We had an awesome launch of the sold out Melbourne Design Thinking (MelbDT) meetup on Thursday night. A fun energised vibe in the room with loads of engaged people ready to connect and build community.
It’s been awesome collaborating with Mickey Rummery and Rachel Zhang – who are Melbourne locals – to help convene and launch Melbourne Design Thinking (MelbDT) over the past few weeks. The community grew to 100+ in the first days and is now at 190+.
Haven’t joined yet? It’s free to join the MelbDT community. Join now to find out about the next event!
We started with great conversations and networking before Mickey and Rach kicked off the inaugural MelbDT and welcomed us.
Jamal Cassim from Untangld, Teresa Huang from Bupa, and me from Dynamic4 gave short talks sharing the stuff you don’t see much of on Linkedin… stories of our failures. If you want more of the story, check out my How do I fail? post.
Rach and Mickey then hosted a panel chat where we dug into the topic more with great questions from the audience.
The reason we shared our Failure Résumés is to normalise talking about failure, the lessons learnt, that failing is a natural part of learning and growth on the path to success… and that you’re not alone.
Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun night. Couldn’t make it or just want to relive it? Watch it now.
A huge thanks to John McGiffin, Noodles, Limendra Fernando, and Hasan Sharif from Natural Velocity for generously hosting… and to John for sharing a bit about their AI Innovation Centre. Plenty of exciting things going on and worth checking out what they’re up to.
A huge thanks to John, Noodles, Lim, and Hasan from NV for generously hosting… and to John McGiffin for sharing a bit about their AI Innovation Centre. Plenty of exciting things going on and worth checking out what they’re up to.
Thanks to Askable for sponsoring drinks and Scyne Advisory for covering the pizza… and RUMR, Ro&Co Studio, and Dynamic4 for making it happen.
Info on the October MelbDT meetup coming soon…
Melbourne Design Thinking (MelbDT) is convened by Melbourne locals Mickey Rummery and Rach Zhang to explore the world of design thinking as a human-centred design and living systems approach to innovation and solving complex problems – to help create positive outcomes for people, our planet, and business.
Meetup Announcement
Thursday, 4 September 2025 @ 6pm. Natural Velocity Innovation Centre, Melbourne
We’re excited to be launching Melbourne Design Thinking (MelbDT).
I’m stoked to be collaborating with Mickey Rummery and Rach Zhang – who are Melbourne locals – to help convene and launch MelbDT in a few weeks.
Come help shape the future of the Melbourne Design Thinking community. More than just a meetup – it’s an open invitation to co-create a space that reflects you: your questions, your experiences, your challenges, and your hopes for the design industry.
Join us for a fun night of conversation with interesting people in and around the Melbourne design community… and be part of our inaugural MelbDT. I look forward to seeing you there.
What to Expect
We’ve got a great panel of leaders from startups, scaleups, and large orgs to share something you won’t find on their Linkedin: their Failure Résumés.
⭐️ Mickey Rummery (Facilitator) – Founder of RUMR & Conference Director of The Outlook
⭐️ Rachel Zhang (Facilitator) – UX Lead at RACV & Founder of Ro&Co Studio
⭐️ Jamal Cassim – Co-founder of Untangld
⭐️ Teresa Huang – Head of Product at Bupa & YouTube Creator
⭐️ Ben Pecotich – Design & Innovation Director/Founder of Dynamic4 & Co-founder of Sydney Design Thinking
Three of their biggest flops, the tough lessons that came from them, and how those moments became unexpected springboards to growth, clarity, and success.
In a market where roles are scarce and pressure is high, we believe it’s more important than ever to normalise failure, dismantle shame, and share the messy middle – especially for designers navigating career pivots, layoffs, burnout, or reinvention.
Facilitators & Speakers
Mickey Rummery
Founder of RUMR & Conference Director of The Outlook
Mickey launched RUMR out of a deep passion for human-centred design and connecting people. With a career spanning over 20 years, he’s developed strong expertise in crafting user-centric experiences that make a real impact. His journey combines creativity and strategic thinking, with a focus on understanding the needs and motivations of users to create meaningful experiences.
Recognising his primary strength in talent acquisition, Mickey has dedicated RUMR to connecting businesses with exceptional design talent to help build world-class teams. Drawing from an extensive network and a deep understanding of the design industry, he’s able to match organisations with ideal candidates to meet their specific needs.
Mickey is actively involved in the design community, serving as Conference Director for both Design Outlook and UXCamp, two leading industry events. He leverages his passion and expertise to deliver tailored solutions that align with client goals and industry best practices. He’s also the co-founder of Melbourne Design Thinking.
Rach Zhang
UX Lead at RACV & Founder of Ro&Co Studio
Rach is a seasoned experience designer with over 15 years of expertise at some of Australia and UK’s foremost digital enterprises such as Telstra, Google, Accenture, AKQA, Westpac, R/GA – as well as starting her own businesses in design consultancy, team assessments, and education.
Her portfolio spans diverse profit for purpose projects, including the transformative re-design of the Parliament of Victoria experience and spearheading research and strategic design initiatives for the future vision of WorkSafe Victoria’s digital inspector’s tool. Rach’s career has also seen her contributions at RMIT, where she pioneered innovative pathways for career progression through education.
Rach, her fiancé, and two cats just moved back to Melbourne in February. All is well in the new household. Her dream is to rebrand the “crazy cat lady” as aspirational. She’s also the co-founder of Melbourne Design Thinking.
Jamal Cassim
Co-founder of Untangld
Jamal co-founded strategy studio Untangld in 2020. Now based in Melbourne, Sydney, and London, Untangld delivers breakthrough thinking for businesses across insight, strategy, and prototyping.
Jamal’s career has spanned advertising, fashion, and art, across Europe and APAC, from global networks Y&R and BBDO to innovative indies like Exposure and Dare. He’s been a proven business leader to some of the world’s most innovative and successful companies, including Nike, BMW, Warner Music, Carlsberg, and the BBC, and trusted advisor to countless startups and scaleups.
Teresa Huang
Head of Product at Bupa & YouTube Creator
Teresa is a product management leader with 10+ years’ experience across financial services, media, healthcare, aviation, and e-commerce. She specialises in product development and emerging tech, fostering innovative, empowered teams through collaborative leadership.
Beyond her corporate role, Teresa runs a YouTube channel on product management, leadership, and career growth in the tech sector.
Ben Pecotich
Design & Innovation Director/Founder of Dynamic4 & Co-founder of Sydney Design Thinking
Ben’s a designer, coach, and founder of Dynamic4 – a social enterprise and B Corp focused on leadership, design, and innovation for happier communities… and making the transition to more regenerative ways of living and doing business.
He coaches and works alongside leaders to solve problems that matter by designing and building business models, products, and services that customers and teams love, make money, do great things for people and our planet, while increasing wellbeing.
For 30+ years, Ben’s led, designed, and delivered strategic change in financial services, digital & tech, health & fitness, and founded startups/social enterprises – in Australia, NZ, Asia, the UK, and Europe. He founded Dynamic4 in 2001 and takes a human-centred design and living systems approach to bring together strategy, design, and tech.
Ben Pecotich’s the author of Solve Problems That Matter: Design, Build & Launch Your Social Enterprise Idea and co-founder of Sydney Design Thinking.
What’s Melbourne Design Thinking (MelbDT) all about?
MelbDT is the newest member of the Australia Design Thinking collective, joining Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Byron.
MelbDT is convened by Melbourne locals Mickey Rummery and Rach Zhang. It’s about helping bring together a connected community and ecosystem of people from a diverse range of design and business practices, industries, contexts, and roles… to learn, share, and get exposed to what’s possible.
This is for everyone who’s keen to take a human-centred design and living systems approach to innovation and solving complex problems – to help create great outcomes for people, our planet, and business.
I’m lucky to be collaborating with Mickey and Rach to share a bit of what we’ve learnt convening Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT) over the past 10 years.
Event Sponsors
This event is brought to you by RUMR, Ro&Co Studio, Natural Velocity Innovation Centre, Askable, Scyne Advisory, and Dynamic4.
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