When I was a kid I'd always been creative, drawing, painting, building things, hoarding too much Star Wars Lego. Over the years I felt I never had enough time to focus on my creative pursuits and they sadly fell to the wayside.

I did a degree in psychology. I enjoyed it, but early on I had a feeling I wasn't going to end up a psychologist.

What I did love was understanding how people think and behave, how we act and engage with the world. The research process was great too, sinking your teeth into a problem, testing a hypothesis, collaborating with others, analysing the results. I enjoyed that. I knew that whatever path I took I wanted that problem solving mindset to feature.

I realised I was looking for something that combined both worlds: that analytical, people-focused thinking from psychology, and the imaginative, creative side I needed to nourish.

When I found UX and product design, it clicked for me. This was what I was looking for.

There's something deeply satisfying about that process, taking a set of raw parts and shaping them into a whole. Something more than the sum of its parts. Something you can be proud that you helped create.

That's what pulled me in then and it's still what drives me now.