About Me

Hi, I'm Brenden Palmer

I'm currently a Lead Service Designer & UX Strategist at a consultancy called CACI, with over 10 years' design experience across many sectors.

Image of Brenden and coworkers
Image of Brenden and coworkers
Image of Brenden and coworkers
Image of Brenden and a puppy
Image of Brenden and a puppy
Image of Brenden and a puppy

About me

With a background in academic human-computer interaction and game design, I specialise in design strategy, service design, and mixed-methods user research. I am incurably curious about how people behave and why, and I excel at connecting the dots for organisations seeking to unpick complexity and transform systems.

Fundamentally I think about my work as
therapy for businesses. I help organisations gain self-understanding and achieve holistic transformation through my expertise in ethnographic research and love of storytelling.

I have a longstanding interest in media ecology, religious phenomenology, and systems thinking, which bridge my personal and professional creative passions. Outside of work, I'm a member of The Long Now Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to thinking about arts, technology, and culture in long term timescales.

I am also an ambassador for The Venture Cafe Foundation, another non-profit focused on connecting innovators and expanding access to entrepreneurial resources. Most recently, I have produced an educational course on workshop design and facilitation for SuperHi, a community for creatives in tech. In my free time, I enjoy jazz, craft cocktails, and stand up comedy.

My experience

A snapshot of my professional experience

Lead Service Designer & Strategist

2023 – Current

CACI

Ongoing

Led end-to-end service design across complex digital transformations, delivering £500k+ programmes through service mapping, customer research, and proposition development. Mangaged high-performing, cross-functional Agile teams of 4-8 practitioners, managing timelines and scope of work to ensure on-time delivery of project milestones.

Lead Experience Designer

2022 – 2023

Inviqa / Havas

Senior Experience Designer

2021

Inviqa / Havas

UX Lead

2019 - 2020

Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Senior Product Designer

2018 – 2021

Contract / Various

Product Designer & Researcher

2014 – 2018

Freelance / Various

Lead Service Designer & Strategist

2023 – Current

CACI

Lead Experience Designer

2022 – 2023

Inviqa / Havas

Senior Experience Designer

2021

Inviqa / Havas

UX Lead

2019 - 2020

Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Senior Product Designer

2018 – 2021

Contract / Various

Product Designer & Researcher

2014 – 2018

Freelance / Various

Lead Service Designer & Strategist

2023 – Current

CACI

Ongoing

Led end-to-end service design across complex digital transformations, delivering £500k+ programmes through service mapping, customer research, and proposition development. Mangaged high-performing, cross-functional Agile teams of 4-8 practitioners, managing timelines and scope of work to ensure on-time delivery of project milestones.

Lead Experience Designer

2022 – 2023

Inviqa / Havas

Senior Experience Designer

2021

Inviqa / Havas

UX Lead

2019 - 2020

Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Senior Product Designer

2018 – 2021

Contract / Various

Product Designer & Researcher

2014 – 2018

Freelance / Various

Group photo with Brenden
Group photo with Brenden
Group photo with Brenden
Conference group photo with Brenden
Conference group photo with Brenden
Conference group photo with Brenden
Conference photo with Brenden
Conference photo with Brenden
Conference photo with Brenden
Whiteboarding photo with Brenden
Whiteboarding photo with Brenden
Whiteboarding photo with Brenden

My values

These are the core values I’ve picked up through my life experiences over the years. I arrange them in a “model of transformation” which relates my values to how I approach creating impact in organisations and systems.

01

Hospitality

Showing a radical welcoming of the other. Regularly gathering around our table and being curious about people.

02

Active Learning

Don’t just sit and wait for learning to come to you. Actively seek out understanding of what is going on around you and put it into practice.

03

Mutuality

Creating lasting bonds within our organisation or movement, united behind a common spirit, cause, or interest.

04

Connection

Being present to self and others. Making connections between people, systems, incentives, and values.

05

Storytelling

Telling our stories around the campfire as a catalyst for authentic mobilisation and change; honouring what came before.

06

Systematic Change

Don’t just treat the symptoms. Get to the root of the problem and you will accomplish long lasting transformation.

Created by Brenden Palmer / 2025

Created by Brenden Palmer / 2025

Created by Brenden Palmer / 2025