What is Deliberate by Design?
Great question. Fundamentally you have stumbled across a space where I’d like to share useful content around three key areas of interest:
Systems thinking
Process hacking
Effective leadership
I like to think and work in deliberate ways and avoid deliberating too much on the bullshit of theory. You could say that I have a bias toward action and favor quick-fire learning over the pursuit of perfection.
This Substack is no different. I will publish and review what’s working and what’s not. I will evolve as I learn. I will try new things and I will seek to increase the value that it brings to the community. This is all deliberate.
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Who is this guy?
My name’s Chris—nice to meet you! 👋
I’ve always lived a life of curiosity. From the early days of understanding the mechanics of pedal bikes to now understanding how design plays a pivotal role in a business’s success when overlapped with other functions like Product, Marketing, Engineering, Sales, and Finance.
One thing has always been true—I have never stopped asking “why”.
While studying at Edinburgh Napier University, I took interest in this “new” world of web design, and in 2003 I self-taught my way to developing more than 20 websites for various clients under the moniker “northswiss”. Yes, this was four years before the iPhone was released. Not able to afford external support, I also learned all of the ins and outs of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MySQL, server management, email configuration—the works!
This gave me a great crash course in understanding where design and technology overlap and what constraints and opportunities exist across those boundaries.
This curiosity and passion for design and technology led me to work in some of Europe’s top start-ups and tech companies. In the early days, I gained valuable experience working in various companies tackling design problems for IT Service Management and Big Data software companies. I then spent a brief time working at a “challenger bank” in the UK before accepting a key role in Skyscanner’s growing Product and Engineering team.
While there, I was the lead designer for Skyscanner’s hotel product. This product became the company’s second-highest revenue generator at the time. This is where I really dived into the constraints and opportunities of designing for mobile working on responsive websites and also designing for their iOS and Android native applications.
Fast-forward three years, having gained significant industry experience, I left Skyscanner shortly before the company became one of Scotland’s (few) tech unicorns. From there, I went on to join the 12-person startup TravelPerk to build out their design team while working closely with the Product and Engineering team to execute our ambitious vision.
After four and a half years, that startup I joined—working out of a small apartment in Barcelona—had become a 700-plus-person success story within the travel tech space and is now one of Barcelona’s tech unicorns.
My experience there was also my first taste of building a team and design culture from scratch. I grew the Product Design team to 13 people which also covered UX Research and UX Copywriting. It was a blast!
Always seeking to challenge myself, I then took on the role of C(T)PO at a marketplace for boats. There I led the Product Engineering team whilst also designing the product for this exciting sector. It was a great opportunity to explore some new technologies and dive deeper into the world of Product Management.
While there, working with the other execs I played a pivotal role in shaping the company culture. This is where I reminded myself that great products need great teams behind them, and culture plays a pivotal role in that. I had some hard conversations there.
After taking a short break between roles, I wanted to dive back into the world of design and took on the role of Head of Product Design at Stuart—one of Europe’s leading last-mile logistics companies. Here I get to lead a team of talented designers while setting the vision for strategic goals as we continue to expand into new markets and verticals.
Outside of my day job, I have also advised a number of startups on topics spanning design, product, and strategy. Through those ventures, I worked with Amenitiz to design and launch their go-to-market cloud-based hotel platform which is now a 200+ person tech company.
I also helped Seqera labs, an open-source workflow orchestration platform to build out their design system and hire some key product and design roles.
In summary, I’ve had a fair share of experiences that have helped to shape my unique view of the world. I hope that in reading this newsletter you will be able to learn from my mistakes and be inspired by my wins.
What can you expect?
Bite-size tips and tricks that you can pick up and use in your day-to-day
More in-depth articles sharing experiences and offering actionable advice that will help you advance in your career
Opinions and hot takes on various design topics
Templates and resources that you can use to improve workflows
Get involved
Don't just consume, converse. I'll be posting chats on various topics and inviting input from the community. This will help to inform future content and help me to keep a pulse on what you, the community, care about.
