About me
For most of my career I've had two things going on at once. A day job designing products at large companies, and small ventures I build on the side. Each one makes me better at the other.
Where I started
I studied computer engineering in Greece. I liked building things, but I got more curious about the people using them than the code behind them. My first design job was as the founding designer at a marketplace startup in Athens. I designed the MVP and saw it raise investment. That was my first lesson in how much a small team can do when everyone owns the outcome.
In 2015 I moved to Scotland to do an MSc in User Experience Design at the University of Dundee. I wanted to learn user research properly. That decision still shapes my work. I design from evidence.
Learning at scale
After Dundee I joined an agency in Edinburgh and designed digital products for luxury car brands, including Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover. Then I moved into financial services, where I've spent the last seven years in pensions at Standard Life, then in wealth and investments at a major UK bank.
This is where I learned how products work inside big organisations. In a regulated business, a lot of the real design work happens in conversations with product, engineering, compliance and operations. I learned to bring data into the room and get decisions made.
Beyond my own projects
At the bank I co-founded a UX community of practice. We run events and workshops for designers and non-designers, and I mentor designers earlier in their careers. Good design work spreads faster when people have a place to share it.
Building on the side
The startups never stopped. I co-founded Gredix, a peer-to-peer buy now, pay later startup that was accepted into the Egg accelerator. I designed the mobile app and pitched to partners. Later I was the founding designer at an AI investment platform and designed the MVP that secured its pre-seed funding.
Today I co-run a studio with an enterprise architect. Our first product is Dramfly, a whisky tasting app. We tested the idea with real enthusiasts, built the app as a team of two with AI agents doing specialist work, and launched it on iOS and Android. It has made me a better designer, and it taught me a lot about marketing, product and sales.
How I work
I start with evidence. If there's no research, I find a fast way to get some.
I design the full journey first, then agree with the team how to deliver it in phases.
I talk to engineers early. My engineering background helps me understand what's feasible.
I use AI tools and agents every day to prototype and build faster.
