Every layer is a me.

The decision

Eighteen, starting engineering, and completely sure I’d build my own smartphone one day.

What it left me

Make things. Not just imagine them, actually make them.

The decision

Joined Merkle, dentsu as an Experience Strategist, and started thinking about experiences at scale.

What it left me

Scale. At scale, every choice is a choice about time, money and people.

The decision

Started watching anime, then writing manga. By 2020 I’d written my own.

What it left me

Stories, the more absurd the better. I loved exploring a story and telling it strange.

The decision

Went back to study product design, and learnt to look before I draw.

What it left me

Finding problems. The real one is rarely the one in the brief.

The decision

Started learning the foundations of rap.

What it left me

Compact writing. Say more with fewer words, and make every one land.

The decision

Took my first design job and stayed long enough to grow from intern to senior product designer.

What it left me

Craft. Design that looks good, works, and holds up in the details.

The decision

Started exploring experiences outside screens: spatial, touch, and what design even means there.

What it left me

Not every experience lives on a screen. Space and touch are materials too.

The decision

Learnt service design: how people, rules and operations all depend on each other.

What it left me

The choice is yours, not the outcome.

The decision

Organised a conclave, then a TEDx.

What it left me

People. Behind every clean outcome is a room full of them.

The decision

Went deep down the AI rabbit hole, just trying random apps.

What it left me

AI has to earn its place. Trying everything is how I learnt where it does.

The decision

Started building the not-weird-but-random ideas, the ones that may or may not line up with my career.

What it left me

If an idea won’t leave me alone, I build it. This map is one of them.