Career journey
An unconventional path from neuroscience to design leadership, driven by consistent intellectual curiosity and a fascination with understanding complexity and human behaviour.
Neuroscience
I've always been fascinated by people, brains and behaviour. Studying neuroscience gave me insights into how humans think, learn and make decisions - foundations that would prove invaluable in my design career.
Laboratory assistant
Working as a lab assistant at Royal Preston hospital taught me the value of rigorous research methodology, systematic analysis and the scientific approach to problem-solving.
Tech support engineer
Working as a tech support engineer for a Point of Sale systems company, my role was to support engineers who were installing and programming these complex systems for hospitality clients.
The manuals that came with the equipment were incomprehensible. I found myself rewriting them - creating simple, step-by-step "cheat sheets" that I'd fax to engineers on site so they could get the job done. This was my first real awareness of the gap between technology and human understanding.
Technical author
Alongside my tech support role, I studied Technical Communication through distance learning. I learned the fundamentals that would shape my entire career: know your audience, understand their needs, test your work with real users.
I became a professional technical author, translating complex technical concepts into clear, user-friendly documentation.
Human-computer interaction
Moving to London, I worked at a company transitioning from green-screen mainframe systems to PC and web-based applications. With no in-house design expertise, I found myself writing documentation to work around poor design choices.
The real solution wasn't better documentation - it was better design.
I studied Human-Computer Interaction through the Open University and made the intentional move from technical writing to UX design.
Travel, TEFL and teaching
As I approached my 30s, I decided to take a career break and broaden my horizons.
After travelling through Asia, I settled in a fishing village in Thailand where I completed a TEFL course and taught English to industrial engineers. This experience broadened my cultural perspective and deepened my understanding of communication across different contexts.
Web design and development agency
Returning to Europe, I founded Mouse Will Play - a web design and development agency. I worked with over 200 clients including Ipsos MORI, Ramblers Worldwide Holidays, Skipton Building Society, Time Out Amsterdam, and Common Agency (supporting UX for clients like Moonpig and Ideal Standard).
I handled everything: design, front-end development (proudly coding my own responsive framework before Bootstrap existed), project management, marketing, accounting and business development. My work was featured in national press and web design books, winning numerous awards.
By the end, while I loved the variety and the people I met, I was ready for more complex challenges and longed to be part of a larger team.
BBC: from Designer to Creative Director
I joined the BBC as a UX Designer and quickly progressed to Creative Director, leading design for products serving millions while building and mentoring high-performing teams.
I found the scale, collaboration and complexity I'd been seeking.
UX designer, BBC Intranet
August 2014 – October 2015Led UX for intranet replacement project, migrating 20,000 pages from legacy technology to SharePoint.
Creative Director, Systems & Service Design
November 2015 – October 2019Pioneered human-centred design for BBC's internal technology. Co-led team growth from 3 to 23, establishing service design within the BBC’s large-scale technology transformation programmes.
Creative Director, Data Capability
October 2019 – April 2020Scoped opportunities to drive innovation through better use of audience data, taking a human-centred service design approach to inform a design strategy for data capability.
Creative Director, BBC Sounds
April 2020 – July 2025Led the design strategy and team for BBC Sounds, the BBC’s flagship multi-platform audio product, contributing to five consecutive years of record-breaking performance for a five million weekly users.
UX design consultant & AI specialism
After more than a decade at the BBC, I stepped out to combine hands-on UX consultancy with formal study – beginning an MA in Artificial Intelligence to build a specialism at the intersection of human-centred design and AI.
UX strategy consultancy
Led UX strategy for a technology company modernising legacy software with no existing UX function. Delivered strategy, guidelines and tools that enabled the team to embed user-centred design practices.
MA in Artificial Intelligence
I began a two-year, part-time MA in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Southampton – designed for working professionals and studied fully online alongside work. It's ongoing, and central to my growing AI specialism.
Dunnhumby: Product Design Manager, Tesco Media
I lead the design team building Tesco Media's self-serve B2B advertising platform – the tools that let brands and agencies plan, activate and measure campaigns using Tesco's customer data.
The team spans product, content and design-system designers, and I partner with product and engineering leaders to shape the experience – balancing usability, scale and innovation while embedding strong design operations.
Separately, I'm leading design on an agentic AI workstream, currently focused on experiences for our internal teams.
The throughline
Looking back, the common thread is clear...
Intellectual curiosity
A constant drive to learn, explore new domains and understand complex systems
Understanding people
From neuroscience to user research, a fascination with human behaviour and interaction with technology
Simplifying complexity
Whether through documentation, design, or strategy - translating the complex into the understandable
My unconventional career path has given me broad skills - combining scientific rigour, business acumen, technical understanding and deep empathy for users and teams