Tech, Media, & Banking
Westpac
Unlocking Growth Through Cultural & Brand Insight.
Westpac needed to expand beyond its loyal but stagnant customer base by winning Australia’s New Arrival and Multicultural segments. As Product Marketing & Insights Manager, I uncovered deep emotional drivers around belonging, trust, and financial identity that mainstream banks had overlooked. These insights informed new product features and cultural messaging, ultimately driving a 45% increase in account openings year-on-year.
SAMSUNG
Designing for Asia’s Evolving Families.
Samsung wanted to move from product-first innovation to a deeper understanding of how Asian households live, cook, and store food. As lead strategist, I ran ethnographic research across Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, China, and India. We found that freshness is a core cultural value in these markets and that owning a fridge often signals modernity, pride, and upward mobility. By widening the context beyond the product and into daily family life, we helped the team see a broader opportunity: the fridge is not just a technological appliance but the centre of family connection and contemporary food culture. We also uncovered shifting family structures, from multi-generational living to emerging nuclear units, and created Pen Profiles for these new household typologies. This work guided Samsung toward more user-centric design and innovation.
BBC
Mapping the New Language of Identity in the UK.
The BBC wanted to create a language guide that could speak to everyone in the UK - clear, acceptable, and culturally attuned. As lead researcher, I combined quant surveys, online communities, and triads to understand how people across the UK talk about identity, heritage, and belonging. We uncovered that identity language is deeply local, often emotional, and shaped by lived experience rather than labels. By bringing these nuances back to the BBC, we helped them build a more empathetic, inclusive approach to representation and the ways they speak about modern Britain.
Cracking Non-Verbal Communication Across Cultures.
Google wanted to build a messaging product that could outpace competitors; one that went beyond text and tapped into the universal language of non-verbal expression. I led a global program across Brazil, the US, UK, India, China, and Indonesia, combining expert interviews, video diaries, product sessions, and focus groups. We discovered that gesture, tone, silence, and emoji culture vary dramatically across markets, carrying emotional nuance that text alone can’t capture. These insights shaped Google’s design solutions and helped define what “universal communication” could look like in a connected world.
Amazon Prime EU
The Gen Z Viewing Map: Understanding the New Discovery Journey.
Gen Z wasn’t discovering content the way Prime expected. I led in-depth work across Germany, Italy, France, the UK, and the Netherlands — combining diaries with conversations — to map the real Gen Z viewing journey: algorithm-led curiosity, micro-community influence, creator endorsements, and shared digital momentum. These insights shaped new viewer archetypes and strategies that moved Prime from platform-centric promotion toward culturally rooted, community-led discovery.
GOOGLE Sustainability
Making Sustainability Feel Human & Connected.
Sustainability felt overwhelming, confusing, and emotionally loaded for consumers, and Google wanted to unlock clearer paths to action. I led a multi-method U.S./UK study mapping the emotional drivers behind behaviour — from guilt and fatigue to the desire for clarity and fairness. The insights shifted Google’s approach from moral pressure to empowerment, helping partners create simpler, more human, more confidence-building sustainability journeys.
META WORKPLACE
Humans, Not Users: Redesigning Workplace from Behaviour Outward.
Workplace usage was low, but engineers lacked clarity on why. I led global user research across cultures and job functions and revealed three distinct behavioural typologies — each shaped by different communication norms, digital confidence levels, and workplace expectations. Instead of redesigning for “everyone,” engineers began designing for real, textured human needs. Simplified menus, clearer icons, and targeted engagement tools resulted, ultimately lifting utilisation by 40%.