A fractional product design practice for early-stage startups. I come in at the founding stage, lead your design function, and hand over to a full-time hire when you're ready.
Let's talk →Most early-stage startups need serious design thinking long before they can justify a senior full-time hire. The choices on offer are uninspiring: agencies that work to a brief and disappear, junior freelancers without the experience to make hard decisions, or a product or engineering lead stretched into a role that isn't theirs.
The result is usually the same — a product that looks underdone, behaves inconsistently, and costs more to fix later. Design becomes a bottleneck instead of a multiplier.
Before anything, I need to understand your product, your team, and where design fits right now. I come out of this with a clear picture of where I can have the most impact.
I embed as your Head of Design. I own the design function — product strategy, UX, UI, design systems — and I do the work. I also put in place the foundations your team will need as it grows.
As the product and team mature, the engagement shifts. I move from doing most of the design work to leading it — helping you build the infrastructure to run design at scale, and thinking seriously about your first full-time hire.
I help define the role, run the hiring process, and onboard the right person properly. Then I step back. The goal was always to make myself unnecessary.
Not a rotating team. Not a brief. Not a sprint and a handoff document.
I've spent 15 years working across some of the most demanding product environments in the world — and some of the scrappiest early-stage teams.
Six and a half years at Google Maps, working on driving navigation, EV features, AI interaction, and updated map design. Before that, a founding-stage redesign at Clipchamp — a four-person startup that later sold to Microsoft. Enterprise product design at Josephmark and Ustwo for clients including Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ABC News, and MySpace.
I work with a small number of companies at a time, and I'm selective about who I take on. I only work with teams building something I'd personally back — and for the right engagements, I put skin in the game, taking part of my fee as equity.
Well Found is a nautical term: a vessel that's properly equipped and ready for the journey ahead. That's what I'm here to help you become.
Six and a half years as a product designer on one of the world's most complex, highest-stakes consumer products. Work included driving navigation, Search Along Route, electric vehicle features, AI-assisted interaction, and a major visual overhaul of the map design.
Joined as the first designer when the company was four people. Led a major rebrand and full product redesign of their video editing platform. Later consulted on the web-based tool that attracted Microsoft's acquisition.
Website and app redesign with Ustwo — one of Australia's most-visited news destinations. Balancing editorial complexity with a clean, accessible user experience.
For companies I'm genuinely excited about, I offer part of my fee as equity rather than cash. The split varies depending on the company's stage, its cash constraints, and my conviction in what it's building.
It's not a standard arrangement — I raise it when it makes sense. But when I take equity, the alignment is real.
I'm not just working for you. I'm working with you.
A fractional designer is embedded in your team and owns a function — like a Head of Design — but works part-time or on a flexible basis. It's different from an agency (which works to a brief) or a contractor (who fills a specific gap). I set direction, make decisions, and work toward the same outcomes you do.
Most run between six months and two years. The intensity shifts over time — higher at the start, transitioning to leadership and handover as you move toward a full-time hire.
Typically pre-seed to Series A. The sweet spot is when you're building seriously but aren't yet at a scale where a full design team makes sense.
Yes. I'm based between Sydney and Northern NSW, with a planned move to the Gold Coast in late 2026. Most of my work is remote-first.
I'm not for everyone, and that's fine. If you're building something real and you're ready to take design seriously, let's talk.
Get in touch