Hello! I’m Patrick
I am a highly motivated, hands-on UX Design Leader with over 23 years professional experience designing, coding, and deploying enterprise websites and applications.
I love making systems work better for people by understanding the boundaries of a technology, pushing against them to satisfy the user needs and ultimately creating the best possible digital experience. In all my roles I've acted as a bridge between customers, agencies, management, designers, and product teams.
I operate at both tactical and strategic level in design management. Today I get to drive design strategy for UHG, a fortune 5 company, leading a global team of 50 designers remotely from Dublin, Ireland. I am dedicated to my teams, creating the best environment for them to thrive. I hire and retain the best. I am motivated by change, it’s inevitable and creates many opportunities.
I am driven by design, to distil design thinking into everything we do. I demonstrate a promoting style and love to speak publicly and promote the craft. I’ve travelled the world speaking at conferences and closer to home I am recognised as the host of Dublin UX, Irelands largest design network.
Career History
As a Director of UX with 23+ years of experience across telecoms, healthcare, and enterprise sectors, I specialize in leading global teams to create products that transform complex systems into seamless user experiences. My passion lies in combining user insights, business objectives, and technical realities to deliver innovative, scalable products that drive business success.
I bring a unique perspective to product design, grounded in my technical background and creative mindset, making me adept at simplifying intricate systems. Half of my career was spent shaping enterprise content management solutions, and I now lead design initiatives that focus on user-centric product innovation. From telecoms to healthcare, my core mission has been making the complex simple, and I’m eager to apply this approach to the finance industry.
My product leadership extends to building and scaling UX teams, most notably at Optum, where I established a UX Design Studio in Dublin and now lead a global team in delivering digital products that drive business value. Prior to Optum, I positioned UX at the center of BT’s Osmosoft proposition, leading teams to deliver solutions that enhance customer and business outcomes.
Chair, PRIDE Employee Resource Group for Ireland and UK
I was appointed the Chair of to be launched PRIDE Employee Resource Group for Ireland and UK.
2024
Group Director, User Experience Design, Optum
User Experience Design Studio is part of Optum Digital. We are a team of 182, providing full service design, research and accessibility services to the enterprise.
I was promoted to Group UX Director, expanding my role from Dublin to lead our global studios. I lead a team of 90+ including directors, UX managers and designers (interaction/visual/conversational/content). Working with my peers in Accessibility and Research, we are responsible for almost 180 people, supporting over 270 projects and $31 million in billable hours each year between our groups. I am responsible for the organisational design and business growth strategy for my design group as I scale up our operations to support a global fortune 5 company. Our design values guide me which includes Inclusion & Accessibility, Reusability, Usability and Productivity.
2021
2018
Director of UX, Optum
Based in Dublin, I grew the Dublin Studio to 33 team members, split between 4 core areas (design, research, accessibility, and a product team responsible for our design system). I reported into the VP of Design (US based) with design and product mangers reporting into me. As part of the UXDS leadership team, I collaborated with other directors on strategic initiatives. I continued to run our Dublin Studio, inspiring my teams to perform to their best and inspiring business partners around design thinking.
UX Design Manager, Optum
I joined Optum, part of UnitedHealth Group, to found and lead the new Dublin office of the Optum User Experience Design Studio (UXDS). UXDS is a 160+ strong studio supporting UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiaries in their mission to help people live healthier lives and to help make the health system work better for everyone.
2016
2014
UX Design Lead, Osmosoft, BT
Osmosoft was a small team of designers, developers and UX consultants with a mission to transform how British Telecom operate using Lean and Agile UX methodologies. Headquartered in London my team shared a vision that solutions start and end with the user. We promoted the web as a platform for change using open-source solutions and modern web based collaborative techniques.
2012
UX Designer, Osmosoft, BT
I was responsible for enabling an agile UX engagement model. I successfully positioned UX at the heart of the Osmosoft proposition introducing new approaches using user-centred design techniques and rapid prototyping. I was focused on building mobile web solutions and applications. I got to work directly with customers, users, external agencies and sub-contractors in these engagements.
2006
Content Management Design Lead, BT Innovate & Design
Working in BTs central design team into the platform Chief architect, I had design authority for content/website management implementations across all lines of business. I owned and set the web content management strategy in addition to managing the deliveries from our offshore developers. I had line management responsibilities for UK based design team.