My experience

• Present

• Founder / CEO

  Holoscribe

  2016 — Present

  

  Co-founder and CEO of this early–stage startup with the vision to become the next evolution in digital publishing.
  
  After a successful seed-funding round, have successfully launched projects with EA Sports FIFA18, Activision Destiny2, Endemol, Celebrity Big Brother, Save the Children, Goal.com, Premier League teams, Virgin Media, RAPP, Trinity Mirror, Liverpool Echo and Amnesty International – and already secured future subscriptions with the BBC, Rexona, Bafta TV Awards and Virgin Wines. More about Holoscribe.

• Founder / CEO

  Focal Labs

  2015 — Present

  

  Co-founder and CEO of this London-based digital agency focused on providing strategic, design and development services for media companies and online publishers who want to build disruptive digital products and find new ways to grow and engage their online audiences.
  
  With clients including leading global and UK organisations such as Time Inc, News UK, Centaur Media, Practical Publishing, Amnesty International, and International Committee of the Red Cross, Focal Labs have launched more than 15 bespoke digital products for clients and engaging more than one million online users in the process.

  Recent work

  Amnesty Decoders

  • Assisting Amnesty International’s innovation department to develop the product vision for Amnesty Decoders, aimed at inspiring volunteer engagement via a digital medium.
  • Manage and direct UX Design resource through wireframe to final design phases.
  • Direct teams to develop, validate, measure and launch Amnesty’s in-house microtasking platform using lean and agile methodologies.
  • Develop the product’s volunteer engagement strategy through workshopping and user journey mapping.
  • Conduct one-on-one user testing sessions with selected volunteers from around the world.
  • Deliver several internal workshops on product validation, branding and user engagement.
  • Lead the product’s launch including web presence, social media, onboarding as well as establish early adopter relationships.

  Time Inc. (UK)

  • Worked as a FEB Digital senior product consultant to advise Time Inc. executives on digital governance and strategy.
  • Identify and implement KPIs and reporting streams in line with company priorities across several top publishing brands to increase revenue growth.
  • Develop growth product innovation strategy, prioritisation methodologies and validation processes for the organisation's top 6 brands (Marie Claire, NME, Trusted Reviews, Wallpaper, House To Home and Good To Know).
  • Conduct “product validation” and “video engagement” workshops with key product and editorial staff.

  Centaur Media

  • Worked as a FEB Digital senior product consultant to review Econsultancy (B2B SaaS subscription product) to identify effectiveness and shortfalls in delivering customer value and good user experiences.
  • Develop and refine personas and map key user journeys, validated from external customer interviews.
  • Design product features to improve search and discovery, onward journey and personalisation for each user.
  • Direct and deliver complete product redesign aimed at increasing KPI performance in product usefulness, engagement, frequency and volume across all customer organisations.
  • Conduct one-on-one user testing sessions with selected customers to test wireframes and designs, and validate product features, functionality and user journeys.
  • Manage full-time UX Design resource to deliver fully responsive product designs and create additional deliverables such as style guide, mapped editorial workflows, user story cards and user validated reports.
  • Coordinate product specifications and technical due diligence with Centaur Digital Product Director.

  
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• 2017

• Product Consultant

  Centaur Media

  2015 — 2017

  

  Operating between commercial, content and technology teams to manage the launch of 5 new MVP projects in 6 months.
  
  Orignally engaged to review Econsultancy (B2B SaaS subscription product) to identify effectiveness and shortfalls in delivering customer value and good user experiences. More recently engaged to operate between commercial, content and technology teams to lead the roadmap creation, user experence and development plan for 5 new MVP products that can add value to customers.

  Key activities

  • Conduct and advise business strategies with management, commercial, editorial and technical teams to identify product improvements, opportunities and target KPIs.
  • Develop and refine personas and map key user journeys, validated from external customer interviews.
  • Design product features to improve search and discovery, onward journey and personalisation for each user.
  • Direct and deliver complete product redesign aimed at increasing KPI performance in product usefulness, engagement, frequency and volume across all customer organisations.
  • Conduct one-on-one user testing sessions with selected customers to test wireframes and designs, and validate product features, functionality and user journeys.
  • Manage development and UX resources to deliver fully responsive product designs and create additional deliverables such as style guide, mapped editorial workflows, user story cards and user validated reports.
  • Coordinate product specifications and technical due diligence with Centaur Digital Product Director.

  
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• 2016

• Product Manager

  News UK

  October 2016 — December 2016

  

  Succesful ramp-up and management of a new offshore development team engaged to manage The Sun apps, whilst developing a new product roadmap in conjunction with commercial, editorial and technology stakeholders.

• Product Consultant

  Time Inc. UK

  December 2015 — March 2016

  

  Advised Time Inc. UK executive on their digital strategy and governance helping them identify and implement KPIs and reporting streams in line with company priorities across several top publishing brands to increase revenue growth. During this time, led the development of a growth prouct innnovation strategy, focusing on improved prioritisation methodologies and validation processes for the organisation's top 6 brands (Marie Claire, NME, Trusted Reviews, Wallpaper, House To Home and Good To Know). Also conducted several workshops with key product and editorial staff, including "product validation" and "video engagement" workshops.

• Senior Product Consultant

  FEB Digital

  September 2015 — April 2016

  Engaged by FEB digital product agency to lead product consultation teams providing services to some of the UK's top digital publishers

• 2015

• Founder / CEO

  Shorthand

  Mar 2013 — Mar 2015

  

  After securing a multi-million dollar seed funding round, co-founded and launched Shorthand — a first-of-its-kind enterprise digital publishing platform that disrupted the digital publishing space with its ease of use and impressive user engagement achievements. Defined the vision, built the team and drove its growth, establishing the London team in May 2014 and developing clients across the globe including 50+ of the world's top digital storytellers and publishers, such as the BBC, the Guardian, ESPN, The Times, The Financial Times, Hearst Magazines and Trinity Mirror, as well as organisations throughout Europe, the US and Australia.

  Key achievements

  • Initiated and secured $multi-million funding for the company.
  • Working with the co-founder and Product Manager, successfully used a lean startup and agile approach in all facets of growing the Shorthand business.
  • First story published by the Guardian Australia within the first 4 months.
  • Successful Beta launched with paying customers within the first 6 months.
  • Within 12 months had built a residual income for the business of nearly 100k per month and a client list of over 50+ big name enterprise organisations including The BBC, The Guardian, The Times, The Financial Times, Hearst Magazines, Trinity Mirror, and ESPN.
  • Shorthand was adopted by the BBC as their tool of choice for long form digital feature stories, with them producing 15 stories for The BBC Digital Magazine team with average production time of 1 week and engagement time of 7-10 minutes (compared with previous production timescales of 6-8 weeks and engagement times of around 30-40 seconds).
  • Produced a Nike sponsored ‘Brazil World Cup’ campaign for FourFourTwo magazine consisting of 36 multimedia stories delivered in 4 languages - delivered in under 2 weeks.

  Behind the scenes

  
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• 2013

• Director of Technology

  Graeme Wood Group

  2011 — 2013

  Responsible for several projects and technology management across a portfolio of Graeme Wood Group businesses, including the successful delivery of an AUD$800k software development project ahead of schedule, $80k under budget and with a less than 1% incident rate.

• Director of Technology

  Digital Global Mail

  2011 — 2013

  Lead web and IT operations for a multi-award winning startup and longform news publisher The Global Mail. As director of technology, managed department staff and multi-million dollar annual budgets, developing and implementing the enterprise scale digital publishing platform, systems, technology infrastructure and digital marketing.

  Key achievements

  • Joined online journalism start-up to drive and deliver digital technology strategy.
  • Developed team to win several digital journalism awards.
  • Oversaw online marketing and social media strategies resulting in increased online traffic growth of 250% average per month.
  • Introduced new systems and technologies to improve operational effectiveness whilst decreasing IT annual expenditure by AUD$200k per year.
  • Recruited and managed team of 25+ consisting of web developers and designers, video and audio producers, website content managers and IT network, infrastructure and support staff. Managed budget of AUD$3m per year.
  • Planned and built bespoke content management system.
  • Built digital skills of editors, journalists and executives who had previously only worked in print media. Played to their strengths and coached them through a process whereby editorial pitched the technology team story ideas, with the technologists presenting back to them possible approaches (often including mock-ups) to telling the story online. Oversaw workshops to fine-tune ideas and plan what content needed to be re-commissioned. Ensured that user data informed every stage of the lifecycle, analysing and extracting learnings from user testing and web page analytics.
  • Oversaw delivery and management of service lines, including a Large-scale custom-built digital publishing platform, web development projects including data visualisation and interactive solutions, and local and remote IT infrastructures and user support services.

  
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• Founder / CEO

  Sweet Group (Aust)

  2006 — 2012

  Oversaw corporate strategy and operations for the business group. Responsible for the management and delivery of multi-million dollar projects, including a AUD $650,000 software development. As CEO, successfully grew one unit's client base to 180+ throughout Australia and the Pacific. The group's entities delivered technology consulting, software development and website solutions to 100+ clients with 45+ staff based in Sydney, Brisbane, Vietnam, India and Vanuatu.

• 2011

• Business Advisor

  Government of Vanuatu

  2010 — 2011

  Engaged by the New Zealand High Commission, established a detailed technology and IT policy implementation plan for the Vanuatu Government. As a Business Advisor to the government, analysed current technology practices employed in each government department and provided recommendations on processes and systems to deliver strategic and relevant information, including training, support, software, and strategic advice.

• Founder / CEO

  iGEN Vanuatu

  2010 — 2011

  Contracted by invitation to oversee and implement IT competencies and qualifications for the Vanuatu Government. Developed and managed the core business strategies, planning, operations and managed budgets in order to successfully meet project goals and objectives for key stakeholders. Engaged by the Vanuatu National Training Council to write and deliver Australian-standard competencies for national Information Technologies qualifications, including Certificate I through to Diploma level.

• Chief Executive Officer

  Gizmo (Sunshine Coast)

  2006 — 2009

  Founded and operated a computer company specialising in providing in-home IT services, which was merged into Australia’s largest in-home IT company, Gizmo. Established key service relationships with some of Australia’s biggest national retail chains and telecommunications company. In 12 months, developed the operation to be the largest provider in the region, servicing over 1,500 customers.

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