The longer story.

How I got here

I started designing software in 2012 because I’d gotten frustrated trying to get other people to build the things I was sketching. I taught myself just enough HTML and CSS to ship the first version of an internal tool at a small marketing agency in Manchester. It worked. Five colleagues used it. I was hooked.

The next decade went something like: a year and a half at a SaaS startup that’s now public, three years at Stripe (Atlas, Issuing, Connect), nine months trying to start my own company that didn’t work, a year at Linear, and now an independent practice from Lisbon since 2023.

What I care about

I’m drawn to products where the design problem is essentially making something complicated feel obvious — financial tooling, internal platforms, developer surfaces, anything where the user has to hold a lot of state in their head. Most of my favourite work has been in places where if the design is bad the user just gives up. I find that’s where the standard for design has to be highest.

I think a lot about the line between opinionated and prescriptive. I think the best design systems are opinionated; the worst are prescriptive. I think the same is true for products.

How I work

Slowly. Deliberately. With a lot of writing along the way. I’ve made my peace with the fact that most of what I produce in a given day is paragraphs, not pixels. The pixels come last; they’re downstream of the thinking.

I work alone most of the time, which suits me. When I take on consulting engagements I tend to embed for a quarter or two. I don’t do small one-off design tasks — the ramp-up is too steep to be useful for either of us.

Outside of work

I run, slowly. I read fiction more than non-fiction (currently: The Wager, David Grann). I make sourdough. I’m learning Portuguese with limited success. I keep a small allotment with three tomato plants. I love a long boring train ride.

I lived in Manchester for 8 years, San Francisco for 3, and Lisbon since 2023. Lisbon won.