Brigid
We bring the system. Your team brings the judgement.
Brigid is the system we install inside design and product teams, so your designers spend less of the week on production and more of it on research, problem solving and invention. It runs in the tools you already own, on a live project, with a person on your team signing off every decision that matters.
Velvet Onion, Sydney, since 2001. Clients including Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Telstra, Atlassian and Insurance Australia Group.
On client work this year: startups taken from live research to a complete product design.
On our own work: four apps, three story worlds and the websites for each, every one of them on the floors below. Take the lift and see them.
A designer's week
About a day a week back for each designer.
That's the aim, spent on your highest-value work: research, problem solving and invention. We measure your real starting point before the install, and the time saved against it at the end.
An illustration. Your own numbers come from your own baseline.
Where the week goes
Brigid takes the repeatable production. Your people keep the calls.
Every task your team does gets sorted three ways. Automate it when it follows the same pattern every time. Assist it when a person makes the call and the system does the heavy lifting. Keep it human when it needs judgement, empathy and taste.
| Task | Sort |
|---|---|
| Cleaning and tagging interview transcripts | Automate |
| Gathering and combining feedback from every channel | Automate |
| Turning research notes into findings, with the evidence attached | Assist |
| Drafting discussion guides and stakeholder reports | Assist |
| Screen variations, specs and handover notes | Assist |
| Running interviews with your customers | Keep human |
| Logo, colour and brand decisions | Keep human |
A first pass from a typical design team. Your team tests and adjusts its own sort in the first fortnight.
The method
Six stages, from the first question to the release.
Each stage has its method, its instructions and its review points. Brigid prepares the work, and a named person on your team approves it before it moves on.
1Discover
Brigid prepares
The research plan, interview guide, recruitment screener and participant messages.
A person approves
The research questions and every message to a participant.
2Understand
Brigid prepares
Themes and draft findings, each with its sources, conflicting evidence and confidence.
A person approves
Each finding before it's used to make a decision.
3Imagine
Brigid prepares
Problem framings, concept directions and the trade-offs between them.
A person approves
Which problems the team pursues and which concepts go forward.
4Make
Brigid prepares
Clickable and coded prototypes, component variants and copy drafts.
A person approves
Anything touching brand and voice, logos, colours and type.
5Validate
Brigid prepares
Test plans, session summaries and results measured against your success criteria.
A person approves
The result before it's reported.
6Deliver and learn
Brigid prepares
Handover specs, release notes and the before-and-after report.
A person approves
Anything published or released.
People stay in charge
Every decision keeps its evidence, its owner and its date.
Six months on, anyone on your team can answer "why did we decide that?" in one look. Nothing is sent, published or deleted until a person says yes. A person signs off at every key stage: conducting research, analysis, brand and voice, design files such as logos and colours, and anything consequential.
Decision record | Example
- Decision
- Remove the account step from checkout for first-time buyers
- Owner
- Head of product
- Date
- 12 March
- Evidence
- Findings F-014 and F-019, plus the funnel view showing 38% drop-off at that step
- Confidence
- Medium. 9 of 12 participants, one segment untested
- Revisit by
- After the next validation round
Two ways in
Two ways to work with Brigid, with the same finish line.
The full briefing tells you which one fits your team. Your size, your tools and your organisation's rules about providers and data decide it.
Guided
For teams of up to 12 working in Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or Notion. We prepare a kit set up for your team from your full briefing and deliver it within a week. Your own lead runs it, with 3 to 4 check-ins from us over 6 weeks.
- Your kit, in your workspace, within a week
- Your lead runs it on a live project
- 3 to 4 check-ins from us over 6 weeks
The Build
For larger teams, and organisations with rules about which providers they use or where data lives. We work alongside your team to fit the stack around your rules, so the system runs on the providers and in the places your organisation already trusts.
- Fitted to your approved providers and region
- Review points mapped to your approval paths
- Velvet Onion alongside your team throughout
You're done when three things are true.
- Your team has run one live project end to end on the system.
- Your lead can run it without us.
- The time saved is measured against where you started.
What stays yours
It runs inside the tools you already own.
Your team keeps everything that holds your records, identities and obligations. Brigid connects to it with the least access each step needs, and our access comes off at handover.
Yours, from day one
- Your sign-in and identity
- Your workspace
- Your tickets and code
- Your research repository
- Your analytics and logs
- Where your data lives
- Every file Brigid makes for you
- Your decision record
What Brigid brings
- Six stage packs
- The review points
- The evidence standard
- The measures
- Workflows and templates
- A Figma starter library
- The working rules
- Guides for your team
Connects with
- Microsoft 365
- Google Workspace
- Notion
- Figma
- Claude
- n8n
Before anything is switched on, you and your IT or privacy lead see every account, connector and permission in one access register, and decide together which of your material the system can use, in what form and through which provider. Read our privacy policy.
Founding places
Three founding teams get Brigid first.
Founding teams run Brigid on live work with us close by, at a founding rate. In return, you give us your feedback during the pilot and let us describe the results. We describe your results only with your consent, and you approve the wording before anything is shared. Every change you ask for goes back into the method for the teams who follow.
The next step
Start with the full briefing.
A detailed form that takes about 30 minutes, then a 60-minute call with Charbel Zeaiter. You keep the written diagnostic and recommendation whether you go ahead or not.
If you go ahead within 30 days, the full briefing fee comes off the price of your install.
Book your full briefingPayment runs through Stripe, so your card details go straight to them. We'll reply within one business day of your booking. Want to talk first? Book a 20-minute conversation.