PRACTICE — 02
Six trainings, one practice
I don’t switch between them. I use one to solve what the others can’t.
01 - SOLVE ET COAGULA
solve et coagula
I treat solutions and problems as one relationship, not two separate things. Design research taught me to understand frameworks deeply enough to adapt them, and to recognise quickly what’s wrong, what won’t work, and what might. Then I prototype and refine until the purpose is actually met, or discovered.
I champion human flourishing and believe in a more interesting, equitable, and functional world. The willingness to imagine what hasn’t been done yet is what moves us toward new futures.
METHOD
Purpose comes last
I investigate and research mechanisms, interactions, markets, and design principals to fill my rolodex. That becomes my inventory when I find a problem, so I rotate through until I can marry it with a solution that fits.
01
Dig into the mechanism
Talk to the people inside the problem, then read the system bottom-up. At the consulate of Colombia, most of the volume turned out to be a small set of repeated questions and an inability to verify appointment identity.
02
Build it badly, quickly
Twenty hardware iterations in under eight months, 40+ components each at AxLab. The prototype answers questions an argument can’t, and even better, they raise new questions you didn't know you had.
03
Fix the bottleneck, not the design
Measuring actuation at AxLab by hand was eating each cycle, so I wrote motion-tracking software instead. Cycles got 30% faster.
When you get good at seeing the problem, and understanding its dynamic relationship with solutions, you can iteratively solve.
04
Hand it over properly
After development at the consulate of Colombia, I trained fifteen consulate staff on the infrastructure and ML operations, so the system runs without me, as well as provided comprehensive handover documents and technical data sheets.
02 - FORGing
Where it gets built
ROLES
And what came out of them
2025 – present
Founding Head of Product
Halcyon Technology
Taking a patented antimicrobial materials technology from zero to a commercial roadmap: product strategy and SKU sequencing, CAD and manufacturing-ready design, a network of international manufacturing partners, and U.S. EPA registration run as a core product function.
8+
Product concepts and SKUs shaped and sequenced
$2M+
Raised to date by the founding team
2024 – 2025
Product designer & researcher
AxLab
Owned shape-changing haptic prototypes end-to-end — concept sketch to CAD to printed, assembled hardware — and wrote the Python motion-tracking software that removed the measurement bottleneck.
20
Prototype iterations in under 8 months
30%
Faster development cycles
2024
AI technology solutions analyst
Consulate of Colombia
Ran the operational analysis, then independently architected and shipped a production WhatsApp chatbot — Python, Flask, Twilio and a custom NLP pipeline — and trained the staff to run it.
~20,000
People served per year
60%
Drop in routine inquiries handled by staff
2022 – 2024
Associate technical project manager
STAGE Lab
Directed technical production for two interactive performances — concept development with directors, projection mapping and motion-responsive visuals, then live execution.
2
Large-scale productions
~1,000
Audience per show
TOOLKIT
What’s on the bench
I pick up the tool the problem needs. I learn whatever I’m missing (and fast!)
DESIGN
Figma · Blender · ZBrush · Adobe CC (Photoshop, after effects, indesign, illustrator etc.)
HARDWARE
Rhino · Fusion 360 · AutoCAD · 3D printing · Arduino/PCB
SOFTWARE
Python · Flask · Unity3D · iOS · Twilio · C++/C# · Software Design & Scrum Methodology
Analysis
Excel, SQL, Google Analytics, Tableau, R
03 - The Glasshouse
Clear enough to use without thinking, strange enough to remember.
ABOUT
Harriet Fisher
I know how to make something out of nothing. I create with imagination, not just diligence, and I’ve taken experiences and products through pipeline development and go-to-market. I see the whole picture: ideation, design, operations, strategy, and what a thing could become before it exists.
Right now I am a founding team member of an antimicrobial biotech consumer goods startup. Before that I conducted design research at UChicago's actuated experience lab, shipped a government chatbot serving roughly 20,000 people a year, and ran technical production at a lab dedicated to translating complex scientific topics into digestible interactions.
Outside the work I make things (pottery, currently working on a custom chess board, video games). Habitually, in anything I do, I try to understand the material, then find out what it wants to be.
Design, strategy, technology, humanities. I don’t switch between them. I use one to solve what the others can’t.
Currently based in: London
Harriet Fisher
Made with love