About me
Hi, I’m Milly. I make the world a better place by designing great products and strategies. I do this by coaching and managing teams to lift quality using design thinking, human-centred design, systems thinking and Lean methodologies.
I’m currently an Experience Design Manager at Atlassian.
I love research and validating ideas with users to decrease risk and solve real problems, but I also love seeing ideas through and working closely with implementation teams to build robust solutions that scale.
People describe me as pragmatic, articulate and insightful. I tend to describe myself as someone who asks a lot of questions. I am long-term optimistic in that I wholeheartedly believe in people — and organisations’ — ability to change. In order to enable that transformation, I know the critical importance of uncovering and understanding obstacles with empathy and kindness. Put simply: I will discover, with you, how to help you grow, and then help you make it happen.
Having worked in tech for 12+ years, I love building talent with a focus on coaching and mentoring, feedback and facilitation. I particularly enjoy managing designers and working closely with technical leaders on strategy. My main tools are documents, whiteboards, slide decks, conversations and sticky notes.
My background is technical (I was, many moons ago, a front-end engineer) so I'm well-versed in code. I’ve written in various Javascript frameworks like React, Hoplon (Clojurescript), Angular and Vue, as well as PHP, HTML/CSS. I have worked with various organisations to implement CMS/LMS frameworks like Drupal, edX, Canvas and more at a technical level.
I am an Agile advocate and have many years of experience in Agile teams, mainly Scrum. I have taught Agile/Scrum courses and am an experienced facilitator of Scrum rituals (though not an official Scrum Master). I am not a zealot or dogmatic, but I am passionate about helping teams work better together, and believe it’s a critical part of creating good things.
I believe in the power of design systems and DesignOps and have been advocating for component-driven front-ends everywhere I work, to a pragmatic level.
I've run my own business (both product and consulting) as an entrepreneur, and I've managed teams of designers, developers and other collaborators. I'm passionate about progressive, modern leadership, diversity, inclusion and frictionless productivity.
Also, I teach, speak and write about design and am an active member of my local design community.
I'm careful about where I work and I'm looking for purpose-driven product organisations working to make the world better. Sustainability and diversity in particular are meaningful for me, and I am consciously working on moving my career towards more impactful work.
Outside of 9-5
I enjoy film photography and have recently returned to playing the piano. I’ve gotten into synthesisers and making electronic music, I sing in Melbourne Indie Voices and I do life drawing at Shebang Studios in Northcote. I love long bike rides around Melbourne and weekend trips around rural Victoria.
I spend a bit of time exploring new AI tools and keeping up with the rapid pace of innovation in the industry, but I find it really important to balance out my work commitments with touching grass.
I’m in the process of removing big tech from a lot of my life, including de-Googling my home and moving to Home Assistant, and finding alternative ways to consume music and films/TV without subscribing to a million streaming services.
You can read more about tech community extra-curricular work here.