Your product works. Your team is capable. But design still isn't quite shaping direction the way it should — and you're not sure why, or what to do about it. That's usually where I come in. I help teams get clear on their point of view: what it means to have a distinctive, recognisable product, how to solve the right problems, and how to build a design practice that lasts.
I work at both levels — with leadership and directly with designers — which means things actually change, not just get recommended. Senior design leadership, without the full-time hire.
Who I work with:
- Early-stage founders: You're building something with real craft ambitions. You need someone who can set the bar and help your team meet it.
- Scaling teams: Design has grown but ways of working haven't kept pace. You need structure without bureaucracy.
- Teams in transition: Between design leaders, ramping new hires, or navigating a strategic pivot. You need a steady hand.
Core offerings
1 — Design Direction & Strategy
Your team is building something new — or pushing the existing product somewhere it hasn't been. You know design should be central to what makes it distinctive. But there's no clear strategy for getting there, and you can't drive that kind of thinking in-house right now.
This is a 3-5 week strategic engagement where we define where your product is going, what the experience looks and feels like and what it takes to get there.
What you get:
- Design strategy
- North Star vision (i.e prototypes/artefacts that illustrate the strategy)
- Prioritised 30/60/90 day plan
- Working sessions with your team to align and activate the direction
Let's define your next direction
Book a 15-min call2 — Design Org Foundations
You have designers and you believe in them. But the function around them isn't set up for success — processes are messy, feedback is ad hoc, ways of working are implicit. As you hire more, things get messier, not better. Your team has more to give. They just need the right environment to give it.
This is a 6-8 week engagement focused on building the operational and cultural foundations your design team needs to perform at their best.
What you get:
- Defined ways of working to improve performance and culture
- Role clarity and operating model
- Improved critique and rituals to uplevel craft excellence
- Design's role and influence across the org
Ready to build a design function that scales?
Book a 15-min callOther ways to work together
Fractional Head of Design — I embed with your team on a part-time basis over 1–4+ months, acting as your senior design leader without the full-time commitment. Good for teams that need ongoing strategic direction, hiring support, and leadership presence but aren't ready for a permanent hire.
Design Advisory — lighter touch, on-demand support. A thinking partner for product and design decisions, available for one-off sessions or a simple monthly retainer.
Why me
I've spent 15 years in design, the last 8+ in leadership — building design functions from scratch, restructuring teams that had outgrown themselves, and leading design at companies including Blinkist, Instagram, and Shopify. Now, I offer senior design advisory and fractional leadership for teams that need it but aren't quite ready to hire full time.
I know what good design leadership looks like at different stages because I've done it at most of them. I do this fractionally because a focused outside perspective — with no internal agenda — often moves things faster than waiting for the right full-time hire. And I've made enough mistakes along the way to know what actually works versus what just sounds good in a deck.
Need a different kind of design support? Let's talk.