What I’d like to do

I’ve done these roles - and now I want to help others do them. Learning how to teach others, coach, manage and lead has been the biggest and most rewarding project of my career, and it is what brings me the most joy in my work.

When I think about the best days of my working career, it has been when the high fives are the biggest. I love working with smart people who challenge me and help me grow. I absolutely do not want to be the smartest person in the room (that would be a bad room) and I have found the most rewarding working relationships the ones where I was taking notes from my amazing and inspiring colleagues.

Passion is important for me in that it drives teams forward. I’m also happy to admit that some workplaces simply aren’t driven by passion — and that’s OK! It’s OK to just do a job and find your passion outside of work — in fact, I encourage this. But for me, I find passion at work motivating and inspiring and consider myself passionate too.

Learning environments are critical for growth — I don’t necessarily mean financial growth or even headcount growth, but simply individual growth and development. I find high-feedback environments very exciting and enriching.

Having worked with smaller teams in the startup world, I’ve had a front-row seat to amazing growth journeys, both successful and unsuccessful. Where I’ve felt the most fulfilled is at larger organisations where I can work across various projects and teams. I’m hoping to take this to the next level by working at scaling or scaled tech company with more management peers at my level and above me to level up my practice and to reach more people - both in the organisation and in the customer base.

I have been reasonably picky about where I work because I believe it’s important to put your labour somewhere where you feel ethically comfortable. I have a no-go list, including fossil fuels, gambling, prison industrial complex, but more positively I’d say I’d love to work somewhere that’s making a positive difference in the world. In particular I’d love to work towards building a sustainable future through climate projects, anything related to feminism and building a more equal world for women, healthcare, mental health, mindfulness and MedTech, and anything that powers and enables communities and connection. I’d love to work for a B-Corp.

I have spent most of my career working in the product world and I would like to leverage that experience and continue to do so. Although I have briefly contracted and done projects as a consultant, the bulk of my expertise is now in product management, design and research. I love the long-term custodian mindset that product teams build, as well as the opportunities for powerful growth through autonomy and empowerment.

I know that everyone needs designers right now, but with 12+ years experience in the industry and significant experience in executive leadership, I am well past the seniority level that makes sense for those roles. I am so excited to work with the next generation but it probably doesn’t make sense for me to be their peer.

Although my career has been focused in the product/design/research world, I am interested in and very open-minded about sideways moves. I’d love to manage engineers, work closer with Sales, or grow my skills in coaching. I can see natural overlap in the CX/Service design realms, and as you can see in my portfolio a lot of my work has been back-of-house working in organisational design, hiring and growth strategy.

In 2022 I’d like to move into advisory roles alongside my primary full-time work. I see this as a way to continue working with startups and sharing what I’ve learned from more than a decade of successes, failures, breakthroughs, pivots, growth, contrition, and lots of learning. If you’re looking for a startup veteran and creative technologist to help your business from an advisory perspective to advise on team building, product strategy, management, product, design or research, please get in touch.

I’m joining TEAM Atlassian as Experience Design Manager.

I'm looking impactful, meaningful and ethical work. I'm keen to work with small organisations, particularly those with a commitment to sustainability, diversity and inclusion, and especially those led by women.

I'm interested in leadership roles and advisory opportunities, and am keen to chat to you if your organisation is led by human-centred design principles.

Read more about how I like to work if you think we might be a good fit.

My day rate starts at $1200 AUD (+GST). I’m open to contract roles.

For full-time roles I'm interested in salaries of $190K+, but for the right role at the right organisation I definitely want to be flexible. I believe that being transparent about pay makes it fairer for everyone.

I'm keen to work in Melbourne, Australia and potentially beyond - remote and flexible commitments are appealing.