57 - Ali McGill

On this week is Ali McGill an accountant and experience designer. You wouldn’t necessarily put the two together. Ali talks about making a start in his career training as a traditional accountant. Over the years of running businesses and being responsible for profit and loss sheets he started to see the real value of putting yourself in your customers shoes. Using design tools and methodologies to craft memorable experiences for your customers. He talks about how his daughter introduced him to Service Design, with the influence of Mike Press and how Pecha Kucha nights and other events eventually drew him down to Dundee where he became Head of Enterprise and Entrepreneurial strategy at Dundee University. A bit of a long title and one that has certain prerequisites. We talk about the stigmas attached to the word ‘entrepreneur’ and the differences between an ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘designer’. Ali has started his own podcast under Ashton McGill called Never Settle where he speaks to people doing things differently and pushing boundaries in their fields. Definitely well worth a listen, check it out in the links below along with the episode I did for the pod.

Ali’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/AshtonMcGillUK

Ali’s Website - http://www.ashtonmcgill.com/

Never Settle - Ashton McGill Podcast - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/never-settle-podcast/id1308995651?mt=2

Dundee in 2018 photo a day - https://www.instagram.com/dundeein2018/

My episode on the Never Settle Podcast - https://www.buzzsprout.com/134453/648230

Mike Press - https://twitter.com/MikePress?lang=en

Lauren Currie - https://twitter.com/Redjotter?lang=en

Johanna Basford - https://twitter.com/johannabasford?lang=en

The double diamond - https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/double-diamond

Dame Sue Black - http://cahid.dundee.ac.uk/staff/sue-black

Business Model Canvas - https://strategyzer.com/canvas/business-model-canvas

The Old Flourmill - http://flourmilldundee.co.uk/