Head of Product Design · Sydney
30 years of experience shaping digital products and the design organisations behind them. Currently leading Product Design at Macquarie Bank. Previously Prospa, SiteMinder, Westpac, CBA and Atlassian.
View selected work
Design Leadership
UX is an outcome, not a role – it’s everyone’s responsibility. Exceptional design leadership means holding five distinct areas in view at once: each one is a discipline in its own right.
Selected Work
Team · Culture · Process
Head of Product Design, 2023–present
Macquarie’s design teams were siloed across five separate platforms – same design system, wildly inconsistent execution, and no shared identity or community. Designers barely knew each other.
I unified all product designers under a single team, standardised titles, and built a design process that dovetailed with the broader product development lifecycle. That required non-designers – engineers, BAs, PMs – to adjust their ways of working too. A significant win to get across the line.
The outcome
For the first time, Macquarie has a design process built for quality. Designers across platforms collaborate, share work, and socialise. Employee NPS has risen significantly. Design is now seen as a strategic partner – not pixel pushers.
Service Design · Systems Thinking · Efficiency
Head of Design, 2020–2023
Leading all product and creative design at Prospa, I realised that achieving a truly great digital customer experience was impossible without also fixing the manual, human-heavy sales process behind it.
I advocated for a dedicated Service Designer to map the full end-to-end customer journey and expose hidden inefficiencies. Together we identified 15 opportunities for major efficiency gains with direct customer impact.
The outcome
Product, Design and Technology delivered new tooling for both the Sales and Collections teams. The business could service twice the customer volume with the same headcount. Design as a lever for business transformation.
Strategy · Vision · Research
Strategic Design Lead, 2015–2018
The Chief Customer Officer issued a direct challenge: Westpac was tired of playing catch-up with CommBank. They needed a truly strategic view on the future of mobile banking – not an incremental roadmap, a genuine north star.
I assembled a cross-disciplinary task force and ran a hypothesis-driven sprint cadence over three months: define what we need to learn, prototype, test with customers, synthesise, repeat. Every two weeks, progress back to stakeholders.
The outcome
We delivered a desirable, viable, and feasible vision – not a better version of what existed, but a paradigm shift. Two distinct mental models: Transacting and Planning. A full financial picture including other banks, superannuation and assets. Eight years later, Westpac is still working towards that same vision.
About
I’ve been designing software and websites since graduating with a Bachelor of Design in 1995. From founding my own agency (Blue Cork) to senior roles at Westpac, Prospa, Atlassian, Deutsche Bank, Fairfax, and now Macquarie Bank – the through-line has always been using design to create meaningful change.
I work across UX, interaction design, product strategy, customer research and organisational culture – advocating for human-centred thinking and the principle that great user experience is everyone’s responsibility.
I’ve presented at UX Australia and various IxDA meetups, and hold certifications in Strategic & Adaptive Leadership and Generative AI Leadership.
Career
Get in touch
Whether you’re interested in working together, want to discuss design leadership, or just want to say hello – find me on LinkedIn.
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