Portfolio

Check out some of my work.

Education | Content | Advertising | Branding + merch | Comms + journalism | Shenanigans

Education

Led the creation of onboarding and in-product education materials for the world’s most-loved (literally, check the NPS scores) accounting software.

  • Lifted ARPU 14%. Grew revenue $200M.
  • Onboarded 50K new users/month.
  • Educated 45K/month on the fundamentals of bookkeeping and accounting.
  • Delivered training via 120K video views per month.

Helped refresh Xero’s onboarding flow with showcase videos like this. Viewers were 58% more likely to complete the core task than non-viewers. 

An explainer about how to use the chart of accounts in Xero. Only an excerpt, though. You don’t have enough popcorn for the whole workflow. (I scripted, shot and edited this one.)

Technical documentation

I’ve produced technical documentation for Xero’s accounts payable and bank reconciliation workflows. As valuable as it is, you’ll probably agree that instructional content isn’t really portfolio material. Reach out if you want hard examples.

Content

Led editorial delivery for Xero’s digital discovery programme, winning 2M site sessions per year (35% staying on the site after consuming the target content), and 120K leads per year.

Landing page to download a free invoice template.

Top of funnel + digital discovery

Delivered insightful and tax-compliant content in six major global markets, including:

  • Articles
  • Reports
  • Templates (pictured)
  • Guides
  • Infographics
  • Accounting glossary
White paper cover: How small businesses de-stress everyday finances.

White papers

Authored marquee papers and reports, often built on original quantitative research that I commissioned.

Long stories

Adept at bringing stakeholders on big journeys that include technical or sensitive topics. I wrote this one, coordinated the photography, and directed design.

Cover of report into carbon sink trial.

Advertising

Spent 5 years as a Senior Copywriter (and ACD) for a US ad agency in the life sciences industry. Check out some ads on medicine, life sciences, and spectroscopy. You’ll immediately feel smarter.

Branding + merch

Besides product advertising, I’ve worked on high-level brand architecture, too – including taglines, brand campaigns, product names…and beer coasters.

Tagline" Prepare for life
Tagline for the prenatal diagnostics company, Progenity.
Tagline: Altogether better
Tagline for Bionano Genomics, whose tech allowed researchers to see fully intact genomes (they previously had to look at chopped-up fragments).
The firing synapse paid homage to the inspiration driving Thermo's customers.
Schrodinger's cat placemat.
Coasters for a nerdy beer brand.

Comms + journalism

Have worked in proactive and reactive comms, and occasionally moonlight as a freelance journalist. I generally deal with complex topics like medicine, energy and…of course…rugby.

Article on pandemic level seasonal flu outbreaks in Ireland.
Yes, that's a front page. And yes, we got two that day for the Flu Forum.
Article on breakthrough in blindness treatment, by Eammon Conaghan.
Sometimes you come across cool stories that no one is PR-ing, so you just write them yourself.
I include this one for bragging purposes. I ghost wrote this clinical article on neurology and the SME had zero edits. Zero.
Article on ABs visit to Donegal.
I helped get the All Blacks to visit a rural rugby club in Ireland. It blew up.
Article on ABs visit to Donegal, by Eammon Conaghan
(From previous) I wrote about the visit for NZ rugby mag, back home.
Rolling out a feasibility study for a major energy project.

Shenanigans

Wait of a nation – Keyboard worrier

Launched in 2010, my website (and merch) helped kiwis fret effectively about a possible rugby world cup implosion on home soil. I disestablished the site after the All Blacks blew up the whole concept by winning. The website was covered by BBC (UK), News 24 (South Africa), Sydney Morning Herald, Radio NZ, New Zealand Herald, and more. 

The 12th Pub

In 2007, a team of two went on an intrepid cultural adventure (aka a round-the-world cup crawl). We picked up a couple of sponsors to help pay for it, ran a blog, and generated coverage in the USA, Ireland, South Africa, China, and Australia. I was one of those adventurists.