Thunk Ltd.

Working with businesses and organisations across industries. Providing digital product design & research, leadership, strategy, mentoring, hiring design teams, increasing internal design capabilities and design sprint facilitation.
Clients include: Twitter, Reed, NHS, Fine + Rare, Sensat, Babylon Health, Premier Farnell, Forward Partners, Virti Health, FitXR and some other cool start-ups you've not heard of (yet).

Founder & Design Partner

Google

I had three projects at Google I/O in 2017, two of them as a part of Android 8.0 “Oreo” launching in fall 2017.  As a part of the Android design team in London I led various system UI efforts, including the design for data access and management on Android Oreo Go targeting the "Next Billion Users".

In my time at Google I also worked on Enterprise (Google Apps), Ads (Google AdSense), Commerce (Google Offers), Maps (Google Maps for Mobile), Social (Google+ Local), Emerging Markets, Privacy and Search Ad Formats. I have facilitated many workshops and design sprints across the world, whilst working closely with UX researchers, Product Management and Engineering teams to design and deliver world class products and features.

Senior User Experience Designer / UX Lead

Skype

I worked on a couple of projects at Skype focusing on e-commerce and payment interfaces on both the Skype website and within the Skype client for Microsoft Windows.  I produced various ideas in the form of sketches, wireframes and high fidelity visual designs to simplify the purchase of hardware and Skype credit.  During my time here I also began designing some parts of the first Skype applications for mobile devices.

Interaction Designer

BBC Radio & Music Interactive

During my short time at the BBC I worked on a number of projects for Radio 1, 2 and Five Live.  I lead the interaction and visual design of the Five Live website during the 2006 World Cup campaign.  I ran a number of user studies on features and products for Radio 2, suggested and implemented improvements.  As well as supporting, I constantly pushed the boundaries of BBC processes and design standards to deliver innovative solutions.

Interactive Designer

Yahoo! Europe

As a part of the Ad Technology team I took responsibility for the user experience of rich-media advertising, both on UK, European homepages and throughout the Yahoo websites. This included advising on and upholding usability requirements with clients and the implementation of campaigns using various technologies. I delivered creative solutions, advice and consultancy to both internal and external clients, producing concept designs and prototypes for potential campaigns.

Designer & Front End Developer (Ad Tech)

DMG Radio

During my time in Australia I led the digital media for Nova 96.9fm in Sydney.  Again introducing User-centered Design practices to redesign the site for both user and business needs, also handling most of the technical implementation.  Essentially an extension to the work I'd done at Virgin in the UK.

Design Lead & Product Manager

Virgin Radio International Limited

Led the major re-design of the company's website, introducing user research and testing sessions to create a design that answered user and business needs, standing for almost 4 years.   Worked with external advertisers to create ground breaking cross-media campaigns.

Digital Media Design Lead

Ginger Media Group

I had far too much fun working for Chris Evan's Ginger Media Group on broadcast media websites, redesigning Virgin Radio's site entirely whilst trying to hang around the TFI Friday bar celeb' spotting as much as possible.

Oldroyd Publishing Group Ltd

A graphic design education, taught by old masters. :)

Print and Web Designer

A seasoned digital technology leader, designer, and strategist. I’m an expert in UX design, product & service design and user research.

Blending creative innovation with the power of insight to exceed results is what I do best.

Described as a product design strategy “game-changer”, “visionary”, “ideas guy” and “bloody nice chap”, I've reached 100s of millions of people with my work, worldwide. At Google I led design for and released 3 ground breaking products and features at Google I/O. During my decade at Google I worked on Google Maps, Search, Android and more. Other tech and media brands I've worked with include Skype, BBC, NHS, Yahoo, Virgin, Reed and some fantastic start-ups you haven’t heard of (yet).

I work alongside a range of roles from developers, product managers to managing directors and CEOs. But most importantly, customers and users — the result? Outcomes that increases customer loyalty and meets commercial objectives consistently.

In addition to ‘hands-on design’, workshop and design sprint facilitation I am a consultant to C-Level executives on product design strategies. Working with brands already remarkable in their field who want to push for increased growth. 

★	25 years’ experience in digital technology design, including 10 years at Google

★	I speak designer, customer, developer, executive, sales, user research, team building, product development life cycle, project management and product manager. 

★	It feels like a lifetime ago, but I also hold a 1st Class BA in Interactive Multimedia. 

--

► About Thunk –  Thunk transforms businesses with digital product design.

We're a bunch of vastly experienced designers and researchers whose focus is the design-led transformation of products and businesses. We deliver true value every day, and form meaningful partnerships with the businesses and organisations we work with. 

We do two things really well:

★ Design world class digital products and services.
Alongside your teams, we create, improve and reimagine the future, using our design-led processes to exceed desired outcomes.

★ Increase the design maturity of businesses and their teams.
With our decades of experience in improving design maturity within organisations, we take teams and companies to the next level.

We've worked with: 
Twitter | Reed | NHS | Farnell | Sensat | FINE+RARE | + Many More

Book a free consultation here https://calendly.com/thunkltd/intro-to-thunk

Rick Farrell

Ben Perreau

Applied Humanity Inc.

We're changing the way that humans lead through science-backed AI.

Building Parafoil ✨

Google, BBC, NBC Universal, Pottermore (J.K. Rowling), The Daily Telegraph, Paypal.

- CxO advisory, vision and strategy
- Product strategy and development, go-to-market
- Organizational and digital transformation, innovation, business strategy, content, growth, development and culture change

Product and Strategy Consultant

SYPartners

SYPartners is the consulting firm started by early Apple employees that works alongside the world's leading CEOs, leaders and their teams to use systems, product and design thinking to set purpose, vision and strategy, build the culture required to deliver, and design the experiences that bring these ambitions to life.

- Product and Portfolio Strategy
- New Product Development
- Vision and Strategy
- CEO Advisory
- Culture and Operating Model
- Leadership Alignment

From Fortune 50 to venture backed startups. Clients included some of the world’s largest tech companies, consumer brands, fintech companies, banks and healthcare.

Principal

Strategy Director / Engagement Leader - Management Consultant

Synkio

A two-sided software marketplace for Music Licensing used by agencies, film-makers and producers around the world.

- Product Lead / Organizational Leadership of a startup from zero to profit
- Fundraising and Board/Advisor development

Founder & CEO

Product Lead (fixed term) on special projects for BBC News, Television and Radio.

- Leadership
- Growth
- Social Media
- Content and Editorial
- Strategy
- Engagement
- New Product Development
- Recruitment

Product Management Lead

Global

Global Radio, owner of Capital FM, Heart, Classic FM, XFM, LBC, Choice FM and Gold is the UK's number one commercial radio business.
 
- Leader of a cross-functional (Product, Content, Data, Marketing, Engineering) organization and P&L consisting of 60+ people. Matrix of 150+ across the country.
- Product Strategy. Create and explore opportunity and execute digital strategy across multiple platforms (Web, Mobile, TV, Radio etc).
- Editorial Director. Operational leadership of each brand team.
- High growth digital products.
- Social Media, Editorial, Product & Proposition.

- Top 10 Music App (Capital FM) and Top 5 Social Media Brands in the UK (CapitalFM.com).
- Launch of CapitalFM.com, Heart.co.uk and ClassicFM.com.

Director of Digital Content / Acting Dir. of Digital (SVP, Digital)—UK’s #1 Audio Co.

Various - The Guardian, The Independent, Wired Magazine, The South China Morning Post, The Times etc

Journalist/Writer for various newspapers & periodicals.

Journalist/Writer

Gigulate

Gigulate used natural language processing and machine learning to find, aggregate and make meaning from content in order to build a new homepage for every topic, in real time.

- Product management, vision and strategy
- Fundraising
- Go-to-market
- SEO

Founder / CEO & Product Lead - ML news product

Strategy, Product and Content at Europe's leading entertainment company. Fast and efficient development, launch and ongoing management of Sky's digital brands whilst providing general product/content consultancy and innovation across the business.

- Product/Proposition Development
- Product & editorial strategy & Leadership
- Leadership, coaching and development
- Budgetary responsibility
- Content commissioning
- Subscription Business

Product & Strategy Lead

End to end redevelopment, to envision and build the world's biggest music website.

- Product Vision and Strategy
- Product Development
- Digital Transformation
- Editorial & Content
- Go-to-market
- SEO
- Data, analytics and product insights
- User experience design

Lead two editorial teams through the redevelopment, relaunch, growth and day-to-day running of both NME and Uncut magazine's digital businesses primarily in the form of NME.COM and uncut.co.uk.

Projects included digital development of the NME Awards, the summer festival season (Glastonbury, Coachella), Club NME, NME Tours, NME's expansion into the USA and key innovations across IPC's music businesses.
Launch Editor for other brand extensions, including NME Mobile, NME Radio and R&D/Strategy for music and non-music projects across the business.
Key brand representative within the music industry and media; speaking appearances at both publishing, music and web industry conferences.

Product & Editorial Lead

Building something new ✨ | Product Management Leader | General Manager | Founder

Hi, I’m Ben. I’m a left and right-brained founder, general manager, product management leader, and business strategist with proven international experience at startups, scale-ups, and multinational corporations.

My background includes 0-1 entrepreneurship (I enjoy doing what needs to be done, whether it’s the work deep in the weeds or shaping vision and strategy), product management, operations, and strategy alongside Fortune 50 CxOs. I’ve led the development of new products, shaped vision, strategy, culture, go-to-market, and spearheaded large-scale organizational change projects.

I began my career as a journalist, which set me up well for the majority of my career—building cross-functional teams of product managers, engineers, designers, and more. Before I embarked on this latest adventure, I spent 7 years at SYPartners, where I worked with some of the world’s greatest CxOs to help them shape their organizations for the future.

Over the years, I’ve developed a deep passion for leadership and organizational development. I’ve guided teams through significant transformations, focusing on empowering individuals, fostering innovation, and leading with empathy. My approach combines strategic vision with a human-centered focus, ensuring that leadership and management practices drive both business success and team fulfillment.

Specialties / buzzword bingo words include: Product management, vision and strategy, operational leadership, change, scale-up and 0-1 projects, organizational & digital transformation, P&L and general management, culture, content, data and insights, user experience design, go-to-market, and leadership development.

Don’t let the serious face put you off, I’ve been told I’m fun to work with. If you’ve got this far, you might as well find out :)

Dear HR: Brace yourself. There’s a leadership crisis coming your way.

Managers are being given larger teams and (as HR well knows) there are plenty of “accidental managers” who were never properly trained. They’re making it up.

As companies de-layer, the scaffolding of middle-management drops away, and those gaps in leadership will widen. Meanwhile, many green managers will default to the “player-coach” role. They’ll give up on real leadership and try to do the work themselves. A toxic result.

We need a new playbook. Another leadership workshop isn’t going to cut it.

What we need from HR is a scalable, data-driven system for real leadership development. No more team-building theater. No more sticky-note brainstorms. We need something far more concrete.

For starters: HR can bake micro-learning and just-in-time advice into the workday of every manager. We also need vibrant peer networks where human wisdom is shared on the daily.

HR, you’ve got a crucial role to play: you’ll be defining and supporting a whole new class of leader.

Sincerely, a reformed Accidental Manager

Building Parafoil — Leadership Intelligence powered by AI and cognitive science | Founder & CEO | ex-SYPartners, NME, BBC, Sky

Admit it.

Most companies treat mission or purpose statements as a branding exercise. And guess what? We don’t believe them. What’s worse, those inauthentic missions offer their employees no direction.

And then there are rare gems like Yvon Chouinard—the founder of Patagonia, who turns 87 today.

Chouinard delivered a mantra that mattered. “We’re in business to save our home planet.” And then he did something radical. He acted as though he meant it.

Remember the “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign? On Black Friday, 2011, Patagonia ran a full-page ad in The New York Times asking readers to stop shopping.

The message was clear: Patagonia is the opposite of fast fashion. If you must buy something, buy a durable product that leads to less shopping in the long run.

A decade later, Chouinard transferred ownership of Patagonia to a nonprofit so that Mother Nature could be the only shareholder. He’s consistent with his mission no matter the personal cost.

How many founders can say that?

As a birthday nod to Chouinard, I’m encouraging every leader to ask themselves: Is my mission truly non-negotiable?

Do you pass the Patagonia Test?

Sad truth: Many leaders ride on charisma, seniority, and a Cary Grant jaw line. That may have worked in the 20th century. The same laziness will collapse your career today.

Organizations are flattening in the age of AI. That means individual managers have more responsibilities, more direct reports, and more pressure to prove their value.

We need a Leadership Effectiveness Index. An LEI could measure strategic clarity, decision-making speed, talent development, and team engagement. These aren’t magical quantities; they can be measured. New AI telemetry tools let us collect and analyze data to track leadership metrics.

The result? An LEI would blow away the smoke and sizzle, show us who’s actually leading. My bet is that we’d expose ingrained biases against women and minority leaders, too. Imagine being judged by your true capacity, and not by whether you happen to be the tallest white dude in the room.

In the AI era, leadership isn’t a vibe—it’s verifiable.

taplio

The Battle

Rick Farrell

Ben Perreau

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreBen Perreau's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Rick Farrell

Ben Perreau

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ben Perreau's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreBen Perreau's LinkedIn Performance