Work
I help organisations think before they commit to a direction, find the right way to describe what they need, and then deliver. Here is a selection of recent projects.
Define
Plant Heritage
Plant Heritage is responsible for the UK’s national collection of garden plants. To help them plan a major digital project, I interviewed stakeholders and ran a workshop to help them define their goals clearly before committing to next steps.
HALO Trust
The HALO Trust helps countries recover after conflict and is one of the world’s leading humanitarian landmine clearance organisations. During a period of rapid growth, I was brought in as a trusted adviser to the Director of Communications, drafting a digital strategy, commissioning user research, and helping recruit a new Head of Digital.
Lumos Foundation
Lumos Foundation works to end the institutionalisation of children around the world. I co-facilitated an awayday for the Board of Trustees and Executive Team, addressing longer-term strategic questions and ways of working. The collegiate, honest, and open spirit of the day marked the beginning of a new chapter for the organisation.
Explain
Digital Catapult
I wrote The UK at the AI Frontier: Challenges and Opportunities, a report produced by Digital Catapult in partnership with Innovate UK. The report drew on more than 200 stakeholders from across academia, industry, infrastructure, and research, and sets out how the UK can convert its world-class data and research into world-leading AI capabilities.
GoURMET / BBC News Labs
GoURMET was a research project led by the University of Edinburgh, with BBC News Labs as an industry partner. The project used neural machine translation to improve language technology for languages that lack the large training datasets most translation tools depend on. I compiled, co-authored, and edited the project deliverables for BBC News Labs.
British Library
I jointly researched and wrote The Changing Landscape of Radio, a report for the British Library, with Nicky Birch. The report examined how digital distribution was reshaping the production, discovery, and consumption of radio and audio at a moment when the full implications were still unfolding.
Create
Data dashboard – HALO Trust
I built a data dashboard consolidating performance metrics from multiple social media platforms, giving the communications team a single clear view of their digital activity for the first time. Built on freely available tools and low-cost data feeds, it was designed to be sustainable and easy for the team to maintain without ongoing support.
Enrolment platform – United Colleges Group
United Colleges Group is one of London’s largest further education colleges, with around 20,000 students. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, they needed a way for students to enrol safely, and the solution had to be delivered within weeks. I scoped a minimum viable solution, built it outside the constraints of the college’s existing IT infrastructure, and had it running in days. It worked.
Online rescue – Afrobarometer
Afrobarometer is one of Africa’s leading independent research networks, measuring public attitudes across more than 40 countries. When their website failed and the incumbent agency could not fix it, I stepped in at short notice, brought in a specialist developer, restored the site, and took over hosting and management. I continue to support them.
WordPress websites – various
I design and build WordPress websites for organisations when they need something carefully crafted and properly maintained. Recent examples include the African Legacies Institute (preserving leadership records of past presidents), Ethos Foundation (a charity improving early childhood outcomes), and Modular (an award-winning London landscape design company).
References for relevant projects available on request.