I’m a  product design & research leader  with over a decade of experience.

Though not intended, I’ve often found myself as the first designer in an organisation which has given me the exciting scope to  establish and grow the functions of design and research in a variety of situations. 

This was true at a large corporate with Smiths Medical, in a growing digital agency with Deeson, and in start-up environments with Snowplow and Resource Guru.

Whilst most of my career has focused on design and research, the roles I’ve been in have often trodden the blurred lines into Product Management, Content Strategy and even Data Strategy, as well.

I’m a player / coach and can help with everything from  establishing design process and strategy  , to  research and discovery  to  getting hands on and crafting design solutions . I love helping solve business problems by applying a design thinking approach.

You can read more about my work below or read some of my thinking.

Experience

Joined a small but growing team as their Lead Product Designer in a player / coach role. Established new design processes, helped improve speed of delivery and shipped key features for the organisation.

Joined as the first Product Designer. Established design and research practices within Product and the wider organisation. Grew the design and research team.

[view Snowplow]

Established the research and user experience discipline within the agency; grew the value of design and research projects; hired, coached and developed a team of six.

[view Deeson]

I joined as User Experience Specialist and in my three and a half years helped deliver results by encouraging the digital team and the product management team to operate with a more customer-focused mindset.

[view Smiths Medical]

Nice things people have said

I’ve had the great fortune to work with some amazing, thoughtful people in my career and these are some of the lovely comments they’ve shared with me as feedback:

Nothing is impossible, seriously. I haven’t worked with anyone with such  a solutions focused mindset  as Mike. From people leadership through to what we do as a business, he’s  always looking for ways to do things better .

Mike is  the living example of how Design Thinking can make an impact in an organisation . Additionally, he has set really strong foundations for the Design and Research team, establishing and continuously developing our design system, research tools and extremely well thought out processes.

Mike has a skill for freeing his staff to take ownership. He is always gently encouraging and  pushing people to explore, task risks and express their talent . He personally helped me get out of a rut of imposter syndrome and ever since I have felt more confident and motivated.

Mike is always considerate of other departments and how actions might affect people in other teams, and it’s so second nature to him that he probably doesn’t appreciate how amazing that is. Without doubt  the person that has empowered me most  since joining.