My story.
Hello. Hi.
My elevator pitch…
With 25 years in IC and leadership roles - and a passion for building products that both businesses and customers love - I bring a proven track record of clarity, direction, innovation, and measurable impact to complex problem spaces. I have a wealth of experience in fintech and crypto, designing simple, delightful products that serve millions of customers, that are underpinned by stringent business and security rules, with complex technical dependencies. What sets me apart from other designers - and creates the most value for anyone I work with - is my history of focusing on outcomes-driven innovation through research, processes, and design methodologies.
Long-form…
I have 25 years of experience working with human-centred design practice, both as an individual contributor and in leadership roles. I have led teams in a wide variety of environments, from start-ups and disruptors to aggressive scale-ups and global corporates. I have managed cross-functional teams solving complex problems with even more complex dependencies, working with both large and modest budgets. I pride myself on being able to bring clarity of vision, direction, and innovation to such situations - and create measurable impact.
I'm a passionate believer in the transformative impact of implementing holistic user experience strategies using human-centred design practices. At the heart of what I do is the strong conviction that customer experience is a key pillar of what makes a loved and profitable business. Gaining a broad, as well as a deep and rich, understanding of customer needs and motivations with authentic empathy - and using these insights to inform decisions around every touchpoint - is vital to ensure products, services, experiences (and the marketing messages that promote them) are optimised around customer needs.
As a leader, I understand the beauty and power of collaboration and teamwork and strive to create psychologically safe environments where calculated risk-taking and fast failure are part of the process. I believe that creativity and innovation don't just happen, they require the right balance of empathy, leadership, processes, methodologies, and tooling. I set high standards, and believe in team autonomy and honest, respectful communication. I have succeeded in high-stress, highly fluid environments by focusing on the strategic actions needed to achieve positive outcomes.
Key points
25 years of HCD (human-centered design) practice.
20 years of design leadership in various capacities.
Experience building, leading, and developing multidisciplinary design teams.
Proven track record of bringing clarity, direction, innovation, and measurable impact to complex problem spaces.
Founder; AAVA, a successful UX and brand design consultancy, and Pioneer Unit Records, one of South Africa's most iconic and successful independent record labels.
Key strengths; design leadership, user experience strategy, human-centered design, UX, UX research, information architecture, product design, service design, UI design, brand design, and creative direction.
Industries; crypto, fintech, banking, e-commerce, online travel, fleet & mobile asset management, telecommunications, real estate, education, entertainment, and non-profit.
Brands; Luno, Barclays, Absa, Investec, Standard Bank, HSBC, Momentum, Deloitte Digital Africa, Visa, Osprea Logistics, Ogilvy, Pick n Pay, Mix Telematics, MTN, Pam Golding, Brainfeed, Music in Africa, JHB Live, Lightstone, Hummba, Greater Good, Audi, and Peter Stuyvesant.
"Whether I'm leading design teams or consulting as an individual contributor, my work starts with authentic empathy; for the business, for its customers, and for the cross-functional teams doing the work. Design and innovation can be a messy business and, as much as we often create beautiful diagrams to convince clients and stakeholders otherwise, there is no one process that guarantees success. Embracing the ambiguity, having the flexibility to thrive with the unknowns, the iterative non-linearity, the deadlines, corporate processes, expectations, and fluid environments - and still driving things forward with a clear idea of what success looks like - is where my skills lie."
Beautiful discovery & delivery diagram
Made by: Nicole Kruger at Luno
The long version…
What follows is a more personal, in-depth and probably rambling account of my work history so that you can get to know me better.
Long-form…
I have 25 years of experience working with human-centred design practice, both as an individual contributor and in leadership roles. I have led teams in a wide variety of environments, from start-ups and disruptors to aggressive scale-ups and global corporates. I have managed cross-functional teams solving complex problems with even more complex dependencies, working with both large and modest budgets. I pride myself on being able to bring clarity of vision, direction, and innovation to such situations - and create measurable impact.
I'm a passionate believer in the transformative impact of implementing holistic user experience strategies using human-centred design practices. At the heart of what I do is the strong conviction that customer experience is a key pillar of what makes a loved and profitable business. Gaining a broad, as well as a deep and rich, understanding of customer needs and motivations with authentic empathy - and using these insights to inform decisions around every touchpoint - is vital to ensure products, services, experiences (and the marketing messages that promote them) are optimised around customer needs.
As a leader, I understand the beauty and power of collaboration and teamwork and strive to create psychologically safe environments where calculated risk-taking and fast failure are part of the process. I believe that creativity and innovation don't just happen, they require the right balance of empathy, leadership, processes, methodologies, and tooling. I set high standards, and believe in team autonomy and honest, respectful communication. I have succeeded in high-stress, highly fluid environments by focusing on the strategic actions needed to achieve positive outcomes.
Kentish Town, London, where I grew up
Photo by: Danny Lines
London; the Gerry Judah years…
I grew up in London. My first passion was music, followed by anything to do with design, art, photography, and architecture. At the time, I thought I wanted to become a graphic designer (because I didn't see any financial security in making music), but studying philosophy, which I did at secondary school and university, made me realise that I was equally interested in why people found things beautiful as I was in creating beautiful things. I also started DJing and making music (but more on that later).
During secondary school in Kentish Town, I started working for Gerry Judah on a part-time basis because my best friend lived upstairs from him. Gerry is an amazing artist and designer who has created iconic settings for theatre, film, television, museums, and public spaces. He employed my friends and me to do mostly grueling, always dirty, set-building tasks. Although the work was generally (somewhat skilled) manual labour, he employed us because we were all artists of one form or another and he could trust us to execute his vision. He would include us all in his creative process and listen to our input (and shout us down if he thought it was bad). It was incredibly validating for someone so young and inexperienced - and it was also my first experience having a mentor.
On set, we were Gerry's 'boys' and he would always defend us - no matter how famous or important our clients were. I had started making music with a friend I met while at University in Brighton. Our first project was signed by Saskia Slegers at Djax-Up-Beats Records. One day, during one of the lengthy periods when there was nothing to do on a set for a TV commercial, we were joking about how bad the music for the advert was (we were young, cocky, and didn't know better). The director overheard us and gave me a very public dressing down, 'Who are you and what the fuck do you know about music?'. Before I had a chance to apologise, Gerry intervened to say, 'He's actually a very talented music producer and he's one of my boys - you should probably listen to his advice'. I'm sure Gerry gave me an earful about unprofessional behaviour on the way home, but I learned many valuable lessons from Gerry about inspiring trust and loyalty, giving credit, allowing autonomy, and getting people to unite around a shared vision in a high-performing team.
I maybe didn't appreciate it at the time, but we worked on some amazing, iconic projects with some of the greatest talent in the world including David Bailey, Vivienne Westwood, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
Long-form…
I have 25 years of experience working with human-centred design practice, both as an individual contributor and in leadership roles. I have led teams in a wide variety of environments, from start-ups and disruptors to aggressive scale-ups and global corporates. I have managed cross-functional teams solving complex problems with even more complex dependencies, working with both large and modest budgets. I pride myself on being able to bring clarity of vision, direction, and innovation to such situations - and create measurable impact.
I'm a passionate believer in the transformative impact of implementing holistic user experience strategies using human-centred design practices. At the heart of what I do is the strong conviction that customer experience is a key pillar of what makes a loved and profitable business. Gaining a broad, as well as a deep and rich, understanding of customer needs and motivations with authentic empathy - and using these insights to inform decisions around every touchpoint - is vital to ensure products, services, experiences (and the marketing messages that promote them) are optimised around customer needs.
As a leader, I understand the beauty and power of collaboration and teamwork and strive to create psychologically safe environments where calculated risk-taking and fast failure are part of the process. I believe that creativity and innovation don't just happen, they require the right balance of empathy, leadership, processes, methodologies, and tooling. I set high standards, and believe in team autonomy and honest, respectful communication. I have succeeded in high-stress, highly fluid environments by focusing on the strategic actions needed to achieve positive outcomes.
Sculpture for Amnesty International
Made by: Gerry Judah
South Africa; in at the deep end…
I moved to South Africa in 1995 shortly after the first free elections. I bought a Mac and taught myself Photoshop. Despite having never worked professionally as a designer, and armed with the confidence that working for Gerry had given me, I applied for a job at a small 'interactive' design studio that occupied a tiny, dark, sweaty room at Ogilvy's office in downtown Cape Town. Anything to do with the internet was called 'new media' so we all became new media designers, learning the new tools to create websites, banners, and 'interactive' animation. Despite the humble beginnings, we slowly managed to convince the main business that we were worthy of the name 'Ogilvy' and it wasn't long before I became the first-ever Creative Director of Ogilvy Interactive Worldwide in South Africa.
This was the deep end. I had no previous experience leading a design team but, in those pioneering days, there were very few new media designers more senior than me (which wasn't saying much). We hired a copywriter who became the first Information Architect (that we knew of) in South Africa, coders were working out what could be done with HTML and we were all grappling with how to make new media a meaningful channel that took full advantage of the medium. We all had internet side projects where we connected with like-minded creators from around the world. Around this time I started my own creative playground website, dplanet.org.
Long-form…
I have 25 years of experience working with human-centred design practice, both as an individual contributor and in leadership roles. I have led teams in a wide variety of environments, from start-ups and disruptors to aggressive scale-ups and global corporates. I have managed cross-functional teams solving complex problems with even more complex dependencies, working with both large and modest budgets. I pride myself on being able to bring clarity of vision, direction, and innovation to such situations - and create measurable impact.
I'm a passionate believer in the transformative impact of implementing holistic user experience strategies using human-centred design practices. At the heart of what I do is the strong conviction that customer experience is a key pillar of what makes a loved and profitable business. Gaining a broad, as well as a deep and rich, understanding of customer needs and motivations with authentic empathy - and using these insights to inform decisions around every touchpoint - is vital to ensure products, services, experiences (and the marketing messages that promote them) are optimised around customer needs.
As a leader, I understand the beauty and power of collaboration and teamwork and strive to create psychologically safe environments where calculated risk-taking and fast failure are part of the process. I believe that creativity and innovation don't just happen, they require the right balance of empathy, leadership, processes, methodologies, and tooling. I set high standards, and believe in team autonomy and honest, respectful communication. I have succeeded in high-stress, highly fluid environments by focusing on the strategic actions needed to achieve positive outcomes.
