About me
Hands-on Creative Design Lead with 17+ years’ experience in Interactive Media, Mobile and Digital Products with hands-on passion for UX, UI and Product Design. Built and led four Studios from the ground up and held senior roles for the past 12 years. Father to two mischievous children and husband to a beautiful wife. Unhealthy obsession with collecting Lego and toys.
Work history
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Head of ProductFlow XO
- Manchester, United KingdomFreelance
Consultant and Interim Head of Product to set up and lead a new development team and product for Flow XO, a conversational service platform enabling B2Cs and Digital Agencies to easily build end to end services for multiple messaging platforms, including Facebook Messenger, SMS, Telegram, WhatsApp and iMessage… Smart Chatbots with purpose.
The role was to help form a new studio and development team in Manchester, take ownership of the Flow XO chatbot platform, hands on UX, UI and product design, and handle the day to day running of the new studio. In addition, regular stakeholder meetings out of the head office in Manchester, as well as regular customer meetings for product feedback.
Roles and responsibilities included:
• Hiring, Managing, inspiring and motivating team members
• Introduce a new production / agile culture to the organization for growth
• Created company’s first Product Vision and Strategy doc and presentation
• Working with the Head of Marketing on product communication
• Set up company’s partnership with Facebook Messenger partnership program
• Managing design and development backlog across multiple streams
• Design forecasting, strategy and planning backlogs for future sprints
• Running stand-ups, product presentations and brainstorm meetings
• Regular communication Stakeholders and Customers
• Helping to shape Use Cases and User Journeys
• Created the companies first UX Toolkits for consistency and efficient design in the future
• And obviously getting my hands dirty with plenty of UX / UI Design Work!
After kicking things off for this role at the head office in Lancashire, my first responsibility was to shortlist and settle on a new studio in central Manchester. We opted for a co-working environment to help bring us closer to likeminded companies that could help shape our product, as well as being attractive to new developers in the area.
I was responsible for hiring our first in-house development team, as well as working with multiple remote contractors. I introduced a ‘flexible’ agile way of working, and mindful to ensure that the process allowed us to evolve and grow with the team, as well as appreciating the history and ways of working with the original team in Lancashire. I created and was responsible for managing the product backlog, consisting of multiple development tracks, from new tools on the platform, to feature improvements, QA and RnD projects.
With Flow XO being in its infancy as a team, it was essential that management were also very hands on with production work too. With my creative and design background I also took responsibility for all UX and product design work, producing flow diagrams, high fidelity wireframes, and the company’s first UX Toolkit.
The other strand to my role was establishing relationships with our customers and peers to receive feedback on our product. I established our first meetings with Facebook Messenger partners, as well as setting up seminars to educate businesses on messaging as an industry.
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Head of Design (Mobile)Nordea
- Helsinki, FinlandFreelance
Consultant & Head of Mobile Design for Nordea Digital Banking – Headed up the Mobile Design Team for Nordea Bank, the largest banking organisation in Scandinavia, primarily based out of Helsinki, with regular travel to Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oulu. I was responsible for a team of 12 Designers working on iOS and Android Mobile Apps and responsive Web.
My primary feature teams sat within the ‘Digital Servicing Stream’, but Designers spread out across Digital Sales and Remote CX, and also have regular communication with Digital Engineering. I am also part of a middle management team, primarily focused on Mobile, but with experience and access to Research and Insights, Use Cases and User Journeys, Consistency (developing toolkits), and of course Web / Desktop.
Roles and responsibilities included:
• Managing, inspiring and motivating team members
• Introduce a new design culture to the organization
• Managing design backlogs across other feature team Product Owners
• Running design stand-ups, weeklies, workshops, reviews etc.
• Regular communication with other POs, Bas, Scrum Masters and Stakeholders
• Helping to shape Use Cases and User Journeys
• Helping to define Design Toolkits for consistency across teams
• Working with the brand team on creating digital brand guidelines
• Working alongside the Web Team Lead to align Web with Mobile
• Design forecasting, strategy and planning backlogs for future sprints
• And again, getting my hands dirty with plenty of UX / UI Design Work!
Priorities for 2017 were led by a huge migration to agile methodologies and ways of working. I was integral in helping them form a plan to deliver x4 Pi’s per year, each one consisting of x5 two-week Sprints, with an additional Sprint for RnD and contingency.
I was also responsible for defining the Product Vision for the Bank’s primary Personal Banking Mobile Application, working together with the brand team in Sweden, Digital Sales Teams and Marketing.
To help this process I also introduced a new ‘design culture’ to the organization, removing as much hierarchy and ‘ego’ as possible and encouraging input and ownership from the ground up.
My work at Nordea Bank was run through my own UK Ltd Company, Peepo Digital Ltd. This was set up to allow me greater freedom to explore new ideas, strategies and Products, and help form greater partnerships with likeminded people.
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Skills
- Team Leadership
- UI
- UX
- Agile
- Product
- Strategy
- Creative
Education
Art and Design Foundation DiplomaManchester Metropolitan University
- Manchester, United Kingdom