To whom it may concern—

I am an Irish Strategist, currently working and wandering around Amsterdam.

I am one of those people who has flipped and flopped, between and around the roles of ‘designer’; ‘product designer’, ‘product manager’, ‘researcher’, ‘product advisor’; ‘cartographer’, ‘product strategist’; ‘strategic designer’…

For 7 years I worked “in-house” at big companies, helping them untangle and re-understand the contexts of their customers, to redesign their solutions to meet those realities best, continuously.

Then I worked for 2 years with an agency called Bakken&Baeck, where I collaborated with a network of profoundly talented and inspiring designers; engineers & researchers on the problems & opportunities we find with clients who have businesses that span the depth and breadth of digital infrastructure in the public & private landscape today.

I now work as an advisor to a handful of startups in stealth and as a venture partner at foreword.

I sometimes work in relatively nondescript ways on “side-projects” I find particularly interesting, like launching, growing and then detonating startups;
and mapping the world’s fungal networks.

I also spend at least 2 hours (not necessarily consecutively) a day, walking around listening to smart people explain and discuss interesting topics, and probably another 2 hours scraping my internet feeds of tissue that helps me make sense of what’s happening in the world. I’m convinced there’s a red thread amongst all the content I serendipitously discover, so I’ve decided to make a spool for it (albeit in a currently ashamedly chaotic fashion), to see what emerges from its collection.

I am usually always up for a chat with anyone about anything and may have already contacted you about something interesting you’re doing. If I haven’t, and you are—please do email me—awymest@gmail.com.

In the meantime, I hope you have/are having/have had—a nice day.

All The Best,
Amy West