A highly-skilled and commercial astute director with expertise in technology and product development and over 20 years experience covering digital, retail, travel and ecommerce. A track record of supporting large businesses through times of transformation and change and setting the foundations for scalable growth within start-ups.
A consensus-building and collaborative leader, skilled in facilitating diverse perspectives in discussion and establishing effective paths forward. Brings unique insight and a fresh and creative perspective to challenges.
Work history
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Founder & CEOStudio Zero
London, United KingdomFull Time
Established to provide product management and technical development services to large enterprises.
Work as Studio Zero includes:
John Lewis Ventures
Supporting the development of a range of products. Working with the UX team, stakeholders and product owners to define requirements in response to user research. Also manage the offshore development team and provide ad-hoc technical and product support.
Transformed the Cook Well brand from its early MVP state into a stable and scalable product in alignment with its parent brand, Waitrose. Increased delivery from 200 to 1000 boxes per week in 4 months with minimal disruption and low costs by creating and building requirements based on customer needs and managing transition to an offshore team.
Currently developing a womenswear styling proposition utilising conversational commerce and an AI stylist.
Supporting Rapid, a 2-hour delivery proposition for waitrose.com
XR R&D
In January 2017 I undertook a self-funded 9 month research and development project. Exploring future possibilities for Web-based AR and VR. I built a custom Web VR editing tool, and worked with a number of high-profile organisations to research their futures in immersive technology.
Blend Media
Developed a web virtual reality editor tool, providing the initial protype in 3 weeks. Led research and development and managed early-stage product delivery and supported product owner to plan and execute a user-testing & MVP strategy.
As a 360° video stock provider, Blend were struggling with a lack of an audience for sales. Created a web-based editor and VR player for their content, establishing a channel through which any user with a browser could view their content in VR. This contributed to attracting a significant investment from Facebook.
Tesco
Provided development support to a number of projects.
Contributed to the Tesco DDL, which consolidated working methods through creation of a single design language and the development of customer-oriented design and service principles.
Overcame resistance and complexity to establish new design language in the many teams in the UK and India. Achieved by working with senior technical stakeholders to develop a tiered, reusable UI Component library. This enabled the reuse of design components leading to more consistently branded products and quicker time to market.
Updated prototype working patterns, improving recruitment and retaining new prototype staff.
Built design platform tool, enabling shared React components to be reused by all departments, collaborating with stakeholders.
RBS / Natwest
Built a new in-branch account-opening system, using the bank’s custom component system. Addressed unsatisfactory time to market for new products and services, reducing from 3-4 months to 1-2 days.
Director of Web TechnologyNice Agency
- London, United KingdomFull Time
As Director of Web Technology I was responsible for building out a web team, bringing web application capabilities to complement Nice's existing mobile tech skills. I was responsible for the delivery of all the UK based web projects, as well as being involved in hands-on delivery for a number of significant projects.
In 2014, I lead the team that delivered the award-winning i100.co.uk for the Independent. An entirely new viral news property, which has exceeded all expectations at launch, and has garnered fantastic praise from across the industry. We built it entirely from scratch, with Node.js, creating a bespoke, highly-optimised CMS for viral news writers; and a responsive mobile-optimised front-end.
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Skills
- Javascript
- Product Owner
- Product Management
- Web
- Nodejs
- Virtual Reality
- Augmented Reality
- UX
- Customer Experience
- Retail
Education
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(hons) BA Fine ArtHull School of Art and Design
- Hull, United Kingdom