How I Got Here - Morgen Heywood
This month I’m sitting down with Morgen Heywood, Consultant – UI/UX Services Designer for Pipefish. Morgen and I met recently, and I was fascinated by her journey and passion for human-centred design, so I wanted to share her story to illustrate how you can start your career and see it evolve to something you never imagined!
What is your current role and how does it fulfil you?
I am a Consultant with a focus on problem solving to help improve people’s lives and simplify their interactions with online systems and processes. Clients often get so caught up in the issues so I’m the voice in the room that focuses on the problem and asks, “what’s actually the problem and what are we trying to fix?” and then I go about finding the most elegant way to solve it. I didn’t’ appreciate that when I was younger, I thought I needed all the answers however now I’ve realised you just need to ask really good questions.
What career decisions and experience led you to where you are today?
My career has spanned over 15 years and has evolved from corporate roles into boutique consulting work. I initially studied I.T. specialising in multimedia which resulted in my teaching fellow role at Bond University. From there I moved onto Rio Tinto where I spent 12 years where my experienced evolved across service design & analysis, product management, project management and workshop facilitation. I’ve since moved into the consulting space where I enjoy leveraging my technical background which involves understanding systems and process whilst working with developers and technical experts. I then combine this with my passion for human-centred design where I can delve into the human side of people, their problems and their needs to connect the design and technical solutions together.
What’s the one piece of advice you’d give someone wanting to end up where you have?
Keep trying to make yourself in redundant in a role. I was given that advice and it’s been really valuable to take on board. Don’t make yourself indispensable, don’t pack yourself into a position or a role and make yourself the only one who can do it. Otherwise you’ll be stuck in it forever by design so make the system stand up without you and allow other people to understand what you do and don’t be afraid to outgrow your role. I’ve found that’s always made me confident on focussing on the “better” thing. What is the best I can do to leave this role better than I found it.
If Morgen's career story is right up your alley, you can connect with Morgen on LinkedIn and follow her journey!
Be Fabulous
Lisa xx