Notes & writing.
Thinking on customer experience, proposition and product strategy, and what it takes to build things people trust, come back to, and recommend, drawn from work across financial services and women's health.
I rebuilt my website in an afternoon: on building with intention in the age of AI
I rebuilt my entire website in an afternoon. On what AI building tools change, and why intention and customer experience matter more than ever.
Read →One month in a ‘ghost city’: what Network School taught me
One month living and working at Network School in Malaysia. On checking assumptions, and why unfamiliar environments expand your thinking.
Read →Less doing, more honest conversations: an International Women's Day reflection
An International Women's Day reflection on nervous system overload, and the small, honest conversations that actually create change.
Read →What travelling around India taught me about menstrual health
Travelling around India: menstrual taboo alongside real momentum, and the gap between policy recognition and lived experience.
Read →One year as an independent consultant: it was always about the people
One year as an independent consultant. The freedom was real, but the people made it worthwhile. A thank-you to the humans behind the year.
Read →Designing financial services for everyone: reflections from the SFE Customer Vulnerability Summit
Reflections from the Scottish Financial Enterprise Customer Vulnerability Summit. Why vulnerability is not a niche topic, and lived experience as a design input.
Read →Women's health issues are the canary in the coal mine
Menopause, period pain, fertility, fatigue. Why women's health issues are the canary in the coal mine for systems designed around a narrow default.
Read →What happens when 150 women walk into a room: Scotland's first all-day women's health event
Scotland's first all-day women's health event: 150 women, one day, and why the appetite for women's health education needs infrastructure to meet it.
Read →Your natural cycle is your compass
Energy, focus and creativity follow a rhythm. On learning to treat the menstrual cycle as a compass rather than an inconvenience.
Read →Women's health is one of the biggest opportunities of our generation: notes from Dubai
Notes from GITEX, Expand North Star and WHX Dubai. Why women's health is one of the biggest, most underexploited opportunities of our generation.
Read →Running off the side of a mountain: on hang gliding and building Nadi in public
On hang gliding, building Nadi in public, and why health and wealth should never have been separate domains.
Read →Financial education should not be a postcode lottery: a conversation with Sarah Marks
A Making It Matter podcast write-up. Sarah Marks of RedSTART Educate on why financial education is a postcode lottery, and what it would take to change that.
Read →Carrots, sticks, or something in between: reflections from The Sustainable City
Reflections from a sustainability summit inside a functioning eco-city in Dubai. On the balance between incentives and regulation, and why models matter.
Read →How do we really know if a proposition is working?
Success is not always visible in the data. Why structured listening belongs inside the measurement framework, not as an occasional research exercise.
Read →Your pension is not just about retirement. It is about impact.
The largest sum of money many of us will ever have is our pension. Where that money goes matters, and you have more influence over it than you think.
Read →The four Ms: what women's health really costs women's finances
Menstruation, maternity, menopause and marriage. The four Ms that shape women's financial outcomes, and why they are a design problem for financial services.
Read →Two months working remotely from Dubai: on nuance, energy, and engaging without judgement
Two months working remotely from Dubai. On nuance, energy, and why engaging without judgement is the same discipline in a new city and a customer base.
Read →Being a changemaker inside a company is one of the hardest jobs there is
Being a changemaker inside a company is one of the hardest jobs there is. Why the ones who succeed build bridges with community partners rather than going it alone.
Read →What if your best customer strategy is your social impact strategy?
What if your best customer strategy is your social impact strategy? Why serving customers well, by design, is the social impact story that actually scales.
Read →Your phone could save your life: the quiet revolution in mobile health diagnostics
Kenya's Zuri Health screens for health issues through a phone camera. The quiet revolution in mobile diagnostics, and why it matters most for access.
Read →What I learned visiting climate tech founders on the ground in Nairobi
On the ground with climate tech founders in Nairobi. What impact investing looks like when it is built from the constraint, not the slide deck.
Read →Women want to understand their bodies. The information system is letting them down.
Women aren't short of interest in their bodies, they're short of trustworthy information. Why the menstrual health information system is letting them down.
Read →Investing shouldn't be a secret: on financial inclusion and the wealth we're missing
No one taught me how investing works until I worked in finance. On the gender investment gap, financial inclusion, and the wealth we're missing.
Read →The FCA's vulnerability review: what it means for product and proposition design
The FCA's 2025 vulnerability review put product design and outcomes monitoring in the spotlight. What it means for proposition design.
Read →I went to one of the Wonders of the World. The customer experience was terrible.
One of the Wonders of the World, and a terrible customer experience. Why the encounter matters as much as the product, in travel and in finance.
Read →Why I talk about periods, finance, and purpose on LinkedIn
Periods, finance and purpose look like three topics. They're one. Why women's health is a financial issue, and why I write about all of it.
Read →Courage or caution: how should companies approach social impact?
Impact leaders want to be both courageous and cautious. Why the most defensible starting point for corporate social impact is your own customers.
Read →Can AI solve social problems? What Google's $30 million bet tells us
Google's $30 million Accelerator is a real bet that AI can serve social good, and a window onto the gap between AI's potential and its practice.
Read →The health-wealth connection: why women's health is a cross-sector opportunity
Women's health and women's wealth are the same problem wearing two hats. Why the cross-sector opportunity is real and largely unclaimed.
Read →Purpose without proof is just a story: on stakeholders and measurement
Purpose matters to customers, employees and investors alike, but purpose without measurement is just a story. Why proof is the non-negotiable.
Read →Five sustainability and social impact trends worth watching
Business as firewall, embedded sustainability, ethics in AI, and more. Five trends shaping social impact, framed as invitations rather than predictions.
Read →Femtech in Africa: the menstrual health innovation the world needs to know about
Some of the most important women's health innovation is happening in sub-Saharan Africa. Eight founders designing from the constraint, not the ideal.
Read →We need to talk about periods at work
The silence around menstruation costs women their health, careers and financial futures, and the UK economy around £11 billion a year.
Read →Should your pension hold Bitcoin? What the UK's first allocation actually tells us
What the UK's first pension allocation to bitcoin says about the investment case, fiduciary duty, and trustee engagement with new asset classes.
Read →What is Bitcoin, actually? A plain English explainer
What bitcoin actually is, how it works, why people use it, and what it is not, without the hype in either direction.
Read →The FCA's financial inclusion remit: why the words matter
Why the distinction between financial inclusion, vulnerability, wellness and education is not pedantic, but central to getting policy and design right.
Read →The S in ESG finally gets serious: what TISFD means for business
A new global framework aims to turn social impact from a qualitative footnote into a quantifiable, material financial risk. Why that matters.
Read →The circular connection: why women's health is a financial inclusion issue
Bodies and bank accounts are connected. Why closing the women's health gap is a $1 trillion opportunity, and a route to closing the financial gap too.
Read →Growth at all costs is not prosperity: reflections from Ethical Finance Global
GDP is a poor proxy for prosperity. Reflections from Ethical Finance Global 2024 on the ecological stakes and what finance is actually for.
Read →What happens when 300 women walk into a room
A day at egg, Scotland's largest platform for women, and why community infrastructure and honest introductions matter more than they seem.
Read →Why young social entrepreneurs are the missing link in financial inclusion
Large institutions set the frame, but the best financial inclusion solutions are built from lived experience by the people closest to the problem.
Read →Africa Tech Summit: what innovation looks like when the stakes are real
Founders designing from the constraint, not the ideal, and what fintech, stablecoins and connectivity in Africa teach about real customer-centricity.
Read →What your old laptop could do instead of gathering dust
Donating old tech through the National Device Bank is good for the planet, good for people, and a stronger business case than most organisations realise.
Read →Closing the gender pension gap will take more than good intentions
The gap is structural and deep. Why closing it needs commercial innovation and policy change together, not good intentions alone.
Read →Inclusive design is not a compliance exercise. It is a design philosophy.
Genuine accessibility starts with lived experience and design culture, not an audit checklist, and in financial services that matters more than most.
Read →Why digital inclusion will only be solved through genuine cross-sector collaboration
No single organisation or department will fix digital exclusion. It needs sustained collaboration across government, civil society and the private sector.
Read →Financial education isn't a nice-to-have, it's a business imperative
Why investing in the financial literacy of colleagues and customers alike is a business imperative for financial services, not a box to tick.
Read →Why financial services has a role to play in getting the UK online
Financial services helped drive the shift to digital. That comes with a responsibility to bring people with it, not leave them behind.
Read →Building a digital skills hub: meeting people where they are
Building a free digital skills resource taught us that content is the easy part. Reaching the people who need it is the real work.
Read →Your money is doing something. The question is whether you know what.
On sustainable finance, consumer values, and the gap between what people want their money to do and what it actually does.
Read →Why fintech and financial services need each other (more than either will admit)
Looking back at a 2021 fintech innovation forum, and why corporate–fintech collaboration only changes customer outcomes when the customer stays at the centre.
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