Design | Research | Innovation
I am a senior designer and innovation consultant based in Auckland, New Zealand. To give innovation a kick, I help organisations deeply understand the customer experience and people's emerging needs. I then conceptualise and test the new products and services that will make those organisations thrive and be truly useful. I have worked for seven years in the fields of service design and business development, 12 years in innovation management, and 20 years in customer experience management.
My background is in regulatory compliance where I did the hard yards investigating behaviour and its social context. Later I was a consultant and manager for community development in the public and not-for-profit sectors, working with affected people to develop solutions to basic needs. More recently I became a convert of design thinking.
My aim is to transfer innovation skills and design thinking while completing a project. I help clients learn how to respond to external or internal opportunities, and use their people's creativity to introduce new ideas, processes, services or products.
I've worked with a wide range of industries including telecommunications, software development, agri-business, tourism, fitness and leisure, sports, urban planning and compliance, environmental protection, waste minimisation, international and community development, and human rights.
My practice comes from the interplay of curiosity, care, and logic. Curiosity to understand motivations and expose assumptions. Care to help people be accurately represented and well made for. Logic to provide a structure for creativity and learning.
Currently
Service Innovation Lead at The Service Design Company (NZ), doing exciting work with mostly corporate clients including: Ballance Agri-Nutrients, Spark NZ, Yellow, Now NZ, Auckland Airport.
Freelancer at Max Adler Design. This is a design and innovation practice I founded in 2011, where I’ve been doing work with a range of community and government clients including: Auckland Council, Amnesty International, Athletics Auckland, Basement Theatre, Migrant Action Trust.
Previously
Solutions Broker at Auckland Council. My role was to establish and support customer experience improvement projects with partners from across the Council, from gathering insight through to ideation, planning, and implementation. The role also applied design thinking to development of new value propositions for leisure services, natural environment strategy, land use consents, and channel management (2013-2015).
Manager, Community Development. I managed teams at Auckland Council delivering place-based and population-targeted social and economic development programmes (2009-2011).
Development Consultant. As an independent consultant I led research, training, programme development, and evaluation projects in New Zealand and overseas in the environmental protection and community development fields. Clients included: Ministry for the Environment, Tear Fund NZ, Auckland Council, and other local authorities including Queenstown Lakes, Tauranga City, and Kapiti Coast (2006-2009).
I am a senior designer and innovation consultant based in Auckland, New Zealand. To give innovation a kick, I help organisations deeply understand the customer experience and people's emerging needs. I then conceptualise and test the new products and services that will make those organisations thrive and be truly useful. I have worked for seven years in the fields of service design and business development, 12 years in innovation management, and 20 years in customer experience management.
My background is in regulatory compliance where I did the hard yards investigating behaviour and its social context. Later I was a consultant and manager for community development in the public and not-for-profit sectors, working with affected people to develop solutions to basic needs. More recently I became a convert of design thinking.
My aim is to transfer innovation skills and design thinking while completing a project. I help clients learn how to respond to external or internal opportunities, and use their people's creativity to introduce new ideas, processes, services or products.
I've worked with a wide range of industries including telecommunications, software development, agri-business, tourism, fitness and leisure, sports, urban planning and compliance, environmental protection, waste minimisation, international and community development, and human rights.
My practice comes from the interplay of curiosity, care, and logic. Curiosity to understand motivations and expose assumptions. Care to help people be accurately represented and well made for. Logic to provide a structure for creativity and learning.
Currently
Service Innovation Lead at The Service Design Company (NZ), doing exciting work with mostly corporate clients including: Ballance Agri-Nutrients, Spark NZ, Yellow, Now NZ, Auckland Airport.
Freelancer at Max Adler Design. This is a design and innovation practice I founded in 2011, where I’ve been doing work with a range of community and government clients including: Auckland Council, Amnesty International, Athletics Auckland, Basement Theatre, Migrant Action Trust.
Previously
Solutions Broker at Auckland Council. My role was to establish and support customer experience improvement projects with partners from across the Council, from gathering insight through to ideation, planning, and implementation. The role also applied design thinking to development of new value propositions for leisure services, natural environment strategy, land use consents, and channel management (2013-2015).
Manager, Community Development. I managed teams at Auckland Council delivering place-based and population-targeted social and economic development programmes (2009-2011).
Development Consultant. As an independent consultant I led research, training, programme development, and evaluation projects in New Zealand and overseas in the environmental protection and community development fields. Clients included: Ministry for the Environment, Tear Fund NZ, Auckland Council, and other local authorities including Queenstown Lakes, Tauranga City, and Kapiti Coast (2006-2009).