Hi, I’m Jo. Once upon a time in Glasgow (where this picture was taken) my brain was reprogrammed at the hands of a bunch of misfits and rebels (otherwise known as the folks from Snook). Ever since that fateful encounter, I see the world as a service designer and researcher, everything is a potential research project, everything is a met or unmet need, everything can be prototyped and tested c’mon lets just MVP it right now!

Prior to my reprogramming I had grown up a pretty cruisy, privileged kid. I didn’t know yet that agitating for a better world was on the menu. I drew and made stuff a lot which I did all the way to Art School. A bunch of my classmates turned out were serious and became actual famous Artists. Spoiler alert: I did not. Instead, by another fateful intercept, I discovered the darkside, I had discovered design and I was hooked. It was 2001, we’d barely survived Y2K so obviously I’m talking about web design. Animated GIFS, Flash, Director, briefs, constraints, deadlines - I was all about it.

Web design took me amazing places.
But I could never shake the feeling I didn’t know all that much about what was going on for the person behind the screen. I wasn't really satisfied. Service Design with it’s central and unrelenting focus on understanding people really scratched that itch. And I'm truly, deeply obsessed. (I'm also now a little demandingly ethical about how research is conducted). I never fail to be suprised by how complex and simple human needs are.

Nowadays I use my knowledge and skills selectively. I've come to realise that agitating for a better world is not just on the menu; it's the only thing I'm hungry for. I work freelance on projects I can to look back on and I say were life enriching not life extracting.

On the tools or in my leadership I bring uncompromising attention, heart and ethics to my work.