About me
I’m a Principal Product Designer at Trade Me, where I’ve spent the last decade helping shape one of New Zealand’s most complex digital products.
I joined as a Senior UX Designer, drawn to the challenge of improving a marketplace used by millions of people in very different moments, from impulse buys to life-changing decisions. Over time, my focus shifted from refining individual features to improving the systems underneath them. I’m naturally drawn to messy, ambiguous problems that sit between teams and require alignment, not just design output.
Shipping Transparency was a turning point in my career. Leading that work meant bringing multiple squads together across buyer and seller journeys and making real trade-offs between simplicity, accuracy, and commercial impact. It’s the kind of problem I enjoy most, high stakes and cross-functional. That project led to my promotion to Lead.
As a Principal, I focus on creating foundations that make good design easier. Rebuilding Tangram, our mobile design system, wasn’t about refreshing visuals. It was about restoring trust, creating shared ownership, and helping teams move faster without fragmenting the experience. I care about clarity, coherence, and building systems that last.
Earlier in my career, I worked in mobile product and creative technology in New York. That experience sharpened my craft, but I realised I’m most energised by long-term product evolution rather than short-term campaign work.
At my core, I like simplifying complexity, bringing people together around shared direction, and leaving things more scalable than I found them.
Experience
2025
Principal Product Designer
Trade Me | March 2024 – November 2025
Accountable for design direction across Trade Me’s mobile ecosystem and shared platform foundations. Led strategic, cross-business initiatives focused on systems, governance, and long-term scalability.
Rebuilt and repositioned Tangram, the mobile design system, as governed product infrastructure rather than a visual library. Established clearer design principles, strengthened engineering alignment, and improved system adoption across business units.
Operate at platform level, influencing Heads of Product and Principal Engineers while empowering senior designers to take ownership of system evolution.
2024
Lead Product Designer
Trade Me | February 2022 – March 2024
Led complex, multi-squad initiatives spanning buyer and seller journeys across web and mobile. Responsible for shaping problem framing, aligning stakeholders, and guiding delivery across product, design, and engineering.
Key initiatives included Shipping Transparency and cross-platform search improvements. Focused on reducing fragmentation, improving decision clarity for users, and building scalable foundations rather than one-off features.
Expanded scope beyond execution into mentorship, facilitation, and raising the maturity of cross-functional discovery and delivery practices.
2022
Senior UX Designer
Trade Me | August 2013 – February 2022
Played a central role in evolving Trade Me from a secondhand marketplace into a more structured e-commerce platform.
Led major initiatives including Shopping Cart introduction, Search & Refine unification, courier booking flows, and surfacing shipping costs in search.
Worked end-to-end from research and framing through to prototyping, validation, and delivery. Regularly facilitated workshops and aligned stakeholders across multiple business units, operating through influence rather than formal authority.
2013
Senior UI Designer
MXM (formerly The Hyperfactory) – New York | October 2011 – May 2013
Relocated to NYC following acquisition by Meredith Publishing. Designed mobile-first UI/UX solutions for global brands including Kraft and Gerber.
Led visual and interaction design across mobile apps, m-sites, and interactive campaigns. Mentored junior designers and helped elevate mobile design craft within the US team.
2011
Designer
The Hyperfactory – Auckland | January 2010 – October 2011
Started as a production designer and quickly moved into client-facing design work. Contributed to strategy, UX, and visual design for mobile-first experiences during the early growth of the smartphone era.
Developed a strong foundation in interaction design, mobile UI, and cross-disciplinary collaboration that shaped the trajectory of my career.
Education
2009
Bachelor of Design (honours)
Majoring in Visual Communication Design
Massey University | 2006 - 2009, Wellington & Auckland
About me
I’m a Principal Product Designer at Trade Me, where I’ve spent the last decade helping shape one of New Zealand’s most complex digital products.
I joined as a Senior UX Designer, drawn to the challenge of improving a marketplace used by millions of people in very different moments, from impulse buys to life-changing decisions. Over time, my focus shifted from refining individual features to improving the systems underneath them. I’m naturally drawn to messy, ambiguous problems that sit between teams and require alignment, not just design output.
Shipping Transparency was a turning point in my career. Leading that work meant bringing multiple squads together across buyer and seller journeys and making real trade-offs between simplicity, accuracy, and commercial impact. It’s the kind of problem I enjoy most, high stakes and cross-functional. That project led to my promotion to Lead.
As a Principal, I focus on creating foundations that make good design easier. Rebuilding Tangram, our mobile design system, wasn’t about refreshing visuals. It was about restoring trust, creating shared ownership, and helping teams move faster without fragmenting the experience. I care about clarity, coherence, and building systems that last.
Earlier in my career, I worked in mobile product and creative technology in New York. That experience sharpened my craft, but I realised I’m most energised by long-term product evolution rather than short-term campaign work.
At my core, I like simplifying complexity, bringing people together around shared direction, and leaving things more scalable than I found them.
Experience
2025
Principal Product Designer
Trade Me | March 2024 – November 2025
Accountable for design direction across Trade Me’s mobile ecosystem and shared platform foundations. Led strategic, cross-business initiatives focused on systems, governance, and long-term scalability.
Rebuilt and repositioned Tangram, the mobile design system, as governed product infrastructure rather than a visual library. Established clearer design principles, strengthened engineering alignment, and improved system adoption across business units.
Operate at platform level, influencing Heads of Product and Principal Engineers while empowering senior designers to take ownership of system evolution.
2024
Lead Product Designer
Trade Me | February 2022 – March 2024
Led complex, multi-squad initiatives spanning buyer and seller journeys across web and mobile. Responsible for shaping problem framing, aligning stakeholders, and guiding delivery across product, design, and engineering.
Key initiatives included Shipping Transparency and cross-platform search improvements. Focused on reducing fragmentation, improving decision clarity for users, and building scalable foundations rather than one-off features.
Expanded scope beyond execution into mentorship, facilitation, and raising the maturity of cross-functional discovery and delivery practices.
2022
Senior UX Designer
Trade Me | August 2013 – February 2022
Played a central role in evolving Trade Me from a secondhand marketplace into a more structured e-commerce platform.
Led major initiatives including Shopping Cart introduction, Search & Refine unification, courier booking flows, and surfacing shipping costs in search.
Worked end-to-end from research and framing through to prototyping, validation, and delivery. Regularly facilitated workshops and aligned stakeholders across multiple business units, operating through influence rather than formal authority.
2013
Senior UI Designer
MXM (formerly The Hyperfactory) – New York | October 2011 – May 2013
Relocated to NYC following acquisition by Meredith Publishing. Designed mobile-first UI/UX solutions for global brands including Kraft and Gerber.
Led visual and interaction design across mobile apps, m-sites, and interactive campaigns. Mentored junior designers and helped elevate mobile design craft within the US team.
2011
Designer
The Hyperfactory – Auckland | January 2010 – October 2011
Started as a production designer and quickly moved into client-facing design work. Contributed to strategy, UX, and visual design for mobile-first experiences during the early growth of the smartphone era.
Developed a strong foundation in interaction design, mobile UI, and cross-disciplinary collaboration that shaped the trajectory of my career.
Education
2009
Bachelor of Design (honours)
Majoring in Visual Communication Design
Massey University | 2006 - 2009, Wellington & Auckland