Design Leader • Neuroscientist • Chaos-tamer
Made in Melbourne and based in London for over a decade, I’ve led large design teams inside fast-paced, high stakes companies while staying close enough to the work to sketch, question and refine. I’ve shaped product strategy in complex and regulated spaces, fostered design cultures that encourage clarity and curiosity, and helped teams navigate the kind of knotty problems that don’t come with templates.
I love playing with crazy ideas, working with good people and experimenting with new technologies.
I do wish AI hadn’t ruined the em dash for us, though.
My approach to leadership
As a design leader, I’m interested in three things:
Product
Driving the creation of smart, elegant solutions that address real human needs. Talking to users, running and participating in workshops, getting close to the detail of flows, patterns and pixels. Leading through the work, not alongside it.
People
Building and maintaining an engaged, high-performing team that has everything it needs to be successful. Understanding what this looks like in different companies, maturity phases and markets. Moving beyond zombie 1:1s to drive meaningful growth.
Practice
Creating and maintaining a culture that encourages people to experiment, collaborate & learn — using the right techniques at the right time. Finding and removing the things that suck time, energy and clarity. Embedding just enough process to improve quality, velocity and depth of thinking.
My toolkit
Design direction and vision that aligns teams • Connecting taste, evidence and usability • Critique and coaching that develops rationale, clarity and intent as well as pixel perfect designs • Establishing patterns, standards, tooling and workflows that help teams design confidently and ship quickly
Hands-on craft & quality
Reshaping how teams work at scale • Building horizontal functions • Shaping cross-functional systems • Balancing alignment and autonomy • Building and maintaining sustainable high performance culture • Creating systems that unlock velocity
Org design & operating models
Contextualising complex regulatory and compliance domains • Clinical + Product co-design • CQC accreditation and adherence • Maintaining velocity and innovation while safeguarding • Science-product-ops integration
Multi-domain & clinical complexity
Multi-horizon vision and roadmaps • Zero-to-one incubation • Portfolio shaping and pivots • Insight-led prioritisation • JTBD frameworks and market scans • Multi-market and localisation strategy (inc content & design alignment) • Strategic experiments
Evidence-driven product strategy
Adaptation and stress • Midlife cognition • Decision-making and confidence • The brain during the menopause transition • Workplace neurodivergence • Mental health first-aid
Applied Neuroscience
System design across multiple products and brands • Governance and standards • Product-design-engineering cohesion • Balancing quality and velocity • Brand + Product integration across customer lifecycles • Rebranding enablement • Accessibility and inclusive design
Aligning systems for scale
Much of my work sits inside commercially sensitive or in-progress environments, so I share case studies live rather than publicly or async. I also really believe that the nuance of context, constraints and decisions behind the work are best discussed in person, focusing on what’s most relevant for a particular role, project or organisation.
Let’s connect
I’m currently open to conversations about fractional and senior leadership roles, interesting IC projects and collaborations.
I also take on a small number of mentoring, coaching and speaking engagements each year. If that’s what you’re after, I’m always happy to explore whether it’s a good mutual fit.
Linkedin • hello@lisaobrien.xyz