Understanding
A good diagnosis simplifies complex reality by identifying certain aspects of a situation that are critical and worth focusing on to solve a problem.
My approach
My approach to meaningful design
Inside my process. A way of thinking I’ve built over the years — rooted in listening, in framing the right problem before chasing a solution, and in designing with the people who will use what we make
A step-by-step approach
Three moves — WHY, WHAT, HOW
Every project moves through the same three stages. They aren’t phases of a timeline as much as three distinct kinds of thinking — each one builds on the last and answers a different question.
Pathway
A guide to meet the challenge. The approach chosen to address or overcome the obstacles identified in the diagnosis.
Action plan
A set of coherent actions designed to carry out the chosen approach — steps and actions coordinated to work together to accomplish the pathway.
Methodology
Inside the way I work
The starting point
Everything starts with a brief?
Actually, with a problem
When we define a problem well, we already have half of the solution solved
The risk is getting the problem wrong — and jumping directly to the solutions. Problem focus vs. solution focus. Most of the work happens before any design decision is made
Look closer
Sometimes we find the problem, but we have to look at it from different perspectives
The same problem changes shape depending on where you stand. The person living it. The team operating it. The system around it. Each angle reveals something the others don’t. The work isn’t to pick one — it’s to hold all of them long enough to see what’s really going on.
My discovery & design approach
Two arcs that feed each other
Research design
Defining what we need to learn, from whom, and how. Interviews, surveys, ethnography, benchmarks, heuristic analysis — the right instrument for the right question.
Research summary & conclusions
Turning hours of audio, sticky notes and observations into a small number of insights leadership can repeat from memory and act on. Research that survives the slide deck.
Research · Individuals
Discovering & understanding individuals
People are more than their demographics. I research the dimensions that actually shape behaviour: pain points, psychography, mindsets, behaviors, interests, contexts, needs, motivations, fears, lifestyles and relationships. Each one becomes a lens we can use later when we design.
Research · Context
Understanding the context and trends
Three concentric layers shape the field around any product or brand. Macro forces — social, technological, political, environmental phenomena that modify society. Mega trends — longer-term changes anchored in one or more macro-forces. Market trends — sustained changes in consumer behavior and attitudes.
Research · Competitive benchmark
Looking outside before designing inside
Before sketching a single screen, I look at what already exists. Competitive benchmark across the category, adjacent platforms, and patterns from other industries. The goal isn’t imitation — it’s to know exactly which conventions to honour, which to break, and which white space is still open.
And then, we begin to connect the dots
Synthesis · The work goes from noise to signal
Synthesis tools
Turning the raw into something the team can act on
A small set of synthesis artifacts I use across projects. They give the team a shared mental model of who we’re designing for and where the friction lives.
Tool 01
Persona
An archetype distilled from real research — a single page that captures who they are, what they’re trying to do, what gets in their way, and the personality traits and communication preferences that shape how we should talk to them.
Tool 02
Customer journey
Following a real person across the stages they actually pass through — what they do, think and feel at each step. The artifact that turns “the experience” from an abstraction into something we can redesign one moment at a time.
After research
Reformulate the brief — problem definition
Redefining the challenge of the request gives the project a new perspective, framing it better from the depth that the research gave us. It provides a more accurate look at the real issues behind the apparent problem — and allows the teams that will work on creativity, products and services to reach better results.
The problem statement
A formula for writing it down
Three ingredients held in a single sentence. When all three sit together, the brief stops being a request and becomes a problem worth solving.
Term 01
People problem
Term 02
Tension the company can relieve
Term 03
Context & culture
= Problem statement
A sentence the whole team can move from
Project application
How this approach shows up in the work
Principles · My approach involves
Seven principles that show up in every project
Whatever the brief, these principles guide the rhythm of the work. They’re not steps — they’re decisions about how the work happens.
01
Holistic, integrated approach
No single discipline owns the answer. I bring strategy, design and research into the same room and let the answer emerge from the overlap.
02
Suspension of a priori solutions
I don’t walk in with the answer. Solutions are reached as the process moves forward — not before.
03
Co-creation & shared purpose
The people who’ll carry the work are in the room while we make it. Shared purpose is what survives once I’m gone.
04
Divergence and convergence
Open the field wide, then narrow with intention. Articulating rationality and creativity so neither dominates the other.
05
Visual thinking practices
Things you can draw together are things you can decide together. Diagrams, maps and sketches as a working language — not as the final deliverable.
06
Fast prototyping, experimentation and iteration
Make ideas tangible early. Test them small. Learn from how real people respond, then iterate — not the other way around.
07
Evaluation with design users
The final test isn’t internal review — it’s the people who’ll actually use the thing. Their reactions reshape the design until it’s ready.
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”
Steve Jobs
Application examples
The shape of the work, across stages
A selection of artifacts from recent projects. Each one corresponds to a moment in the process described above — the same approach, in different forms.
Kickoff · Co-creation
Aligning expectations, objectives, challenges and limitations together with the team in the first session.
Roadmap · Timeline
A visual timeline in stages and a work plan to track adjustments across the platform’s lifecycle.
Sitemaps · By user
Building site maps for each user type, so the experience is designed against the role — not just the page.
Heuristic analysis
Evaluating the existing solution against established usability principles — surfacing what to keep, what to fix.
Flow maps
Complete visibility of the platform and its flows — what allows the analysis to define an approach and roadmap.
Ideation · Sketches & IA
From paper sketches to information architecture — making ideas tangible enough to choose between.
Wireframes · Original vs Redesign
Side-by-side wireframes that show exactly how each design decision changes what the user experiences.
Card sorting · Validation
Letting users group and label themselves, so the architecture maps to how they actually think.