My Career Path

A brief recap of my professional journey so far

My first design role

Monmouthshire Housing Association (MHA)

This role was where I truly discovered what designing for print meant in practice.

One of my first major challenges was to lead a full rebrand of the organisation — addressing negative perceptions in local communities and the press surrounding the previous logo.

Key achievements:

  • Led an end-to-end rebrand, balancing creative direction with stakeholder alignment and community perception

  • Progressed from knowing the basics of Adobe Illustrator to mastering it through self-directed learning

  • Taught myself HTML, CSS, and web accessibility standards to design and deliver a refreshed, inclusive website

Joining a design team

Office for National Statistics (ONS)

After more than four years as MHA’s sole designer, I was eager to experience life within a larger design team. That opportunity came when I joined the ONS Digital Transformation team.

Initially, I was brought on to translate complex statistical releases into clear, visually engaging infographics for press and social channels.

With the ONS actively investing in staff development, I took the chance to expand my skill set — learning jQuery to bring animation and interactivity to my SVG graphics. This led to my transition into an Interactive Designer role, where I could fully apply these new skills.

Key achievements:

  • Contributed to the award-winning Baby Names project, which achieved the highest engagement levels on record

  • Progressed from static infographic design to interactive data visualisation through self-taught coding

  • Collaborated within a multidisciplinary team, strengthening my understanding of large-scale digital content production

Back to housing, but with greater impact

Community Housing Cymru (CHC)

Financial stability was one motivation for returning to the social housing sector — but the chance to make a tangible impact within the membership body for Welsh housing associations was what truly drew me in.

CHC needed an in-house designer to reduce agency costs and strengthen the brand identity behind their political and sector-wide campaigns.

Initially hired to develop the visual identity for the Homes for Wales election campaign, I went on to refresh the organisation’s core brand and elevate the quality and consistency of its marketing output.

This was also the first role where I witnessed, first-hand, the measurable business value a dedicated design function can bring.

Key achievements:

  • Won the CIPR Cymru Award for Best Campaign for the Homes for Wales brand work

  • Helped devise a marketing strategy for the organisation’s Events function, resulting in a +115% increase in year-end revenue

  • Established a design working group connecting designers across the Welsh housing sector

Pivoting to UX

Backbase

As I began to see how design could solve real problems for CHC’s events team, I found myself increasingly drawn toward User Experience design.

With a background in Industrial Product Design, understanding problems before creating solutions had always been central to my approach — so the principles of UX felt like a natural extension of my existing process.

After some persistence in finding a company willing to back a graphic designer transitioning into UX, Backbase gave me that opportunity.

Collaborating with software engineers in an Agile environment was entirely new to me, but I embraced it fully — learning fast and applying my proactive, hands-on mindset to take ownership of several 0→1 product design initiatives.

Key achievements:

  • Designed and delivered the company’s first mobile app authentication journeys

  • Contributed to scaling the design team from one to three members

  • Gained deep experience in Agile collaboration and end-to-end product delivery

Looking for B2B experience

Future Publishing — Look After My Bills

Working at Backbase gave me invaluable experience in product design, but being a B2B2C company, direct access to usage data — and a clear view of how my designs impacted end-users — was almost non-existent.

Driven by a desire to get closer to real user insights, I joined Look After My Bills at Future Publishing, following their acquisition of GoCompare (a slightly complex setup to say the least).

Soon after I joined, the UK Government introduced new energy cap legislation, which raised serious questions about the long-term viability of the product. My product-oriented mindset made it clear that significant change was on the horizon.

Fortunately, this transition opened the door for me to return to Backbase — this time to help shape their new digital lending venture.

Go-to-market strategising

Backbase — Digital Lending

This second chapter with Backbase was a completely different experience from my previous work on authentication. While authentication was a core part of the platform offering, Digital Lending was more of a pilot — an experimental venture exploring new market opportunities.

There was clear customer interest, but limited resourcing — a few small, skeletal development squads, all design-serviced by me. My role spanned both hands-on product delivery and early-stage strategy: designing MVP, go-to-market solutions while also uncovering broader market insights and product opportunities.

What began as a functional design role evolved into a strategic partnership with product leadership. Through close collaboration, we secured long-term investment for Digital Lending and identified three new product lines to expand the suite.

More than anything, this role deepened my skills in product management, requirements scoping, and influencing direction through evidence-based design.

Key achievements:

  • Designed and delivered the Digital Lending Onboarding, Application Centre, and Trade Finance products from 0→1

  • Partnered with product leadership to secure long-term investment and expand the portfolio with three additional product lines

  • Supported the scale-up of the design team from one to three members

Looking for B2B experience (again)

Pizza Hut Digital

My decision to leave Backbase for a second time was again driven by a desire to get closer to end-users — this time within a B2B product environment.

Although it was initially a challenge to demonstrate how embedded data and user insight were within my design process, Pizza Hut Digital saw the potential and gave me that opportunity.

What began as what I expected to be a practical, execution-focused role quickly evolved into a highly strategic one. I joined a newly formed Discovery Squad — a team created to explore the intricacies and complexities of launching the Pizza Hut platform into new global markets, and to remove these challenges from delivery teams so projects could move faster and more effectively.

Having tackled the Puerto Rico and Japan markets so far, our team’s value has been proven. The discovery and design-scoping of new, market-specific platform functionality has also enriched the overall product offering.

In this role, I act as a strategic design partner to both product and engineering — translating high-level business and technical complexity into clear, actionable design requirements.

Where next?

I haven’t given too much thought to wrapping this section up — I’ve been with Pizza Hut for less than a year, and my focus right now is on continuing to grow and add value.

What I do know is my skill set, my capabilities, and the impact I bring. I’m now looking for opportunities where that experience and seniority can be fully recognised.

I attribute my continued momentum in design to my ability to make sound judgements at the right time — knowing when to stay, when to stretch, and when to pivot. In a world where certainty isn’t always guaranteed, I take pride in my adaptability and my instinct for navigating change.

If you’d prefer a more succinct, takeaway version of my journey — you’ll find that in my CV.

Thanks for reading.