tiney

I joined as employee #9 and spent seven and a half years growing alongside tiney, helping shape their product, brand and design practices. During that time I designed across almost every touchpoint, from the first versions of the app, to the website, marketing & growth, design systems and improving internal ways of working.

Joining an early-stage startup meant there wasn't a fixed design role. Every year brought new business needs and priorities. One week I might be simplifying onboarding for prospective childminders. Next, I'd be redesigning the Learning Journal, evolving the brand, designing features for the parent app, improving the website or introducing a more scalable design system.

I loved the huge variety of work as it meant I could work where I was needed the most while keeping one thing consistent: making the experience feel simple, clear and trustworthy for the people using it every day.

I joined early, working closely with the founders and engineers to evolve the product and the brand from the foundations they'd set.

As the team grew, so did my role. Alongside designing new features, I helped establish a shared design system, introduced more consistent ways of working, mentored a junior designer and worked with AI-assisted workflows that improved collaboration between design and engineering.

During my time with tiney, we grew from a small startup into the UK's fourth largest childcare provider, supporting over 10,000 childcare places, 1,250 registered tiney homes and almost 18,500 children who have now been cared for through the platform.

Alongside that growth I contributed to projects that: