Skill Set
Skill set
I have spent my entire career (15+ years) working at the intersection of product, design and user research.
At times, I worked in very specific roles, focusing on either product management, strategic design or user research. However, more often than not, I have had to wear multiple hats.
As a result of the past 15 years, I have developed a comprehensive skill set, uniquely positioned for building great products and services.
Product Management
In a nutshell:
Product management is a discipline that focuses on leading and managing the creation and constant evolution of digital products, whether brand-new or existing products.
What does it involve
Product management usually involves leading the product development process as well as running and managing the product team.
Product management is usually occupied with developing a point of view regarding the user and their needs, the product, the features, the vision, the roadmap and the strategy. Concurrently, product management involves the coordination and leading of the team.
A role and a skill:
Product management could be both a skill and a role. Since the product manager usually leads the team, product management more commonly appears as a role.
And yet, product management is a skill and a set of tasks that need to take place, no matter the exact role or title.
In fact, there is a growing number of companies that prefer leaving these tasks at the hands of the product designer or developer, choosing to approach product management as a skill rather than a role.
How they work with others:
The product manager is usually responsible for leading the product team, working in collaboration with product designers, developers and a variety of other roles.
They are often working as part of a trio (product, design and engineering) where the product manager leads but shares responsibility with the other leads.
My experience
I have spent my entire career (15+ years) working at the intersection of product, design and research.
As for product management specifically, I have spent the past 12 years officially leading and spearheading product work.
During this time I have worked on both developing brand-new products as well as improving and innovating on existing products.
Numbers:
I have led the development of dozens of product initiatives.
I have developed multiple product frameworks and templates.
I have helped many teams and organisations either set up or improve their product theory, frameworks and ways of working.
I have led the consulting arms of a product and design agency (Fusion Labs).
I have launched and led my own product and design agency (Pebble).
My Journey:
I have always been passionate about products, technology and innovation.
In my early 20s I completed a Master of Management that strongly focused on human-centred design, entrepreneurship and innovation. It was there that I was first introduced to proper product and user frameworks and theory.
During this time, a few students and I won a large product innovation competition run by Deloitte. As a result, my team tried to build a product and launch a startup around the concept with me leading the product management efforts (CrowdFlight– a digital platform that uses passengers’ spare time on planes for user and market research).
I eventually gave up on the startup but fell in love with the process of creating products.
Next, I joined another startup (GoFar– a connected car startup that turns normal cars smart and sustainable). My role involved assisting with product management work, through their users, product offerings and experience as well as leading go-to-market efforts.
Next, I joined a product and design agency that focused on helping organisations launch new products, services and ventures (Fusion Labs– one of Sydney’s leading product agencies before Merging with Deloitte).
I first joined as a product lead responsible for leading client teams through high-intensity projects trying to launch new products and ventures. I eventually grew to lead the entire product consulting arm of the business.
As part of my role I was responsible for developing our product and design framework and ways of working, mentoring client and internal teams as well as leading our more complex projects.
Reaching a limit in terms of my learning and impact and believing there was a better way to do this kind of work, I decided to leave the agency.
I spent the next few years contracting as a product lead.
During this time, I became Boral’s product lead in residence, helping them launch their innovation lab, develop their ways of working and mentoring their teams. During my time there I also lead multiple exciting products, one of them being launching Found, an on-demand concrete ordering and management app, which we referred to as ‘the Uber for concrete’. For a while, Found was considered by many as one of Australia’s most successful examples of corporate digital ventures.
After Boral, I joined the ABC as a product strategy lead. I was tasked with improving their product and design process, developing a 3-year product and people strategy, re-thinking their product portfolio, exploring new product ideas and re-thinking the organisational product vision.
While working on these contracts, I also started working on my own product and design agency (Pebble). My vision was to push the boundaries of how work was being done in the space.
During this time I worked on publishing product, design and research frameworks, mentoring teams and leading product work, with various organisations working on both creating new products as well as improving on existing ones.
During my time running Pebble, I really got to crystallise my approach and grow immensely as a product manager, designer and researcher.
Moreover, during this time, I also started guest lecturing on the topic of products, users and ventures at the University of Maastricht (The Netherlands).
At the end of 2023, I decided that I wanted to step away from the agency side of the product equation and instead go in-house, focusing on one specific product and team at a time.
Following this decision, I joined the Department of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture, the federal government agency responsible for overseeing Australia’s agricultural goods and exports.
I was placed into a team that was tasked with building internal platforms for the department and ended up spearheading the development of a brand new internal platform that oversees, manages and regulates all of Australia’s agricultural exports and entities (~80b worth of goods and exports).
Currently, I’m still working at the department, now working on taking a very old platform that oversees all of Australia’s agricultural production and rebuilding and re-thinking it, in a modern way.
Strategic Design
In a nutshell:
Strategic design is a discipline that focuses on using design principles and approaches in order to understand markets, users and problems as well as to design and test new, innovative solutions.
What they do:
Strategic design usually involves the development of an in-depth understanding of the space, users and their needs.
Strategic design also involves developing solutions that could solve the needs and problems at hand. The discipline usually involves value proposition design, feature identification and the development of early prototypes while also designing the business model underpinning the product.
A role and skill
Strategic design could be both a role and a skill. On the side of the agency, where a lot of role specialisation occurs, strategic design is usually a role.
Strategic designers are usually responsible for the early phases of a product, sometimes before the product has even been defined.
Alternatively, when we look at in-house product teams, strategic design is often approached as a skill. This skill is often the responsibility of the founder, product manager.
How they work with others:
Strategic designers usually lead the project, working with product designers and researchers. Their role would later evolve becoming the product manager or they would hand their work over to one.
Interestingly, as the product space evolves, the discipline of strategic design seems to be merging with product management.
My Experience
I have spent my entire career (15+ years) working at the intersection of product, design and research.
As for strategic design specifically, I have spent the past 12 years leading strategic design work.
This work sometimes evolved into product management, was sometimes handed over to a product manager and was sometime done in collaboration with product managers.
Numbers:
I have led the development of dozens of product initiatives.
I have developed multiple product and strategic design frameworks and templates.
I have helped many teams and organisations either set up or improve their product theory, frameworks and ways of working.
I have led the consulting arms of a product and design agency (Fusion Labs).
I have launched and led my own product and design agency (Pebble).
My Journey:
I have always been passionate about understanding problems, people and needs and thinking through innovative solutions.
I was first introduced to the concept of user mapping and researching during high school as part of my studies in Society and Culture. During this time, we learnt how to map out users, turn these views into assumptions, test these assumptions and then adapt our perspective accordingly.
During this time and following it (late teens and early 20s) I also volunteered for an organisation that specialised in developing immersive workshops for youth. It was also there that I learnt how to map out users, think through user needs and experiences and iteratively develop impactful solutions.
In my early 20s I completed an undergraduate in Psychology at the University of Sydney. It was there that was introduced to social psychology, behavioural economics and various other psychological frameworks that help us better understand people (and users).
Following my psychology degree, I enrolled in a master’s program in management that strongly focused on human-centred design, entrepreneurship and innovation.
During this degree, I was introduced to user frameworks that were more business and product-focused, allowing me to take everything I have learnt thus far and start applying it to the creation of products, services and businesses.
During this time I started applying these frameworks and techniques to creating a product and a startup (CrowdFlight). The concept came out of a business competition that a few students and I participated in and won.
I eventually decided to step away from the startup, thinking that there was a lot more I needed to learn.
Upon stepping away, I threw myself into theory, reading every possible book I could find on the topic of product and design. I also reached out to others working in the broad space of human-centred design, learning from their experience and frameworks.
During this time I did two exciting things. First, I joined a product and design think tank run in Antarctica (Unstoppables). I was tasked with creating the program and putting together a team of designers and facilitators.
Following the think-tank, I joined a different startup (GoFar– a connected car startup that turns normal cars smart and sustainable). I spent my time there applying the frameworks and techniques I have learnt, to better understand the users and improve the product.
Next, I joined a product and design agency (Fusion Labs), first as a product lead and eventually as the head of product consulting.
During my time at the agency, I led complex projects, developed the agency’s product and design frameworks and ways of working and mentored both internal and client teams.
After leaving the agency, I contracted as a product and design lead for a few years. As mentioned in the product management journey, I worked for Boral as the product lead in residence as well as joined the ABC as a product strategy lead.
While this work was highly related to product management, it was equally related to strategic design, bringing designing principles, frameworks and techniques and helping teams better think through the space, understand their users and develop great solutions.
During this I also ended up starting my own product and design agency, attempting to bring a new approach to the space of design-led innovation. The vision was to bring together the best of product management, strategic design, product design and user research into a coherent framework and approach.
I led multiple projects, mentored multiple teams, developed a handful of frameworks and templates and attained invaluable learning and experience.
I also started guest lecturing on the topic of product, users and ventures at the University of Maastricht (The Netherlands).
At the end of 2023 I decided to step away from the agency world and instead focus on working in-house on specific products.
In 2024, I joined the Department of Agriculture, the federal government agency responsible for overseeing Australia’s agricultural goods and exports. I have since focused on using the theory I have learnt and developed within my team and sharing it with other product and design teams throughout the department.
User Research
In a nutshell:
User Research is a discipline responsible for developing an understanding of users and products through the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques.
What you do:
User research can take various forms. It can start with a process of open discovery, trying to learn enough in order to then form a point of view.
It can also take an existing point of view, break it into assumptions and put these assumptions to the test.
The process then continues by synthesising the findings and iterating the initial perspective based on what you have learnt.
A role and a skill:
User research could be both a role and a skill, depending on the context. In larger teams, where specialisation can take place, user research often appears as a distinct role. The user researcher is then tasked with conducting research work.
In other instances, user research is approached as more of a skill. In these instances, the task of user research is often taken up by the strategic designer, product manager, UX designer or all of the above. User research is fundamental for the creation of great products and services, who conducts it matters less than the fact that it takes place.
How they work with others:
The user researcher works in collaboration with the product manager, product designer, strategic designer or anyone else involved in the process.
They usually work with the product team to find out what needs to be explored and learnt. Then, having conducted the work they share the learning with the team, helping build upon the work done to date.
My Experience
I have spent my entire career working at the intersection of product, design and research.
As for user research, I have spent the past 12 years leading and spearheading user research work.
In my experience, user research was usually involved in broader product and design work that I have been responsible for, though at times, I have taken up the role of the user researcher properly.
Numbers:
I have run over 1000 user interviews.
I have developed multiple templates and frameworks to better help run user research.
I have helped many teams and organisations either set up or improve their user research work.
I have led the consulting arms of a product and design agency (Fusion Labs), which involved a lot of user research work as well.
I have launched and led my own product and design agency (Pebble).
My Journey:
I have always been passionate about understanding problems, people and needs and thinking through innovative solutions.
I was first introduced to qualitative user research during high school as part of my studies in Society and Culture. During this time, I was introduced to frameworks of qualitative research which included user interviews, user immersions and observational research.
In my early 20s, I completed a Psychology degree at the University of Sydney. During this time I was also trained in research framework thinking in general, learning how to break points of view into clear, testable assumptions. I was also trained in quantitative research. Learning during this time complemented and built on an evolving user research skill set.
Following my Psychology degree, I enrolled in a Master of Management at the University of Sydney. It was there that I was first introduced to the space of human-centred design and was re-introduced to user interviews and qualitative research.
During this time, I started applying these frameworks and techniques to create a product and later a startup (CrowdFlight). The concept came out of a business competition that a few students and I participated in and won.
I eventually decided to step away from the startup, thinking that there was a lot more I needed to learn.
Upon stepping away, I threw myself into theory, reading every possible book I could find on the topic of product, design and user research. I also reached out to others working in the broad space of human-centred design, learning from their experience and frameworks.
I later joined a different startup (GoFar– a connected car startup that turns normal cars smart and sustainable). I spent my time there applying the frameworks and techniques I have learnt, to better understand the users and improve the product.
Next, I joined a product and design agency (Fusion Labs), first as a product lead and eventually as the head of product consulting.
During my time at the agency, I led complex projects, developed the agency’s product and design frameworks and ways of working and mentored both internal and client teams.
One common thread of the work during this time was user research, and by the time I eventually left Fusion Labs, I completed hundreds of user interviews, developed the agency’s research framework and mentored dozens of teams on how to conduct user research.
After leaving the agency, I contracted as a product and design lead for a few years. As mentioned in the product management journey, I worked for Boral as the product lead in residence as well as joined the ABC as a product strategy lead.
While this work was highly related to product management and strategic design work it also involved deep user research at every turn.
During this I also ended up starting my own product and design agency, attempting to bring a new approach to the space of design-led innovation. The vision was to bring together the best of product management, strategic design, product design and user research into a coherent framework and approach.
I led multiple projects, mentored multiple teams, developed a handful of frameworks and templates and attained invaluable learning and experience.
I also started guest lecturing on the topic of product, users and ventures at the University of Maastricht (The Netherlands). This included how to conduct impactful, efficient, user research.
At the end of 2023 I decided to step away from the agency world and instead focus on working in-house on specific products.
In 2024, I joined the Department of Agriculture, the federal government agency responsible for overseeing Australia’s agricultural goods and exports.
I have since focused on using the theory I have learnt and developed and the experience I have attained to apply to the work within my team. I have led the user research efforts across two product teams within the department.
I have managed to build an effective process to build, test and iterate upon our points of view regarding the users, the product and the space.
Skill set
I have spent my entire career (15+ years) working at the intersection of product, design and user research.
At times, I worked in very specific roles, focusing on either product management, strategic design or user research. However, more often than not, I have had to wear multiple hats.
As a result of the past 15 years, I have developed a comprehensive skill set, uniquely positioned for building great products and services.