Get to know me in 5 minutes
I’m Sarah — curious by nature, collaborative by choice, and quietly obsessed with making things better for people.
I’ve always been fascinated by how people feel when they interact with a brand — the little details that either delight or disappoint. That curiosity has turned into a career focused on creating inclusive, meaningful experiences that don’t just tick boxes, but actually resonate.
I believe in leading with empathy, listening carefully, and bringing a bit of humanity to every room I walk into. Whether I’m sketching a new idea or steering a strategy, I’m here for impact that feels as good as it performs.
My philosophy:
You have a duty of care to the person next to you
This guides pretty much everything I do:
How I lead my team and collaborate with colleagues - with empathy
How I champion inclusivity in the work I do and the way I shape my teams
Why I focus on user experience with purpose
Why I always return my shopping trolley to the corral
Quick fire questions
My favourite quote?
“I Don't Know How To Explain To You That You Should Care About Other People” - Kayla Chadwick.
She was talking about paying taxes to support communities, but I think it about it all the time. Especially when leaders are asking why they should bother with web accessibility.
A hill I’ll die on (UX edition)?
Carousels were invented because marketing departments are indecisive.
The meeting role I naturally take on?
Mediator, translator and sometimes counsellor. Bridging the gap between stakeholders and their views, and negotiating best possible outcomes.
What I’d be doing if I didn’t do this?
Running retreats where people spend quality time outdoors - hiking, lake swims, yoga, cycling and kayaking. There would be incredible food, crafting, and dogs welcome.
My superpower at work?
Making the most of my ADHD to spot complex connections, dependencies and forecast risks.
Also baking - ask me about Italian Meringue Buttercream.
A weirdly specific thing I care about?
Beetle Syndrome - it’s a way of mathematically modelling bias in organisations across the hierarchy. You can set factors like “how biased are people towards people like them?” and work out how it impacts representation at each level of management.
Work that makes me proud
Driven by purpose
Spearheading accessibility at Reckitt
The Reckitt org has 500+ websites globally, and for a long time they were not accessible
When I joined the company in 2019 one of the first things I did was start driving accessibility. I wrote the policy, took it to the GEC for sponsorship, and launched it globally.
I campaigned for accessibility awareness, speaking to thousands of employees across multiple communities to educate and inform.
I spent time getting to know the marketing and brand teams, and helping them see how decisions made early in the project lifecycle impacted web accessibility outcomes.
I had difficult conversations with agency teams about the principles we could not ignore, no matter how it impacted their desired aesthetic.
I brought the accessibility conversation to life through automated tools, putting the outcomes in metrics that all stakeholders could understand.
The outcome is a marketing team who understand and evangelise inclusive design, and accessibility measures built into performance reporting.
Driven by performance
Building a commercially successful in-house agency
I’ve always thrived in ambiguity, using evolutions in ways of working as opportunities to see what can be done better.
In Reckitt I went from being a solo-designer, to managing a few contractors, to having a blend of in-house UX design/researchers and contractors working along side each other.
The fast paced business needed a team that could evolve at the same speed, meet their needs, and be cost effective while doing it.
I led the team through iterations of ways of working, updates to financial and cross-charging models, and a steady rotation of stakeholders from all regions and teams.
I implemented a Design Ops framework to reduce duplication of effort and streamline design team ways of working, from brief to delivery.
I collaborated with our finance team to record year on year savings of £500,000 in a 12 month period, through using internal capability rather than agencies.
The team P&L ended the year £30k up, covering the cost of our contract team and user testing costs.
Design Ops allowed us to reduce the cost of campaign landing pages by 46%.
The marketing teams saved significantly, while the internal design team bolstered their knowledge and experience of the brands, making them more effective in the long term.