About Me
I’m Tricky, a design and product leader with over 25 years’ experience helping organisations create products, services, and teams that people genuinely value.
Over the years, I’ve worked with companies including Microsoft, SKY, BBC, News UK, and The Guardian, leading design across innovation teams, design systems, subscription products, and editorial platforms.
My expertise sits somewhere between design, strategy, and operational leadership. I enjoy bringing clarity to complex problems, helping diverse teams work more effectively together, and creating environments where good ideas can flourish.
At The Guardian, I built and scaled the Product Design function, growing multidisciplinary teams across research, service design, UX, and UI. I also served as an internal founder for Feast, The Guardian’s first new product in several years, helping to take the idea from concept to launch through a lean, iterative product development approach. Alongside this, I introduced new approaches to innovation and research, and developed design systems that improved collaboration between design and engineering.
Featured Work
I’m particularly drawn to organisations going through periods of strategic and organisational change, especially where there’s a need to balance customer needs, commercial realities, editorial thinking, and healthy team culture.
While much of my work happens at the leadership level, I’ve always stayed close to the craft. I still enjoy shaping product direction, prototyping ideas, exploring emerging technology, and getting into the details when it matters.
I’m particularly interested in:
Strategic and organisational change
Design systems
Product innovation and incubation
AI and creative tooling
Mentoring and leadership development
Building diverse, resilient, and creative teams
Alongside my work in design, I’m also a qualified mental health practitioner and advocate for healthier, more sustainable ways of working.
Outside work, I spend a lot of time on two wheels, either cycling through the Chiltern Hills or riding my Ducati motorbike along winding country roads.
I also enjoy experimenting with emerging creative tools and technology, particularly where AI can support the design process without replacing the craft behind it.
And, after inheriting a couple of guitars, I’ve recently started learning to play. Very slowly.
Belle, my energetic and slightly unruly Labradoodle, remains unimpressed by all of it.