Nice words

I had the privilege of working with Milly and having her as a manager. She has a very powerful combination of skills that make her a great team member and leader.

Milly is very solutions and action focused in her work, but her approach to execution is always strategic, built on an admirable talent to read situations, people's behaviour and the contextual environment. And always with a relentless commitment to deliver a solution to the customer's problem - human-centred and agile at the same time (she's got all the buzzwords, but actually the real deal).

Milly's strength is not only practical. Her wealth of knowledge in all things design, product, agile and more is impressive, and is ever expanding, as she finds the time to consume huge amounts of articles, books, podcasts, films and documentaries. And she is always bringing those newly-found ideas and approaches to work and experimenting with them. Not only that, she has the generosity to share them widely and encourage others to try things themselves, so the people around her not only benefit from her growth, but grow with her as well. A true leader in that sense.

As a manager, Milly was amazing. She would enable me establish and achieve my goals, encourage me reach beyond them, and remove blockers as much as possible. She would help tie my work with what others were doing and what the customers needed most. All that without micro-managing, and while being a good listener.

I have fond memories of working with her on problems and brainstorming ideas - before we knew she had already paved the way to reach the solution, be it coming up with a plan on the spot to test the idea with users, creating kanban boards that made sense of what we spoke of and pointed to an outcome, or immediately finding an existing solution somewhere. It was fulfilling and enjoyable, because we progressed so fast and in the right direction.

I miss those days and would love to one day collaborate with her again. In the meantime, I'm very grateful for all that I learned from her.

Milly and I began working together on the UX Lexicon in the summer of 2019. She was an outstanding contributor! We also collaborated while she was at UsabilityHub. We created a powerful partnership when Milly and UH sponsored 12 "Ask Like A Pro" projects, over two cohorts, for my students to work on real-life UXR projects.

Milly is not only an excellent collaborator and partner, she is also a supremely gifted mentor, an expert in product management, and user research. We've discussed several potential future collaborations and I am tickled pink to partner with Milly again. I adore Milly. I trust her implicitly. And I admire the way she thinks, approaches people, and problems. She is also unflappable.

Milly has one of the most genuinely curious minds I've ever met. She sincerely loves change - whether it's new platforms, methodologies, or programming languages. Her enthusiasm to explore, to iterate and to improve is infectious. And she applies that inquisitiveness to the areas which need it most: usually your customers and your business model.

Given the obvious womance going on, we picked up a work-couple moniker while at Clover: "Lilly" (Laura + Milly). Even more OTT adorable is this amazing hashtag that Milly coined: #friendsdontletfriendsdesignalone (It's true. Don't design alone. You'll make mistakes.)

Milly brings a wide breadth of knowledge paired with a pragmatic problem solving approach. Collaborating with her is a real treat, whether it is on research design, user experience design, interface design, or code design. Her generous approach to knowledge sharing, excellent code reviews and willingness to break things down to their fundamentals will be an asset to any team lucky enough to have her.

She's an admirable coder and a self-driven learner: and it is that trait of curiosity which has led her beyond the standard web technologies into Functional Programming, and beyond programming to UXR and UXD. Milly proselytizes for Design Thinking and other methodologies which help tech teams do better work: but what she champions, above and beyond any specific tool, or process, is clear thinking and careful consideration.

Working alongside Milly has been, without a doubt, one of the highlights of my career so far. She's just one of those rad people who makes you, your team and your product better in every way. Also, she'll get you saying 'rad' before you know it.

Amelia is a great addition to any team who cares about quality, collaboration and innovation. She brings to her work a passion for well-formed, elegant code, and is always open to both sharing her expertise with her team members and seeking ideas from colleagues on how to find the best solution for a problem.

Amelia naturally gravitates to leadership roles, speaking up where she sees room for improvement and contributing to forming processes to ensure everyone can work better. Her sense of responsibility and dedication to follow through is a valuable asset to any team she's a part of.

In addition to the above, her technical skills are superb, and her passion for continuous learning will ensure they remain so well into her career. She can always be trusted to deliver on time and is the ultimate "team player"; with Amelia on your project team success is pretty much guaranteed.

I've had the pleasure of working with Milly across multiple projects, and she's been an incredibly supportive and collaborative partner throughout. She's always willing to spur on ideas and champion the ones that truly benefit the team, the user, and the business. I often found myself seeking her out for feedback as she strikes the perfect balance of pragmatism and empathy, offering perspectives that are both grounded and constructive.

One of the things I admire most about Milly is how she transformed a struggling team into a well-structured, high-performing one. Her leadership, clarity, and care for her people really stand out. Anyone would be lucky to have her in their corner.

I had the pleasure of working alongside Milly on the Jira Work Management team at Atlassian, where we both led halves of the design team. From day one, Milly stood out as a thoughtful and steadfast design leader who brings both structure and empathy to her work.

She has a remarkable ability to foster strong cross-functional collaboration, creating genuine alignment between design, product, and engineering. Her approach is grounded in active listening, consideration for different perspectives, and a continuous drive to improve how teams operate.

As a management partner, Milly was someone I could always rely on for clear thinking, sound judgment, and a balanced perspective. She played a key role in helping scale our design function from minimal structure into a well-functioning, high-trust team. Her leadership style empowers those around her to do their best work while maintaining a focus on what's most valuable for customers and the business.

Any team would be lucky to have Milly; she's an exceptional collaborator, people leader, and design partner.

Milly is one of those rare leaders who brings clarity, momentum, and wit to even the most complex situations. We worked closely together with Milly as Director of Product, and I as Director of Customer Experience and it was one of the most seamless and rewarding partnerships I've had.

Milly was also a brilliant peer-level coach for me — always generous with her insights and never afraid to challenge when needed.

Milly has the heart of a designer and the mind of an engineer, tempered with practical business/product thinking. She thrives in wrangling technical detail that would intimidate many, and elegantly synthesises into streamlined action, both within product experiences & organisationally in how she approaches her work.

As a leader, Milly holds a high bar while leading with curiosity. I've seen her inherit teams, and build from the ground up, both of which she does with intentionality and great care. She's not a leader who leaves anything to chance, digging into detail to shape the right systems/environments to drive the best experience outcomes, and constantly leaning in to see how we can improve. This often has her leaning sideways to support & coach her cross-functional peers in addition to the designers in her care.

Milly is a rare gem, and I'd wholeheartedly recommend her to anyone who's looking for a sharp mind, discerning eye & joyous wit to lead their design or product team.

It was truly a privilege and an honor to work with Milly. It is not often enough that I get to work with a director who is truly human-centered in her process and leadership style. She has taught me some valuable lessons on vulnerabilities becoming strengths, presenting the findings as a story and letting it shape the final presentation. Milly has truly helped me grow in confidence and skills as a re-searcher. I find her to be a very strong leader and would work with her again in a heartbeat.

I met Milly when I enrolled at RMIT for a UX design course. Milly is very passionate about her work and as a mentor, she was friendly, and she welcomed questions and ideas. She taught us to follow the best practices and supported us all the way through.

Her enthusiasm for the UX process and her commitment to design products that solve people's problems inspired me to keep learning. I consider myself very fortunate for having Milly as my mentor while starting in the UX design field.

Always working with customers in mind, Amelia is a detailed oriented, methodical person with the unique ability to decipher complex IT jargon into plain (and humorous) business language. It's been a pleasure working with you!

I met Amelia through my group, Melbourne Women Step Up, Lead and Develop Your Career. Amelia contacted me to see if she could support me in the group as a Co-Organizer as her passions were closely aligned with mine in supporting others to develop and grow both personally and professionally. I have found Amelia to be extremely talented and passionate about her work in the tech space and supporting women in tech to grow and achieve their goals. Amelia has a mature and innovative approach to her work and shows a genuine approach to helping others. Her sparkling and authentic personality is a standout in the tech industry and in the time we have worked together she has grown exponentially. Amelia is an absolute pleasure to work with and certainly has a bright future ahead of her!

Since joining the classes & workshops instructor team at General Assembly, Milly was able to quickly carve a space within all things web development, agile, and user experience design. Milly's comprehensive knowledge, experience and captivating teaching style has brought about some impressive feedback and high net promoter scores from student surveys. Because of this feedback we have consistently invited Milly to come back and share her undeniable passion for teaching and the topics she delivers.

Amelia Schmidt is tenacious and dedicated. I've had the great good fortune to work with Amelia on a few occasions now, and have really appreciated her honesty and willingness to just get on with the job. It's the outcome that matters to Milly, and getting there could take any one of a number of creative paths.

More recently, she has switched her focus to UX research. I watched Milly do impromptu, user testing at a conference late last year and was really impressed with her approach.

Amelia is generous with her expertise. Not only is she keen to improve her own skills, but also strives to improve the effectiveness of the teams she works in.

Thanks Milly — I do hope we get to work together again, it's always a pleasure.

Apart from having a vibrant personality that's matched only by her vibrant red hair Amelia is a very talented and skilled writer — she's also very well spoken.

Amelia always seems to know what's cool before you but she'll never make you feel inadequate about it, instead she'll genuinely be excited to introduce you to something new.

Working in the same office as Amelia was an absolute pleasure and I wish that more people were as socially pleasant and passionate about their career as Amelia.

Amelia is a diligent, focused, competent and efficient editor and a talented writer. She is outstanding under pressure and a joy to work with. Amelia's work ethic is second to none.