My Process:

Blending Insight, Design & Strategy.

Over the last 20+ years, I’ve developed a flexible, human-centred approach that combines UX design, research, and strategy. Whether I’m shaping a new product or refining an existing service, I always ground my work in empathy, evidence, and collaboration.

While my past roles have mostly been titled Lead UX Designer or UX/UI Designer, I now describe myself as a Product Designer, a reflection of the broader end-to-end skillset I bring. Titles may change, but my focus remains the same: solve the right problems for real people, in ways that deliver measurable value for the business.

1. Empathise

Uncovering user needs and team priorities

Empathy is where every project starts. At this stage I run user and stakeholder interviews and conduct data reviews to understand the full picture, not just what people do, but why. The goal is to gain a thorough understanding of needs and priorities that can be used to plan and prioritise project goals. In the Waitrose: Rethinking Value in E-Commerce project, user insight challenged our original assumptions, helping us reframe goals and improve alignment with customer needs.

Activities I use:

  • Stakeholder discovery workshops

  • User interviews (remote & in-person)

  • Competitor & heuristics reviews

  • Customer feedback analysis/synthesis

Matt standing next to sticky notes on wall pointing to them

2. Define

Defining the right problem to solve

Using methods like journey mapping and problem framing, I help teams step back and define the real problem. This is where I bring people together, often across different disciplines, to align around a shared understanding. Gaining a consensus across different teams can be challenging, but I feel it’s vital in providing the justification for change, and to get everyone working towards the same shared goal.

What this looks like:

  • Synthesising research findings into clear insights

  • Writing problem statements and opportunity areas

  • Mapping user journeys and pain points

  • Co-defining success metrics with stakeholders

3. Ideate

Generating ideas grounded in real insight

Ideation isn’t about sketching blindly and hoping that you’ll arrive on a solution through experimentation (though that can happen!), it’s about finding grounded, insight-led solutions to the problems you’ve identified in earlier stages of the project. In facilitated workshops where I collaborate with stakeholders, I will use any number of design methods (Crazy 8s, concept mapping and paper prototyping) to generate ideas that focus on both user and business needs.

How I ideate:

  • Design workshops and sprints

  • Sketching and whiteboarding

  • Dot voting, prioritisation, and assumption mapping

  • Concept testing

Matt in design workshop pointing and discussing wireframe sketches

4. Prototype

Making ideas tangible and testable

Whether it’s low-fi user flows in Miro or high-fidelity prototypes created in Figma, I focus on crafting references that help teams explore and test their ideas, gathering targeted insight aimed at further optimising products. I’m a big believer in showing not telling, employing storytelling when introducing experiences to stakeholders and users as a way of explaining context and intent.

What I prototype:

  • User flows and early wireframes to explore and communicate key journeys

  • Interactive Figma prototypes to validate interaction patterns and structure

  • Modular layout examples that reflect real content and CMS constraints

  • Responsive UI components to test flexibility across devices

5. Test

Validating direction, making confident decisions

Testing is where I make sure we’re building the right thing before committing time and resources. I’ve planned and run moderated and unmoderated testing in the past, helping teams prioritise what to validate first. I work closely with researchers and product teams to test early concepts, and also engage with insight and on-site testing teams post-launch to ensure we have the measures in place to understand if our approach has been successful or not.

How I test:

  • Usability testing of prototypes (remote and in person)

  • Tree testing, card sorting to validate IA and navigation

  • Feedback surveys to gauge ongoing customer sentiment

  • Behavioural analysis (e.g. GA, Hotjar) to feed into NPS or similar

Phone in hand with user reviewing prototype

My Guiding Principles

While every project is different, these principles guide everything I do:

  • Empathy first: understanding both users and teams

  • Start with the problem: don’t jump to solutions

  • Think in systems: design for scale and reusability

  • Align early and often: taking the journey as a unified team

  • Focus on outcomes, not outputs: designing with clear intent

Want to work together?

I’m always open to new opportunities, whether you're looking for a full-time / contract UX professional or a company interested in collaborating. If you think we could work well together, I’d love to hear from you.