About Me
I'm interested in people. I have an eerily accurate memory for names and faces, and I can and will talk to anyone, about anything. I also read a fair bit and swim. In the early 2010s I was a journalist in South Africa, where I'm from. After a little too much gunfire, I became an academic, winding up at Oxford. These days I work in commercial research & insights in London, specialising in finance and tech. I've lived in five countries, have degrees from 4 universities, and speak three (and a half) languages. A consequence of being over-educated is that I have built an arsenal of research methodologies over the years, qual & quant, though I specialise in the former. I also have a knack for building client relationships, and being a delight to work with.
I've mentored and led teams of juniors & research managers, and looked after high-profile client accounts. I'm an expert in UX research methodologies and believe that in a world where we have an over-abundance of data, just talking to users/customers/audiences can deliver the strongest steer for business and organisational direction.
Got a knotty research question? Want to know what people really think, and why they behave so bloody weirdly?
Want to know more? Here are a few case studies.
The State of UX Research and Thoughtleadership
My client wanted to understand the challenges facing UX researchers, and to produce a series of white papers based on this research. We used a qual-quant approach, surveying industry professionals and interviewing senior UX Research leaders at Canva, Meta, Xero, and Rex amongst others, building relationships to get respondent buy in and permission to specifically attribute their verbatim in the final reports and white papers.
Our report was the foundation of the white paper and promotional content that informed our client's strategic rebrand and client outreach for 2025.
Young Adults' Mental Health & Brand Differentiation
In an effort to differentiate in the private health insurance space, my client sought to understand what elements of young adults' mental health journeys were not being met, and where there were opportunities for innovation to address these gaps and build greater equity in the market. We designed a 3-day online closed community, designed as a safe space for participants, with high-touch moderation to reassure respondents. We presented the results at a client workshop, including video and consumer profiles, as well as a needs model for mental health solutions.
EV Transition and Go-to-market Strategy
A traditional ICE manufacturer needed to understand the customer journey to EV choice and uptake. This included understanding the ideal dealership experience and drivers and barriers to EV consideration. We conducted a CX survey, shop-alongs with EV intenders, as well as a 4-day community board with EV owners. Working collaboratively with the CX team, we ran a curation client workshop prior to the fieldwork, and as part of our research outputs delivered a complex customer journey map that informed out clients' go-to-market strategy for a new EV product.
I've worked with
