How I work

From isolated output to scalable practice.

I build the design function from the ground up. Five steps, in the same order every time, and each one has a result behind it.

01 · Five pillars

Where I lead, and what each looks like in practice.

Pillar 01

UX strategy

Discovery and problem framingPrioritisation against product OKRsProduct alignment across teamsJourney mapping for complex workflowsStakeholder facilitationUser research and usability testing
Evidence
70%of 81 users chose the list layout in a preference test
100%of users on the new client file since 2025
  • Mine: Design lead on the client file, from Beta 1 to release
  • Mine: Preference tests and research with our UX researcher
  • Shared: Product decisions, with the product manager
Earning the redesign →
Pillar 02

Design systems

Component libraries and tokensGovernance and change rulesDocumentation that stays currentAccessibility built inDesign and development collaboration
Evidence
20 → 4button variants
1 → 10product teams building with the system
1drift incident last year, down from routine
  • Mine: The Figma library, documentation and accessibility standards
  • Mine: The three-question rule before any new component
  • Shared: Storybook, maintained with a lead developer
Operationalising the design system →
Pillar 03

AI and conversational UX

AI assistant designRegulatory content and trustClarity in high-stakes answersHuman-in-the-loop workflowsPrompt and response experience
Evidence
~5,000daily users of Tex, about 10% of the user base
  • Mine: UX lead for Tex: how answers show their source, and which tasks stay manual on purpose
  • Mine: Making the design system readable for AI
  • Shared: Build and release, with product and engineering
The AI-readable design system →
Pillar 04

Team leadership

Coaching designers, from intern to seniorDesign critique and quality standardsCross-functional collaborationStakeholder managementRaising UX maturity
Evidence
6person UX team I lead and coach
5interns hired and mentored, two now in permanent roles
  • Mine: Hiring, coaching and critique, from intern to senior
  • Mine: A UI Engineer role, created inside the UX team
A playbook for building a UX function →
Pillar 05

Delivery and operations

Workflow and ways-of-working designMeasurement and decision instrumentationTooling and prototype-driven developmentEmbedded front-end capability in UXReducing delivery friction
Evidence
12 → 4refinement rounds on larger features
0 → 10product teams on prototype-driven discovery
70research studies completed and shared
  • Mine: Research operations: one tracker for every study
  • Mine: Surfaced Storylane, now used by Product, Support and Marketing
  • Shared: Story shaping in pre-refinement, with product and tech
A playbook for building a UX function →
The throughline

Change by demonstration.

I build the thing and let the outcome create the mandate.

v1 ships now, v2 complexity is documented.

Complexity has to be earned, or it gets cut.

I design for adoption and trust, not compliance.

02 · How I do it

How I operate.

The sequence I drive to take a system from friction to governed capability.

  1. 01

    Surface

    What I do

    Find the friction that is costing the organisation, framed in the organisation's own language.

    The decision

    Which problem to solve first.

    What it produces

    A shared problem statement.

  2. 02

    Build v1

    What I do

    A standalone first version that delivers now, with the integration complexity mapped for later.

    The decision

    What goes into v1, and what waits.

    What it produces

    A working first version.

  3. 03

    Instrument

    What I do

    Measurement that makes the outcome legible to Product, Engineering and Finance.

    The decision

    What counts as success.

    What it produces

    A result others can see and check.

  4. 04

    Earn the mandate

    What I do

    Demonstrated value creates permission to scale. I do not wait for the permission first.

    The decision

    Where to scale next.

    What it produces

    Demand from other teams.

  5. 05

    Govern & scale

    What I do

    Ownership, change rules and adoption across teams that never reported to me.

    The decision

    What becomes a shared standard.

    What it produces

    Owners and rules that hold.

Where AI changes the work.

AI speeds up both ends of the process. And when the product itself is AI, it changes what I design.

01 · Move left

Faster research loop

I prototype faster, so synthesis is faster. AI speeds up the research loop and concept exploration.

02 · Move right

Faster delivery

An AI-readable design system helps us deliver faster: we build faster, and the hand over to engineering gets shorter.

The AI-readable design system →
03 · Designing for AI

From Tex

How answers show their source, and which tasks are automated and which stay manual on purpose.

Three playbooks from the case studies.

Building a UX functionTeamEngineeringProductA playbook for building a UX function → Operationalising a design systemConsolidateConnectGovernOperationalising the design system → Earning a redesignShipProveRedesignEarning the redesign →
03 · Tools

Tools I work with.

DesignFigma · FigJam
Workshops and planningMiro · Jira · Confluence
Research and dataDovetail · Adobe Analytics
With engineeringStorybook · HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Demos and onboardingStorylane
AIClaude API · Figma Make