Catherine HillsExperience and product leader. Design and research. Strategy to delivery.
Services
I help organisations design and deliver products, services and AI-enabled systems that people trust and that pay back. Bring me in to set experience and AI strategy that turns insight into roadmapped initiatives, lead a transformation, or build your team's capability, as an advisor, an embedded leader or on a fixed-scope project.
What I can offer your organisation
Transformation and systems leadership
Helping organisations navigate complexity, redesign systems and scale with clarity.
- Operating models and ways of working (incl. PDLC)
- Transformation leadership and cross-functional alignment
- Experience-informed workforce strategy, comms and L&D
- Capability development and organisational uplift
- Leadership, initiative direction and team management
- Centres of Excellence, guilds, hack days and L&D events
AI-enabled experience strategy and human-AI integration
Shaping ethical, human-centred AI adoption across products, services and teams.
- AI-enabled experience strategy and service integration
- Human-AI teaming and AI-ready ways of working
- AI-enabled product and service design
- AI learning curricula and capability uplift
- Human-centred, culturally safe AI systems
Product, experience and service strategy
End-to-end product and service experiences grounded in research, evidence and commercial reality.
- Experience strategy that turns insights into strategy and roadmapped initiatives
- End-to-end product discovery to delivery
- Product research, ideation, opportunity sizing and roadmaps incl. OKRs
- Experience-led strategic research and service design
- Human-centred product and service integration
- Experience-led strategy and prioritisation
- Connecting executive vision to delivery detail
Commercial and investment readiness
Support through high-stakes commercial moments, with clarity, coherence and investor confidence.
- Pre- and post-acquisition readiness (VC, PE, M&A)
- Business model innovation and value proposition development
- Strategic narratives for boards, investors and executives
- Portfolio strategy and commercial alignment
- Risk, maturity and capability assessments
Responsible AI governance and assurance
Making AI safe, fair and accountable, from policy to product.
- AI risk, ethics and impact assessments
- Governance frameworks, policies and guardrails
- Human oversight and human-in-the-loop design
- Responsible AI capability for leaders and teams
- Compassionate, human-centred AI practice
Accessibility and digital service standards
Services everyone can use, built to the standards that keep them safe.
- WCAG 2.2 and Digital Service Standard reviews
- Embedding accessibility into delivery
- Inclusive and culturally safe research
- Privacy and data protection designed in
- Evidence for assurance and funding decisions
Research and design operations
The systems that help research and design teams do consistent, high-quality work.
- Research standards, templates and synthesis frameworks
- Insight repositories and sharing forums
- Design operations, rituals and team rhythms
- Career ladders, grading and hiring
- Ways of working across regions and time zones
Human-centred policy and program evaluation
Evidence from the people a policy or program affects.
- Discovery across policy, operations and providers
- Culturally capable engagement, including rural, remote and First Nations communities
- Service gap analysis across multi-agency systems
- Recommendations aligned to government standards
- Evaluation that informs inquiries and investment
Leadership coaching and mentoring
Support for design and product leaders growing into bigger roles.
- One-to-one coaching for design and product leaders
- Mentoring emerging leaders
- Leading teams through restructures and uncertainty
- Mindful leadership and team wellbeing
- Confidence to present, influence and decide
How I engage
Executive or director leadership
Permanent or contract Head of Design, Research or Experience.
Advisory retainer
Ongoing strategic advisory across transformation, AI or design.
Embedded delivery
Joining your team for a defined program or initiative.
Fixed-scope discovery
Research, diagnosis and future-state design.
Workshop facilitation
Co-design and participatory design, alignment and capability uplift.
Senior or principal individual contributor
Hands-on design, research or strategy contribution.
Keynotes and talks
Conference keynotes, panels and in-house talks on design, transformation and compassionate AI.
Sector experience
- Technology, SaaS and platform ecosystems
- Education
- Government and public sector
- Financial services
- Health
- Telecommunications
- Retail and consumer
- Consulting
- Enterprise
- Not-for-profit