed levelling frameworks, established research ops, led through redundancy. Leading with clarity, psychological safety, and high standards.