I’ve been a team leader, a project leader, a business leader, and I’m an advocate for combining leadership with design thinking to drive innovation and success.
I’ve been leading teams of all shapes, sizes and types for much of my career. I was Head of UX for 13 years, while also serving as an Associate Director on the board of the company.
My leadership style is based on building relationships and teams that are built upon openness, transparency and trust. I’ve found that trusting my team is the way to get the best out of them, as long as I myself can be trusted to always have time for them, no matter how small an issue they have. I actively listen to any concerns and worries and I’m honest about exactly what I’m going to do to help.
When I joined the board of Whitespace on 2017 I had the opportunity to use the trust that I had built up with the entire company to become a valued advisor to the board, uniquely able to report on the company culture and current mood. I led all-hands meetings, I ran the employee engagement survey programme and I ran and reported the peer-provided feedback programme. As one of the board members with the closest ear to the ground, I was able to use my knowledge to keep the business thinking clearly, rationally and equitably about the decisions that they were making that would affect the mood and wellbeing of the employees.
“On the surface a line manager tells you what you work on; Alex’s skills as a mentor, a steadfast leader, and a role model go much further.”
~ Amy McCrae, User Experience Design Team Lead, Dentsu Creative
Leadership case study
Royal Academy of Music
The brief
Our brief for the website was to create a portal into everyday life at the Academy, showing the energy, passion and talent that comes through, in order to attract the best talent from around the world.
MY ROLE
I led the Whitespace team of UX designers, UI designers and content creators, and it was my role to direct and help guide the team to create a site that reflected the supreme quality of education and reputation, through a solid level of craft, attention to detail and world-class content whilst being accessible, informative, easy to use and fast.
Working in-line with the new brand, the team created a feeling of what it’s like to step inside the corridors of the academy itself. To further encourage people to explore the site’s rich content, stories and courses, we created engaging touches of interactivity and use of sound to surprise and delight the user.
The results
Scottish Design Awards 2021
Winner – Best website
Roses Awards 2021
Winner – Best Website
awwwards August 2020
Commendation
I also do…
Training and workshops
I offer bespoke training workshops and programmes for all kinds of teams that compliment their existing skills and will increase user satisfaction in your service.
Ready to chat?
Talk to me about your project and I’ll help you find the way forward that’s going to get the best results for your users.