Tell us a bit about your role! Is there a “typical” day?
Honestly, each day is different and that’s what I love about the role and ustwo as a company. Two thirds of my role is about “tomorrow” – balancing creating a vision and strategy and fostering the momentum to get us there.
So, the day is spent on future meetings, whether that’s board meeting prep, talks, pitches, looking ahead to next year and the value we want to be bringing to our clients. The rest of my role is more in the “today”. Spending time with people, working closely with our Financial, Operations and People leaders and the rest of the leadership team. And a lot of Slack messages!
Recently, I was in our Swedish studio, based in Malmö. The studio starts the week with a Monday Morning Meeting, sharing what’s ahead for the week along with weekend news. They have a lovely tradition of each posting a picture from their weekend in a Slack thread as part of that kick-off - remembering the personal alongside everything else.
The rest of my day was catch-ups in the studio, following up on some client work, enjoying the snow and then drinks with everyone before heading back to London the next day for meetings and the WATBD Maker’s Market in our studio.
What was the biggest challenge in getting to your current position?
Two things I suppose. One is a rarely visible neurological challenge. Hand tremors and word salads, that’s me. At the end of November, I stood on a stage with my hand in my pocket as it was shaking wildly, and muddled several words. That’s OK though.
The other challenge is processing what it means to be a leader with young kids. How to balance being there when my kids need me, with my duty to every single ustwobie and the business. Several years ago a friend introduced me to Kate Waters (now Director of Client Strategy at ITV). Her advice always stayed with me – it’s not about work-life balance, it’s about work and life merge.
So I prioritise being home as often as I can to eat dinner with the kids, or being there for homework and bedtime stories if I missed dinner, and working after the kids are asleep. I maintain some non-negotiables of assemblies and end-of-year concerns. Neither of these are things that you definitively solve – they’re challenges every day. And I take it as it comes.
What is your personal background and what role did it play in your career?
I loved textile design and writing and ended up working at Drapers after I left school. Whenever I could I wrote or edited, and had a completely meandering career starting in journalism, ending up in health information for NHS Scotland. I fell in love with the internet and eventually worked in digital agencies.
Eventually I stopped making things and started selling the ideas and services that our teams created. Fundamentally, I believe that creativity is essential to solving business problems and wished there was more funding for the arts generally.
What is your biggest career-related win? What is your biggest loss?
ustwo becoming majority employee-owned in addition to our B Corp certification has been the greatest win. Of course, those weren’t my personal wins – they were pivotal moments in our history. Two other things come to mind: winning the Alder Hey, which became Alder Play, kids and parents companion app pitch.
If you don’t know Alder Hey, picture a world-class hospital co-designed with kids, with magical moments for them throughout the space. When you enter there’s this beautiful mobile with critters that we brought to life as part of the pitch and ultimately the digital companion product.
Launching Moodnotes with Thriveport is my other career high – that partnership brought the rigour of CBT and good design, together, to create a simple way to track your mood over time. Reading users’ feedback was most rewarding of all.
Losses? Every loss hurts, if it doesn’t we’re doing something wrong. Biggest loss was probably not getting to work with Channel 4. Born risky. Independent. Trying to do something different and create change. They felt like our natural partners, or at least that we would be theirs. Still gutted they went with someone else to be honest.
Which individuals and/or agencies do you gain inspiration from? Do you have any heroes in the industry?
I’m not a massive fan of the hero label. But I do have people I admire, or gain inspiration from, yes. Here are just a few – some are friends and others I happily admire from a distance – Anjali Ramachandran, Ben Terrett, Farrah Bostic, Vanessa Kingori OBE, and Cindy Gallop.
If you could go back to your teenage years, would you have done things differently? Do you have any regrets?
If this is more about advice to my younger self – then it’s simply: listen to your gut. Also, rebellions are normal! Mistakes happen – learning is moving forward.
If you weren’t in your current industry, what would you be doing?
Teaching. Probably history. I read history at university and think it’s important we all collectively analyse and learn from the past, seeming to understand how we’d socially, politically and culturally do things better now.
If you don’t understand the past, how can you make better decisions for the future? Otherwise, I’d ideally be in a shed––the dream was always a shed, but any space would do––throwing and handbuilding ceramics.
What’s your one big dream for the future of the industry?
A more inclusive and equitable industry, where fewer people look like and sound like me, an educationally privileged white cis gender person.
Also, less digital landfill, and more impactful work. This means saying no to some things that you’d otherwise really, really want to do.
What are your top tips for aspiring creative professionals?
Inspiration is everywhere. In the banal and every day. Be curious. Also keep a sketchbook. Write, draw, whatever you like. Notice. Look closer. What happens if you do more of this, or less, or reverse it. Draw daily. Write daily. About why you noticed it, what it makes you think or want or hate.
What are your top tips for other creative leaders?
Be humble. Take feedback. Make the tough decisions – it’s your job!
When you think about your team, what is the thing that matters to you the most?
For our leadership team: honesty, momentum and commitment to always striving to create better work for our clients.
More broadly, one of our values is raise the bar, and another is be human. So care about others, authentically, and continually try to create new digital experiences that have meaningful impact.
Do you have any websites, books or resources you would recommend?
Read what interests you. Read something else you’d not imagined being interested in. Enjoy the boundless corners of the internet. Subscribe to newsletters that take your fancy. Go to galleries. Listen to music. Enjoy life. It’s short.
I don’t have one recommendation. Honestly, I’d say read some short stories by Lydia Davis. Try Emma Dabiri’s essay Disobedient Bodies: Reclaim Your Unruly Beauty, read Margaret Attwoods’s Burning Questions.
Dip your toe into brilliantly written historical fiction with Zadie Smith’s The Fraud. Go to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, visit Storm King, the Whitney or any Gagosian Gallery. You won’t regret it. Or whatever your local gallery is – support them, and enjoy seeing new things each time you go.
