About me
- Principal Digital and UX Consultant
I'm an experienced digital and UX professional, with 25 years agency-side, making digital experiences that work for global brands including Amazon, Ford, McDonald's, Jaguar Land Rover and Vodafone. Download my CV here.
Since September 2024, I've been a Principal UX Consultant at Cambridge Agency Group, leading major engagements from discovery to delivery, including stakeholder interviews and workshops, requirements specification, UX strategy, information architecture, UX design, wireframing and prototyping, design systems, documentation and developer hand-off. I've also been taking the product-owner role on projects: holding requirements, client relationship, and delivery through implementation and QA.
Before that, I spent over 20 years at Flag, a corporate communications and ESG specialist agency. I started there as a web developer, and grew into the role of Digital and Technical Director, with overall responsibility for the digital team and all digital output, as well as managing the IT/cybersecurity function and strategy for the organisation. At Flag, and in my subsequent role, I was also involved in estimating, creating proposals and pitching for new business opportunities.
In 2018, I completed an MSc in Human-Computer Interaction Design (HCID) at City, University of London, which I studied part-time for two years alongside my full-time day job, graduating with distinction.
At the moment, I'm really interested in how AI is transforming UX and product design. With the right approach, it can amplify the ability and output of UX practitioners who can apply their judgement and expertise to direct it appropriately. I've been using AI tools across every aspect of my role, from design to implementation, and am currently experimenting with a variety of AI-assisted workflows and applications.
What sets me apart
- Judgement you can trust. I make decisions based on evidence, constraints, commercial realities and user needs. I'm happy to challenge assumptions, including my own, and I'll change direction when the evidence does.
- Breadth that joins the dots. My background spans UX, technology, delivery and agency leadership, so I can move between a board-level conversation, a stakeholder workshop and the implementation detail, adapting how I communicate to each.
- Pragmatic over perfect. I look for the best solution in the context I'm actually in, balancing ambition against engineering effort, budgets and timescales, so recommendations survive contact with reality.
- Comfortable with complexity. Much of my work has involved technically complex projects and large stakeholder groups with competing priorities, contexts and perspectives. I enjoy bringing clarity, building consensus and helping teams make confident decisions.
- Using AI with purpose. I use AI daily on client work and personal projects, and I've built AI-assisted tools of my own. That gives me a practical understanding of where it genuinely adds value, and where human judgement still matters most.
Outside of work
I'm a keen runner, on the committee of my local run club, and am part of a relay team running the 225 miles from Wimbledon to Paris in September in aid of Air Ambulance and Samaritans (you can donate here). I'm also trying to check off all of the Superhalfs, and have done various ultramarathon events.
Other than that, I enjoy snowboarding (a late starter, but I love it), riding my motorbike, and walking my golden retriever, Ferris. Oh, and I once broke my leg in a Sunday league football match, and played on for 15 mins before driving home.
A few testimonials
Mike was an outstanding thought partner throughout the creation of Ekarnia. His UX expertise, proactive approach and responsiveness helped transform ideas into an intuitive, user-centred platform. He consistently challenged our thinking in the right way and was a genuine extension of the team. I'd highly recommend Mike to anyone looking to build exceptional digital experiences.
In my role as Principal UX Consultant at Cambridge Agency Group, Charlotte was my main client on Ekarnia, a service-provider discovery platform for pharma procurement. Read more about the Ekarnia project
I had the pleasure of working with Mike on a number of projects at Cambridge Agency Group - some things that stood out to me in our time working together:
- I’ve always enjoyed Mike’s ability to explore a problem space thoroughly, getting to grips with client needs and drawing together thinking from a variety of stakeholders.
- He is very well versed in how AI is transforming the UX and design discipline - that same desire to explore a problem space makes him excellent at discovering and critically evaluating the potential of new tools.
- He’s a thoughtful and experienced person to have on any project - valuable in both meetings and dealing with the outcomes.
In short - he’d be a valuable addition to any team!
I had the privilege of working with Mike for over 10 years. He was a mentor whose guidance shaped the course of my career. He has a wealth of knowledge, extensive experience, and a high bar for quality. With a passion and pride in his craft, he never settles for "good enough" and always pushes to do the absolute best. He puts time and effort into understanding complex user and business problems, leading to work that is thoughtful and tailored. Any team or client working with him is fortunate to have his sharp strategic mind.
In my role as Digital and Technical Director at Flag, I employed Harvey, originally as a Junior Front-end Web Developer, and he was a key member of my digital team.
As Executive Creative Director of a global agency, I have worked alongside Mike in his role as Digital Director. My team and I were often challenged with making vast amounts of complex information understandable and accessible for our clients' many stakeholders through digital channels. Mike was always a great partner in that process. He has a remarkable ability to find clarity where others see complexity. Whether tackling information architecture, content hierarchy, navigation, accessibility or UX, he consistently translates ideas into practical solutions, supporting our interface designers and ensuring the end result works for both users and the client's technical environment.
What I value most is his ability to bridge the gap between creative ambition and technical reality. He understands how to structure and present complex information online, making it intuitive, accessible and engaging. Thoughtful, collaborative and highly strategic, he is a trusted partner whose input always strengthens the quality of the work.
I worked very closely with Jo in my time at Flag, both on project work for some of the best-known global household brands, but we also worked together as part of the senior leadership team.
Mike is a consummate professional. He knows his business and is always pursuing new knowledge to stay current with trends and their technical applications. One of Mike’s qualities that impresses me the most is his amazing attention to detail. In a situation where your work product has so much public scrutiny, it is important to not only do it well, but to get it absolutely correct. Mike is also innovative and creative. Maybe best of all, along with all of his best-in-class professionalism, he is simply a pleasant person with whom to work.
I worked closely with Thomas on the Ford Motor Company account at Flag for a number of years, producing the online microsite that accompanied Ford's annual Sustainability Report.
Working with Mike has been an absolute dream. His attention to detail, efficiency and creativity made the whole project a joy to work on, ensuring a smooth process which allowed us to deliver a complex solution, on time and on budget, much to the client’s delight.
I brought Lucy and Matt in as Flag's technical partner to implement the McDonald's Flagship Farmers website that we had designed. I made sure that they had all the information, documentation and detail they needed, ensuring that the project ran smoothly.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Mike on both a collaborative inter-agency project and as a client. Mike, quite simply, is one of the good guys. He’s technically sound, has an impeccable eye for detail and strongly favours usability over design for design’s sake. He is firm but fair, knowledgeable, and draws on others’ expertise where necessary; his rounded experience and expertise would make him a great leader or mentor. Mike communicates clearly and effectively, in both technical and layman’s terms, and makes sure nothing is missed or misinterpreted. He’s super-organised, thorough, reliable and has a cool, calm approach and friendly manner.
If we could carve out a role for Mike here, we’d snatch him up in a heartbeat.
Louise was my main point of contact at Carbon Six Digital, who were Flag's technical implementation partner for the RISE website.