I'm Derry Birkett — Head of UX & Product Design, systems thinker, AI builder & design engineer.
I have spent 18 years moving between enterprise software, scaleups, startups, and agencies: Capcade, Oracle Netsuite, CloudBees, Exabyte / Mat3ra, Telanto, Hugo Boss, Esprit, Bikesoup, IESE, and Technogym.18 years across enterprise software, scaleups, startups, and agencies.
Capcade, Oracle Netsuite, CloudBees, Exabyte / Mat3ra, Telanto, Hugo Boss, Esprit, Bikesoup, IESE, and Technogym.
My work is usually at the point where craft alone is not enough: hiring needs a clearer loop, research needs a cadence, design systems need adoption, and product teams need design judgment early enough to change what ships. I'm a British designer based in Barcelona, regularly in London, and working globally, with full right to work in the UK and EU.
I lead best from inside the work. At Capcade I moved product work to test-first: model the users and test the models before building. At CloudBees I was Head of Design and still the one leading the core redesign and prototyping the AI tooling. Player-coach is the shape I do my best work in.
18
Enterprise, scaleup, startup, agency
3 → 9
CloudBees design organisation growth
Oracle
UI Catalog, UI Library, adoption
UK · EU
Product, brand, research, AI labs
The operating model I install around design teams.
I build the loops that help product design organisations ship: hiring, reviews, research cadence, systems adoption, and the creative judgment that keeps product quality coherent across teams.
How I approach focused engagements.
Design systems, sprints, AI-augmented practice, and the underlying methodologies. For product teams who want focused project work.
See approach to work →How I build design organisations.
Leadership, operating cadence, research infrastructure, and creative direction. For teams hiring a Design Lead, Head of Design, or Director.
See approach to teams →Problem first
Interviews, observation, contextual research
Reframe it
Synthesis, brief, team alignment
Explore widely
Prototypes, co-design, concepts
Ship + measure
Handoff, systems, success metrics
“Derry is so great at seeing the bigger picture of the things we work on, he's not afraid to ask tough questions and wants to understand the user, he's driven and doesn't wait to be told what to do before starting to make a big impact. I really appreciate him keeping us all honest. He's exactly the kind of designer you hope to manage.”
I write about design leadership, systems, AI agents, and research maturity. I also keep a studio archive for demos, videos, and build-in-public experiments.