I help organisations build products that customers understand, trust and adopt by aligning product, brand and customer experience. I set strategy, lead design and build the organisational systems that enable teams to deliver connected, end-to-end experiences consistently and at scale.

My work has always been underpinned by the principle that customers don't experience product, brand or individual touch points in isolation. They experience one connected system. Design is the organisational capability that aligns business objectives, customer needs and operational delivery to make that possible.

My focus is the evolving role of design strategy and leadership within AI-native organisations, where the challenge is no longer designing interfaces, but shaping how intelligent products behave, communicate and earn trust. As software evolves from tools into collaborators, design leadership must extend beyond the screen to shape the entire customer and organisational experience.

Currently, I lead design strategy at AutogenAI, an AI-native SaaS company based in London and New York.

Recent work

Design system strategy for Sage SaaS

Design system strategy to guide implementation of the brand identity designed by Wolff-Olins, led a team designing foundations, pattern library and key experiences - SaaS purchase, registration, onboarding, support. Set guidelines for Zeroheight.

UX design for BBC iPlayer's B2B platform

UX lead on the BBC's inaugural business-facing workflow, improving experience, timeframes and speed of delivery.

Global QM and supply chain org design

Strategy, design and implementation of design and production quality management across a global supply chain for leading consumer group.

AI-native SaaS product, brand, CX strategy

Product design strategy and execution across platform, go-to-market, CX for early stage AI-native startup building a bespoke bid writing SaaS.

Fintech omni-channel product suite

Design lead, five products across platforms for scale-up centred on a brand strategy and visual foundation. Brand and product design system.

AI-native SaaS early stage startup positioning

Positioning strategy and product design for health tech startup to demo stage across proposition, positioning, service and product architecture.

Service design for a national healthcare group

Service design for South Africa's largest private healthcare group - designing and implementing new processes to improve quality and efficiency ahead of a brand transition.

B2B experience mapping for BBC iPlayer

Defining two sets of user journeys across a complex workflow, to simplify processes, align partner and internal users, and expedite completion.

Brand - SaaS positioning and alignment

Strategy, design and design system for a global education and transformation consultancy. Repositioning and alignment across its SaaS platform, onboarding, customer success and marketing.

About

Over 25 years in design and strategy, including 20 years leading systemic change and 15 running my own design strategy agency. My perspective on design strategy and leadership is rooted in a career that began in graphic design and evolved through brand strategy, identity systems, organisational transformation and digital product design.

A traditional graphic design education established an enduring belief that design exists to make things work better. It taught me to solve complex problems through research, original thinking, experimentation and rigorous craft, creating physical artefacts with purpose, function and meaning. More importantly, it instilled an understanding of design as a disciplined process of transforming ideas into products, services and experiences, refined through testing, iteration and engagement with real users.

This foundation expanded through an early career in research-led brand strategy and identity systems, working with global enterprises and award-winning agencies across the WPP, Interpublic Group and Omnicom networks. It was here that I learned to think beyond individual products and touchpoints, viewing brands, organisations and customer experiences as interconnected systems that must operate coherently to deliver lasting value.

These experiences shaped a systems-thinking approach in which research, strategy, design, technology and delivery are inseparable. I view design as a continuous organisational capability that connects business objectives, customer needs and operational delivery. This perspective now underpins my work designing digital platforms and AI-native SaaS products, translating complexity into coherent experiences and measurable commercial outcomes.

In 2005, I founded ID&B, an independent strategy and design studio based in Cape Town. Over the following 15 years, I led brand, digital product and organisational transformation programmes for enterprise, public sector, SME and startup clients across Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.

As I worked directly with C-suite, executive teams, founders, entrepreneurs and business owners, my role naturally extended beyond strategy and design into organisational transformation, programme leadership and redesigning organisational processes to enable the shift. I aligned strategic priorities, managed interdependencies across multidisciplinary teams and led implementation, establishing the governance, processes and design systems that enabled organisations to deliver more consistently, improve quality and scale effectively.

I later closed ID&B to relocate to the UK, with a deliberate focus on applying this experience more directly within the technology sector.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside talented teams, visionary founders and leaders within some of the world’s most recognised organisations, including:

AutogenAI

Softwire

BBC

Sage

BT/EE

Ludic Group

PNI Media

Virgin

Distell / Heineken

Shoprite Checkers Group (across 4 retail chains)

Old Mutual

Syspro