I use design^ to help kind & thoughtful people improve* their software systems, teams, and organisations so we can leave behind a world we're proud of.
^ tools to help understand, invent, intervene, measure, and respond
* minimise waste, grow, and make them more compassionate, sustainable, and just
Select kind and thoughtful people
Australian Red Cross
WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Dept. Climate Change, Environment, Water Oxford University
Australian National University CSIRO
NSW Fisheries
WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Dept. Climate Change, Environment, Water Oxford University
Australian National University CSIRO
NSW Fisheries
VicEmergency
Cochrane
Open Food Network
Good Human
Spatial Vision
World Mosquito Project
Open Food Network
Good Human
Spatial Vision
World Mosquito Project
Covidence
Chargefox Carbon Plus
Ownershift Bonigi Monitoring
Chargefox Carbon Plus
Ownershift Bonigi Monitoring
With over 20 years experience, I come with a deep and broad more-than-human-centred design toolkit that can solve many problems. I'm particularly experienced in helping:
- Founders who need to minimise waste and grow with end-to-end product and service design & leadership
- Socially-aware scaling companies who need to grow faster while building world-class design teams
- Large organisations who need to innovate
- Academics who want to commercialise their research and expand their reach
About Matt
I'm currently Co-founder and Head of Design at Carbon Plus Ventures & ex-Chair of The Open Food Network. I use 20 years of design, technology, and product experience to enable socially responsible early-stage startups and fast-growing scale-ups minimise waste, grow responsibly, and make a positive difference. I am deeply values-driven and work exclusively in climate adaptation (food, biodiversity, waste), health, digital & human rights.
Selected Work
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Gallery of design artefacts
A 20+ year collection of design artefacts
GALLERY
Helping communities around the world prevent the spread of mosquito-borne disease
World Mosquito Project
CASE STUDY
Better health knowledge, faster, at a global scale
Covidence
CASE STUDY
Saving the Australian Red Cross hundreds of thousands of dollars in technology investment in Web 3.0 and blockchain for the social sector
Australian Red Cross
CASE STUDY
Strategy and systems design for monitoring human rights in immigration detention
Bonigi Monitoring
CASE STUDY
Foundational design and research for Australia's fastest growing electric-vehicle charging network
Chargefox
CASE STUDY
Modernising fishery compliance systems for commercial fishers and fishing regulators
NSW Dept. of Primary Industries
CASE STUDY
Bringing biodiversity back to the Australian landscape at scale
Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment, and Water
CASE STUDY
Helping Cogent become Australia's leading start-up design and technology consultancy with successful exit to Block Inc.
Cogent
CASE STUDY
Fractional Head of Design services to give Good Human a path to design team stability and growth
GoodHuman
CASE STUDY
Visualising and reporting on Australian deforestation for the WWF
WWF
CASE STUDY
Skills and Services
Design can mean different things to different people. Over the course of 20 years I've been privileged enough to develop a diverse generalist skillset that's useful for many things. Services and skills I provide include:
Hands-on product design & service design
- User research
- Customer journey mapping
- Ecosytem mapping
- Product strategy
- UX/UI design
- Design operations
Research
- Strategic research: Understanding complex ecosystems and relationships between systems to make change with precision
- Market research: Finding, understanding, and categorising demographics
- Product & design research: Testing existing and future product concepts to reduce risk and help prioritise what to focus on next and when
Strategic Design
- Organisation strategy: Purpose, Vision and Mission definition
- Product and service definition
- Employee experience
- Customer experience
- Implementation strategies for genuinely living company values
Leadership, Coaching and Training
- Evaluation and maturity mapping
- Human-centered design capability building
- Design resources, toolkits, libraries
- Design career mentoring
- Lean advisory design support for founders and early-stage startup
Always was, always will be
I have lived and worked my whole life on Gadigal (Sydney) and Wurundjeri (Melbourne) land, in Australia. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I do my work and I pay my respects to elders past & present. I acknowledge the sorrow of the stolen generations and the impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. I support the Uluru Statement of the Heart and I also recognise the resilience, strength and pride of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Through my work, I aim to help as much as I can to empower and help them thrive.
© Matt Shanks 2010-2024
This site does not use cookies or tracking codes like google analytics and tries to limit hi-res imagery and javascript where possible to ensure as sustainable online presence as possible. All writing and opinions are my own and do not represent the views of the client or companies I work with (although I expect that we're pretty aligned on values anyway).