My work

Research and discover

I use ethnographic field methodologies to gain the deepest insights into customer groups.

Develop and implement

I co-design and prototype ideas based on human insights, then test, iterate and implement them.

Corrections: Bail Support Service

Service improvement: The Bail Support Service is a service designed by Corrections to help support people who are trying to get or are currently on bail. The service is designed to be customer-focused, putting the needs and rehabilitation of the defendant at its core. I worked with the Bail Support Team to conduct research with frontline workers and make critical improvements to the existing pilot service before it was rolled out, nationally.

I found seven key deep-rooted insights about the frontline experience that led to fundamental redesigns of the service’s internal offerings. Findings were delivered as a written report with soundbites from customers, and clear actionable direction was given to ensure improvements were easily implemented.

MPI: Food Safety Journey Mapping

I worked in the Food Safety Team at MPI when the Food Act 2014 was passed, one of the largest laws to be implemented in recent New Zealand history. I led some of the most fundamental re-designs to our procedures during the 4 years the Act was implemented. My team and I charted the customer journey maps across numerous food and beverage industries, including food service, manufacturing, wine and cheese sectors.

I tracked the process, behaviours and needs of customer and supporting stakeholders, such as Environmental Health officers and lobbyists, to ensure we had an accurate view of our current state. We did this by observing and participating in everyday customer activities as well and conducting in-depth interviews and surveys. From this we created detailed journey maps. This was a crucial first step when redesigning the services, procedures and products to ensure implementation was customer-centric.

Consumer Protection: Car Cards

Purpose: Design a toolkit for community service providers to help their customers avoid buying unreliable cars on unsuitable finance. 

Problem: The business had a clear view of what the problem was and how to fix it, but didn’t have a clear view on how to change their customers purchasing behaviours.

What we did: We visited an array of community service providers to understand how they worked and figure out a clear problem statement. It became apparent there was a need for tailored tools they could use to simply communicate key messages. We ran a co-design workshop with service providers and their customers to create prototypes, which we tested. Quickly iterating on ideas in the field, we developed a high-spec prototype of the toolkit, which we call Car Cards.

MPI: The Food Safety Buddy

Using my knowledge and experience of magazine journalism, we designed and created The Buddy. It was clear from talking with businesses that there was a gap for guidance addressing staff. The Buddy is highly visual, focusing on key messages and supports staff training.

We went through a fast-paced prototyping and iteration process with this product, distributing lots of drafts around food businesses, and testing multiple concepts for effectiveness, before developing the final version.

The Buddy has received some of the most positive feedback we have heard and is in high demand. We printed and distributed over 15,000 copies nationwide.

MPI: Re-designing Wine Exports

Service Improvement:

Purpose: Re-design regulatory processes for winemakers to export wine.
Problem: Winemakers need to jump through many hoops before they can ship wine off to sell overseas. We went into the field to better understand how the many rules impacted their practices and how they might be redesigned.

What we did: I spent time visiting winemakers across New Zealand to understand how they interpreted the copius rules they need to follow. By observing them at work, we noted many small annoyances we didn’t gather from consultation. By gathering this information directly, we were able to create service blueprints to streamline processes and communication to winemakers about exporting products.

Hutt City Council: Community Engagement

Spatial Design:

I worked with Hutt City Council to engage with residents in Naenae and workshop spatial design solutions to inform town planning. As part of this work I gathered information by recording street interviews I conducted with people in the town centre, one-on-one conversations with residents and business owners, and a series of workshops targeting different customer groups.

Insights and recommendations from this work have directly inspired the design and construction of Naenae pool and town centre.