I make complex products feel simple.
I'm Paul, a product designer in Cambridge, UK, with nearly 20 years in UX. At Gearset, a DevOps platform for Salesforce teams, I turn complex, technical workflows into tools people can use with confidence, working with Claude from the first customer call to the working prototype.
- 19+ yrs
- In UX, since 2007
- 7+ yrs
- Designing across the Gearset platform
- Prototype in code
- Working prototypes on Gearset's design system, built with Claude before engineering starts
Case studies
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Close to customers, prototyping in code.
I'm a product designer with nearly 20 years in UX. At Gearset, a DevOps platform for Salesforce teams, I turn complex, technical workflows into tools people can use with confidence.
I stay close to customers, prototype in code, and bring product, engineering and sales round a shared plan. I ground product decisions in customer evidence, working through sales and customer success call transcripts with Claude for pain points, and turning them into journey maps and research briefs.
Lately I've also been working on a new kind of user: the AI coding agents developers now build through, and what Gearset should look like inside them. I came to UX from digital marketing and a business degree.
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Research
User research, usability testing, card sorting, qualitative and quantitative research, call transcript synthesis, A/B testing and web analytics.
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Design
Interaction design, information architecture, prototyping in HTML and CSS, UI and visual design, flows and storyboards, and copywriting.
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Leading
Workshop facilitation, cross-functional teams, jobs-to-be-done, mentoring and presenting.
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Tools
Claude, HTML, CSS, Photoshop, Illustrator and Google Analytics.
The lead I’d be.
I’m ready to lead a design group: still hands-on, but answering for whether its workflows join up and how good what it ships is, and helping its designers do their best work.
What I already do
I design in end-to-end jobs, not screens: sandbox management, test data seeding and refresh restore as one workflow. I bring evidence early, from sales and customer success calls and from the demand research behind Gearset’s MCP server. And I prototype in code, so the team can try a working thing before engineering starts.
What I’m learning
I haven’t line-managed yet. I’ve mentored junior designers at MYOB and Trade Me, and I’d learn the rest by doing it, with coaching from my own manager, a mentor who manages designers, and a short “working with me” note for the people I’d lead.
How we’d know it’s working
- The group has a shared, current map of its key workflows.
- Gaps are written down, with the evidence next to them.
- Design recommendations arrive before plans are settled.
- Designers, not just me, start and lead valuable work.
- Product and engineering find the partnership useful.
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Workflows
Map the group’s key workflows with its designers, product managers and engineers. Mark where they break down, with the evidence next to each gap, and keep the map current for every planning cycle.
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Quality
Agree a written quality bar with the group, so “good enough to ship” means the same to everyone. Run critique where designers review each other’s work, so quality doesn’t hinge on one person.
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Product partnership
Look ahead with product leadership each planning cycle. Bring evidence and design-initiated proposals before plans are settled, and push back when work doesn’t line up with the strategy.
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People
Regular one-to-ones, clear and specific feedback, and stretch work matched to where each designer wants to grow. Help them get their own ideas into planning, rather than keeping the visible work for myself.
From marketing to product design
Nearly 20 years in UX: freelance, then in-house at WINTEC, MYOB and Trade Me, and since 2019 at Gearset.
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Feb 2019 – Present
Product Designer (L4)
Gearset · Cambridge, UK
- Design across the platform, including deployments, comparisons, sandbox management and test data seeding.
- Ground product decisions in customer evidence: analyse sales and customer success calls for pain points and churn risk, and turn them into journey maps and research briefs.
- Build interactive HTML prototypes on Gearset's design system to test ideas before engineering starts, such as sandbox management blueprints and a sandbox refresh restore feature.
- Facilitate design workshops and use jobs-to-be-done to frame problems with product and engineering.
- Work beyond the product: demand research and positioning for Gearset's MCP server, competitive battlecards for sales, and animated product mockups for marketing.
- Use AI tools day to day to speed up research synthesis and prototyping.
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Nov 2017 – Feb 2019
Senior UX Designer
Trade Me
New Zealand's online marketplace and classifieds site.
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May 2014 – Nov 2017
Senior UX Designer
MYOB
Joined as UX Designer in 2014 and promoted to Senior UX Designer in 2017.
- Lead UX designer for the enterprise division's cloud business product, covering sales, finance, CRM, HR, logistics and IT.
- Ran card-sorting studies with partners in Norway and Sweden to improve the product's usability, published as an Optimal Workshop case study (2015).
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Apr 2012 – May 2014
UX / CX Designer
WINTEC
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Apr 2007 – Mar 2012
Freelance UX/UI Designer
Self-employed
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Feb 2005 – Mar 2007
Digital Marketer / Designer
ABE
Certifications, education and training
Certifications
Education
- Bachelor of Business Studies Massey University · Marketing, e-commerce and management
Publication
- MYOB case study Card-sorting research to improve a cloud enterprise product
From a colleague
“Good listener and a great advisor.”
Training
- Agile and Scrum
- The Confident Speaker
Let's talk about what we could build together.
The quickest way to reach me is by email. I'm also on LinkedIn.