The document details the KTN Design Mentors Programme, which aims to provide expert coaching to leaders of innovative R&D projects, ensuring high standards and timely completion. It outlines the diverse skills of selected mentors and emphasizes that project leaders can choose relevant mentors for tailored support, predominantly through video conferencing. Mentors come from various backgrounds and possess extensive experience in design methods and market strategies.

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DESIGNMENTOR
PORTFOLIO
GCRFDemonstrateImpact -April2020

2. KTN Design Mentors
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In this document you will find details about the KTN Design Mentors programme.
The objective of the KTN Design Mentors programme is to offer expert coaching
and advice to those leading innovative R&D projects and ensure the projects are
completed to a high-standard, within time and within budget. The mentors have
been selected based on their in-depth knowledge of design methods and vast
experience in bringing products and services to market.
Mentors within the portfolio have a diverse set of skills and experience where
some may be more equip at guiding on specific challenges than others. Project
leaders will have the opportunity to choose a mentor that they feel is most
relevant to them to ensure projects receive the support that is most appropriate.
Given the distrubuted nature of projects, mentoring support will be via video
conferencing. It is up to project leaders and mentors to arrange how and when
they will receive mentoring support. Mentors will have a limited time available to
support projects so we recommend project leaders plan how they want to use
mentorship over the duration of the project.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with KTN.
ktn-uk.co.uk

3. KTN Design Mentors
Al Kennedy
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
Alexandra Tinning
Ben Davies
Brian Combe
Deborah Szebeko
Guy Buchan
Guy Robinson
Iain Aitchison
Jennie Murray
Jonathan Butters
Mark Hester
Nils Aksnes
Paul Fletcher
Rachel Jones
Richard Hall
Stephen Frazer
Victoria Milne
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Contents
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4. Al Kennedy
Alexandra Deschamps-
Sonsino
A senior level strategic design and management professional;
with +25 years industry experience, having founded and managed
business design consultancies in both London and Bristol.
Results driven with strong team management skills, a focused work ethic and a proactive
approach. I have the rare skill-set of both MBA business and MA design training with a
‘hands on’ understanding of design application with impactful strategic business insight.
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is a London-based author,
consultant, public speaker and entrepreneur with a background in
industrial and interaction design. She was the first UK distributor of
the Arduino and was the founder of the Good Night Lamp which is
in the permanent collection of the London Design Museum.
• Leadership Coach & Mentor.
• Business/ Service Designer.
• Human Centred Design Thinking.
• Marketing / Creative Communications & Digital Strategy.
• Biomimicry Specialist.
• User experience.
• Manufacturing (from prototype to scale).
• IP (patents, trademarks).
• Marketing your product internationally.
• Partnerships (when to partner with others and what to look out for).
About
About
https://designswarm.com/services/
www.linkedin.com/in/designswarm/
www.tomorrowconsultancy.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/alkennedy/
Capabilities
Capabilities
4ktn-uk.co.uk

5. sector organisations. Clients include Mind, NatWest and Mars Inc. Alexandra has also led-
design research and development for UK, India and Middle Eastern markets.
Alexandra Tinning
Ben Davies
An expert in developing and delivering experiences through
human-centered methods and mindsets. From design for
manufacture in the private sector to mental health care in Third
With +20 years professional experience Ben counts some of the
world’s leading consumer brands as his clients along with some
amazing early-stage founders and scale-ups. Trained originally as an
Industrial designer, and now alongside his role as MD at Rodd, He is a seasoned Design-
Thinker, value proposition developer and innovation mentor working across product,
digital and service design.
• Developing human-centered design processes to deliver human-centered outcomes.
• Coaching multidisciplinary teams to turn insights into action.
• Deepening cultural and social understanding.
• Listening with empathy, and natural interpersonal skills.
• Pragmatic and practical when needed.
• Passionate about helping innovators to use design to define their vision.
• Helps teams to apply practical design-thinking best practices to create the foundations
for successful consumer-centric and design-led businesses and brands.
• Creates highly differentiated consumer experiences across product and service.
• Creates sensitive, empathic solutions for social inclusion, wellbeing and ageing.
• Balances development at pace with the diligence when creating a design-led
proposition.
About
About
http://www.rodd.uk.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodddesign/
http://www.graft.global
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-tinning-56449633/Capabilities
Capabilities
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6. Brian Combe
Deborah Szebeko
With +30 years’ experience in product design & development,
consultancy, and business management, Brian is the Co-founder
and Managing Director of i4 Product Design. Founded in 2003
with three other colleagues, i4pd has grown to a full-service, multi-
disciplinary consultancy SME with 21 employees and a £1.85m
turnover.
An entrepreneurial design business leader with experience of
launching ventures & services for global health-tech & pharma
businesses, charities & the public sector. She founded thinkpublic,
the UK’s first health-focused service design agency, working on
projects from grassroots to policy, that use design to tackle health
and social issues.
• Business/Technical Advisor - from inception to market launch.
• CAD modelling and mechanical design for manufacture.
• Customer discovery, prototyping, design and development, and business strategy.
• Design Coach - design methods for product development and manufacture.
• i4pd knowledge - Human-Centred Design, User Research, Energy-Harvesting,
Electronics and Firmware as well as Branding and Marketing.
• Award-winning user-research, engagement, co-production, service design.
• User-Centred Design - conducting user research, engagement and co-production
• Coaching & Mentoring - experience coaching leaders in the social and private sectors.
• Entrepreneurial & Strategic - designed digital products for the health and social sectors.
• Health & Network - broad network to fuse co-design, patient engagement, service
improvement and innovation.
About
About
https://www.i4pd.co.uk/work/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/briancombe/
https://www.thinkpublic.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahszebeko/
Capabilities
Capabilities
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7. focus your product proposition to solve your customer and users’ problems in a targeted
way. Helping you communicate the right value proposition and brand story to resonate
with your customers and investors.
can turn concepts into tangible products quickly. His background spans: Engineering
at Cambridge, RCA, HHCD, Manufacturing Advisory Service, and postgraduate tutoring,
giving him a broad range of consultative, practical, creative, technical and analytical skills.
Guy Buchan
Guy Robinson
An expert design strategist, user experience and user interface
expert, luxury brand founder and mentor helping you improve the
quality of your product and service. Guiding you on the journey to
Award winning, inclusive and sustainable industrial designer with
+20 years experience. As Director of Sprout Design, Guy runs
complete projects for start-ups to multinational brand owners and
• Design, Brand & Product Strategy.
• Targeted User Experience (UX) Advice.
• Expert User Interface Design (UI) Advice.
• Pitching Your Products - Defining Your Unique Selling Points (USP’s).
• Brand Storytelling Advice for Presentations and Websites.
• Quickly immerses in a subject area to understand a brief, and reframe requirements.
• Knows a wide range of design research and analysis methodologies inc. Inclusive and
Human-Centred Design tools.
• Experience across design, manufacturing, materials, and business models.
• Routinely turn ideas into products quickly with Solidworks and in-house 3D Printing.
• A good network of contacts to build project teams or recommend others to best meet.
About
About
https://sproutdesign.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/guyfromsprout/
https:// www.integratelondon.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/guybuchan
Capabilities
Capabilities
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8. Iain Aitchison
Jennie Murray
Iain is an expert in design innovation, working at the intersection
of consulting, education and research. Over the last 15 years, he
has consulted to clients including Bacardi, British Gas, Lenovo,
Mars Inc., PepsiCo, Samsung, Unilever, and Yamaha—leading
product and service innovation projects in Europe, N.America,
Asia, Africa and South America.
As Lead Engineer for Design and Innovation at WMG, a
government innovation house,Jennie has the fascinating role
of setting the creative vision, schemes and design for concepts,
developed through to market ready products. Having won national
awards for her designs, she is passionate about the strategic power
of customer-centred creativity.
• Managing complex design processes with remote multidisciplinary teams.
• Conducting design research with end users and stakeholders.
• Framing user-centred innovation strategies to guide technology development.
• Developing propositions for new product and service innovations.
• Coaching teams on design methods and approaches.
• Customer (human) centred research methods and execution.
• Business model/product pivoting and opportunity development
based on customer trends and learnings.
• Aesthetic design, A-surfaces and unique form.
• Design for manufacture.
• Packaging and branding.
About
About
http://www.graft.global
https://www.linkedin.com/in/iainaitchison/iainaitchison/
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniemurraydesign/
Capabilities
Capabilities
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9. Jonathan Butters
Mark Hester
For 3 decades Jonathan has been an industrial designer, an
innovation specialist, a mentor and technical advisor. Many of
his private clients have been new to innovation and design so
he has provided mentoring and support with regards to product
innovation, manufacturing, finance and advocating for end-users
and stakeholders.
Mark has 20 years’ experience in product design agencies and
has been running The Imagination Factory since 2015. He is an
HCD practitioner and also deliver HCD training workshops. He
has experience across the whole design process from research to
manufacturing. He speaks fluent Portuguese from living in Brazil.
• Mentoring and nurturing people to develop design and innovation capabilities.
• Framing the problem from the perspective of the key stakeholders and users
• Prototyping approaches, from modelling to VR to additive manufacture.
• Experience in projects that have delivered positive outcomes in low-income markets.
• Expert knowledge in manufacture, supply chains, materials, assembly, testing,
validation, regulatory affairs, packaging, instructions for use, finishing, etc.
• Practical HCD mentoring based on the LUMA Institute methods and toolkit
• Practical insight from 20 years’ experience in design, modelmaking, 3D printing, CNC
machining, prototyping, manufacturing methods, etc
• Commercial advice from running The Imagination Facory and setting up 2 start-ups.
• Sustainable design advice from using the Cradle to Cradle methodology.
• Technical problem solving such as on a Solar Thermal Steam pump for sub-Saharan
farmers, wearable tech and a non-invasive glucose monitor.
About
About
https://www.imaginationfactory.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-hester-987395b/
https://www.butters-innovation.co.uk/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbuttersinnovation/
Capabilities
Capabilities
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10. Nils Aksnes
Paul Fletcher
Nils is a product design engineer and service designer with an
emphasis on answering user needs and building the right thing. He
is adept at understanding the nuances of a problem and approaches
design challenges with an open mind in order to develop
appropriate product or service solutions.
Intuitively innovative and curious. Finding paths and opportunities
others often cannot, Paul is especially skilled in turning thought into
action. Catalysing divergent thinking with a participative leadership
style focussed on outcome. Provoking and guiding teams through
new and unknown territory from discovery into definition as ideas
and plan are developed.
• Research and understanding of complex and nuanced problems.
• Relating human needs to product or service design goals.
• Creative problem solving.
• Getting the most from prototyping.
• Designing for manufacture.
• Activator - make things happen by turning thoughts into action.
• Strategic - create alternative ways to proceed. He can quickly spot the relevant patterns.
• Ideation - fascinated by ideas and finds connections between disparate phenomena.
• Futuristic - inspired by the future. He inspires others with visions of the future.
• Individualisation - intrigued with the unique qualities of each person. He has a gift for
figuring out how people who are different can work together productively.
About
About
https://www.make-do.studio/nils-aksnes
www.linkedin.com/in/nilsaksnes
https://throughideas.com
www.linkedin.com/in/throughideas-PaulFletcher
Capabilities
Capabilities
10ktn-uk.co.uk

11. Rachel Jones
Richard Hall
An international leading practitioner with a PhD in Human-Centred
Design, Rachel has 20 years’ experience in innovating new digital
services for organisations such as Microsoft, Vodafone and TfL. She
has been working in Sustainable Energy for 6 years for organisations
such as Hitachi, Bulb and Upside Energy, exploring smart systems
and flexible services in local energy, domestic heating and EVs.
Richard is a highly experienced professional who has successfully
delivered innovation across a range of sectors. Starting his career in
1986 as an Engineering Apprentice with Rolls Royce, then studied
Industrial Design. Since graduating Richard has worked on a range
of clients. Richard was awarded Fellowship of the RSA in 2018.
• Market feasibility, including user research, product strategy, value proposition
refinement.
• Service design.
• Interaction design and user testing.
• Sector expertise in energy & sustainability solutions, and healthcare & medical services.
• A depth of experience from ‘working on the tools’ to highly complex projects.
• Can work with a range of businesses/organisations (start ups, academics, SME’s,
manufacturers, PLC’s, Universities, NiHR).
• 30+ years experience of migrating projects from research through to delivery.
• Experience in a range of industry disciplines.
• Passionate about applying and disseminating innovation and getting things done.
About
About
https:// www.pd-m.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-hall-pd-m/
http://www.instrata.co.uk/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-jones-a4953/
Capabilities
Capabilities
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12. infrastructure and more. Both in B2C and B2B markets, achieving outstanding growth,
including complex digital tech launches, in Africa and beyond, through exceptional human
centred design empathy.
and domestic appliances. He has particular expertise in meeting user needs with
appropriate design solutions and managing a team to meet demanding project objectives.
Stephen Frazer
Victoria Milne
Stephen Frazer is an industrial design consultant with +40 years
experience in the development of high and low volume consumer
electronics, telephones, handheld computers, instrumentation
CEO, Agile certified, award-winning Design Strategist with +20
years’ experience in innovation, strategy and branding, covering:
finance, quantified-self, HIV-prevention, pharma, to marine,
• Identifying user needs and project challenges
• Exploring alternative design strategies
• Feasibility, prototyping and evaluation of design concepts
• Optimising design format, technologies and materials selection
• Designing for manufacture and meeting performance objectives
• Ethnographic Research Techniques | User Needs Mapping and Insight Mining.
• Iterative Prototyping and testing.
• Human-centred Design Strategy | Creative Problem Solving | Training.
• Brand positioning | Brand strategy | Brand architecture.
• Innovation Management and Innovation Process Management.
About
About
https://www.frazerdesigners.com/about
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-frazer-design-london/
https://tenshi.co.uk/design-thinking/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriamilne/
Capabilities
Capabilities
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Prepared by:
Jake Larsson
Knowledge Transfer Manager in Design
07540 157803
jake.larsson@ktn-uk.org

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