You have vast and varied design experience and now you’re here. Why?

Certainly varied! I’ve designed television graphics for The Sky at Night (1987!) and re-designed the Team Sky Cycling website. I’ve also worked for one of the ‘Big 4’ consultancies, PwC, which was my introduction to working in financial services.

My most enjoyable and productive work experiences have been in smaller companies working closely with SMEs; product owners, designers and engineers. It’s easier to collaborate and innovate if you work in a close-knit team. Kriya has this ethos – the work we undertake updating and creating products and services is nurtured in a ‘can-do’ environment. Joining Kriya has given me the opportunity to draw upon and contribute to this company culture.

What’s been your most enjoyable experience here so far?

I’ve mostly been working on projects for our internal teams – the Operations team in particular. For example, it’s been great to see the near instant productivity gains for them when we design and launch products that enable them to batch process payments. I’m looking forward to continuing to do so.

What do you hope to accomplish here?

There’s been some great design work in the past on our services – for both our internal users and our customers. I’m aiming to pull these strands of work together: enabling designers and engineers at Kriya to collaborate more closely, and to do this more easily and efficiently. The ultimate goal is to continue to innovate and improve our products and services for our customers.

What does success mean to you?

• Enjoying work – you’re there a lot!
• Having a positive impact on my employer, my colleagues and our customers.
• Learning new skills.
• Striking a work-life balance.

Any advice for someone looking into design?

Design is a very broad term. What do the following words all have in common? Game. Furniture. Graphic. Automotive. Industrial. Ergonomic. Fashion 😉

I would advise anyone looking into design to get as broad-based training as possible. A formal appreciation of the design process and factoring in user research and requirements gathering into a recognisable design process is really useful. I wish I was better at it! Form a view on what toolkit you need to do the work involved in creating a product. And know when to ask for help.