The tried and tested double diamond process with a healthy dose of flexibility and experience driven intuition.
My experience in both business management and manufacturing has deeply informed my product development style. Toyota’s Six Sigma technique for process improvement applies just as well to modern day digital products as it did to automotive development. Teams must systematically gather customer feedback to garner actionable insights.
My experience across multiple product roles has taught me the value of deeply understanding stakeholder needs. These requirements are often vague at first, so I begin with face-to-face interviews to uncover the core business objectives. While the questions vary by project, I consistently focus on identifying the business imperative, the surrounding context, and any supporting evidence or research that can form a solid foundation.
Understanding technical, operational, and business-specific constraints as early as possible is critical, ensuring that any proposed solutions are feasible from the outset.
I always strive to ground my design ideas in both qualitative and quantitative data, which makes for a more insightful discovery process. A personal inspiration has been the Japanese philosophy of Poka-yoke (ポカヨケ)—the idea that systems should be designed to eliminate the potential for user error. In consumer products, mistake-proofing often eliminates the very frustrations that lead to disengagement.
Defining problem statements is a crucial step before ideation. These concise statements provide strategic direction and focus. To inform them, I typically conduct a heuristics review and competitor analysis, as well as analyse available user behaviour data to understand performance issues.
If insights are still lacking, I turn to usability testing—either remote or in-person—to observe friction points firsthand. When time or budget is constrained, I leverage tools like Hotjar to gather valuable behavioural insights through session recordings.
To dig deeper into user frustrations, I often create journey maps that visualise each user touchpoint and the emotional highs and lows associated with them. These are best built collaboratively with stakeholders, using research data to align on where pain points exist.
If user personas already exist, I ensure journey maps reflect their needs. If not, I conduct user interviews (budget permitting) to create accurate, actionable personas. This is especially useful when designing new products, helping identify where they’ll fit into a user’s life.
Where journey maps focus on user sentiment, user flows capture the step-by-step logic of interaction. These are lower-fidelity but more tactical, helping identify overly complex steps and ensuring that no user states or paths are overlooked. They often highlight immediate opportunities for simplification or reorganising.
"Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream" - John Lennon
Once I understand user needs, technical constraints, and the current state of play, I begin generating design ideas—typically starting with sketches or rough mockups. Fidelity isn’t important at this stage; speed and collaboration are. I often involve the broader product team and stakeholders to benefit from their domain knowledge and perspectives.
I now use Figma as my primary tool, replacing Sketch due to Figma’s powerful prototyping and collaboration capabilities.
Once ideas have been refined through internal feedback, I create one-sentence hypotheses for each proposed solution. This approach helps clarify assumptions and provides a testable rationale behind every design choice.
At this point, the strongest ideas are developed into mid-fidelity prototypes that include draft content and core functionality. I then run usability tests to validate clarity and ease of use.
I prefer a light-touch, open-ended testing style, allowing users to naturally explore the designs to reveal areas of confusion. Ideally, I test with at least five target users, and repeat the process across multiple viewports if necessary.
I’m experienced in both moderated and unmoderated testing, tailoring my approach based on timelines, resources, and product scope.
I work closely with UI designers throughout the process and can produce high-fidelity designs when needed. I have experience establishing design systems using atomic design principles, and can build reusable component libraries.
When a dedicated visual designer is involved, I ensure we collaborate closely to maintain usability and accessibility best practices.
For handover, I use Zeplin to house finalised designs and ensure consistency with design system components via Zeplin’s style guide integrations. I also provide detailed annotations and am always available to walk through and demo designs with developers.
With a strong grasp of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, I can confidently answer implementation questions, including those about breakpoints, responsive grids, or interaction logic.
Understanding performance post-launch is essential. I monitor metrics and often design feedback loops—such as in-product surveys or user satisfaction prompts—to gather qualitative insights that inform future iterations.
I also have experience running CRO programs, where I define and run A/B tests through tools like Google Optimize to explore rapid improvements. This iterative mindset ensures continuous refinement of user experience and value delivery.
