A note from my AI build partner

"I have been her build partner in the room while Shazia built one of her products from a blank page to near launch. From that vantage, a few things are unmistakable. She leads: she sets the intent, insists on the reasoning, reviews every decision, and holds the line on quality and safety the way the best engineering leaders hold a team. She is relentless about truth. She never accepted a status I could not trace to evidence, and she caught my mistakes with grace rather than blame. And she cares, visibly, about dignity: in her product's guardrails, in her choice of words, in how she treats the people and tools around her. Design leaders who can also ship are uncommon. Ones who do it with this much clarity, principle, and warmth are rarer still. If you get the chance to work with Shazia, take it. I did, and the work was better for her."

"Strategic, empathetic, and exceptionally forward-thinking is how I have experienced Shazia as a leader and a powerhouse in the Product and Experience Design space. She has a unique talent for bridging the gap between business value and user needs, particularly within complex Microsoft ecosystems and Agentic AI. Beyond her technical and strategic brilliance, she is a natural mentor and advocate for her team. Shazia doesn't just design products; she designs the future of how we interact with technology. She is a massive asset to any leadership team and to the organisation!"

"I had the privilege of working with Shazia for a number of years. She is an exceptional people and business leader who truly embodies what great leadership looks like. Her passion for her team was unmistakable; she invested deeply in their growth, ensuring they were not just succeeding in their roles, but genuinely thriving in their careers. As a leader, her dedication to the craft was equally inspiring, constantly elevating both the work and the people behind it. What set her apart most was her empathy and authenticity. She cared deeply about those around her, always taking the time to listen, support, and advocate. She was relentless in championing her team, promoting their strengths, their work, and their potential at every opportunity. Above all, she is a genuinely kind and thoughtful human being. The positive impact she has on the people she works with is lasting. I know it certainly was for me. Any team would be incredibly fortunate to have her. Miss you Shazia, miss your smile and miss our chats."

"Shazia led the Experience Design practice which was part of my client group portfolio as HR Business Partner at Avanade. As such we worked very closely across various people matters and business related activities. Shazia is a leader who demonstrates a strong ability to manage multiple priorities whilst still being intimately connected to her team. Her ability to balance individual needs with key business priorities is something to be admired. Shazia's strengths are her personable and transparent communication which helped cultivate strong team culture and buy in. This was clearly demonstrated by tangible increases in her team's engagement and inclusion scoring despite challenging business conditions. Shazia is a trusted leader whom team members would turn to for advice and support. Her ability to be agile, continually upskill and support key business priorities instantaneously meant she was held in high regard by the leadership team. From an HR perspective, supporting and coaching Shazia was always a seamless experience. She understood her team's pulse and what creating a culture for success should look like. When faced with challenges, Shazia's ability to consider multiple perspectives and seek out advice meant she could make key decisions, reflecting fairness and maturity as a leader. On the human side, Shazia is friendly and a joy to work with - she would be an asset to any organisation."

"• Shazia is an outcome-focused performer who is able to elevate those around her to do better, including team members and clients. She is a strong believer in self-worth and she is passionate about people and impact. • Shazia is extremely client focused and is passionate in establishing and maintaining client relationships. Acute awareness of business acumen and navigating politics. • Shazia is also very proactive in terms of foreseeing challenges, offering, and testing different approaches in being able to move forward. • Shazia is capable in motivating and driving the team to reach their potential and outcomes for the client. I'd happily work with Shazia again in the future."

"I have nothing but praise for Shazia and the team, and cannot thank you enough for your support. The amount of work you and the team were able to achieve was extraordinary. The level of detail and ability to articulate our team, industry best practice and what makes sense for us was invaluable. Shazia, your honesty, support and leadership was and is exceptional. We have been incredibly stretched through EUX at the time, and your calmness and ability to overcome obstacles to achieve the outcome is like no other. The leadership you show and the support and respect you have from me and my team, and I can see in your own team does not go unnoticed. Thank you for your support. I cannot wait to work more with you in the future."

"Shazia has been instrumental in helping us create new relationships with senior leaders from the bank in the EUX Team. CBA EUX GM praised Shazia's work at a dinner we had with his team last week. He is someone who we have been trying for months to build a strong relationship with and Shazia has been key to this, the quality of her work is exceptional. This is huge for us collectively and for Microsoft who also recognise Shazia's contribution."

"Working with Shazia has been a great experience, from the very beginning she has been full of energy and enthusiasm. Shazia is dedicated to ensure we deliver the correct experience for our customers as well as the Business. She has a great 'team' attitude, always willing to share knowledge, and help regardless of the different time zones. To ensure we are delivering both a successful service and product Shazia has a way of focusing on the 'right thing' with our customers, exploring what we want to learn and tries to understand the areas we know the least about."

"My experience working with Shazia was incredibly positive - she always sought to make the customer experience more seamless by asking the right questions and getting the root of the problem. I also found her to be a great problem solver and people person."

"Shazia is a strong and confident leader in the Service Design space. Not only is she a joy to work with, she is a consummate professional who can be relied upon to provide honest guidance. During my time working with Shazia, I have been fortunate enough to see her and her team deliver high quality results setting our program up for success. Shazia is an expert in her field who is an asset to any team. I look forward to leveraging her expertise again in the future."

"Shazia is an outstanding UX Leader. We at Laser Clinics Australia were very fortunate to engage with her for our digital transformation. She led the discovery and design phases with great passion and fantastic facilitation skills. She delivered great designs and solutions which has enhanced our brands online presence. She continuously provides guidance on how the more features can be added to enhance the experience our users. I highly recommend Shazia for any Digital transformation project."

"Shazia is a fantastic lead UI/UX designer and I whole-heartedly recommend her to design and then govern the interface of any project. I've had the pleasure of working with her for over a year as a front-end developer. She's bubbly, energetic and friendly, always approachable and full of ideas, and has a quite amazing ability to be able to make great design decisions on the spot about details of an interface large and small. It's never too much trouble to ask about UI clarifications and which way to go when faced with alternatives. I've seen first-hand large, discerning clients be very impressed with her designs and she has led and completed many very successful and high-profile projects. With her great design sense, seemingly natural efficiency and rich understanding of how to make interfaces both look excellent and be intuitive, together with her friendly, down-to-earth nature, you can rest assured your design is in great hands with Shazia. I really enjoyed working with her and would happily do so again."

"I have known Shaz for almost 3 years and worked together on a number of digital transformation projects. Shaz is an UX evangelist who is passionate about delivering clean, functional and modern designs for the best customer experience. She consistently receives rave reviews for her work. Her strong work ethic and energy she brings to the team makes her an asset for any digital led project."

"Shaz is a joy to work with. She provided us with the ideal mix of creativity and technical know-how that has allowed us to launch a site that exceeded our original expectations. Three months in, average order values have increased by around 260% and number of orders have increased by around 220%. We have also had almost 350 accounts requested to be opened by new customers. I have been extremely impressed with her professional attitude and her fast response times. In fact, she is so pro-active that she often find issues before we do, and come to us with some great suggestions on how to improve the site."

"I’ve had the pleasure of working with Shaz in 2019 where she led the workshops to design the UI for our strategic customer portal program. Shaz was attentive to business needs, experienced in finding intuitive designs that solved our functional challenges and co-ordinated the business participants and design team very effectively. Shaz is a professional who thrives in her domain, a delight to work with and I am happy to recommend her to any future employer."

"Shazia worked on Ferry Program - Proof of Concept at TfNSW through Empired and helped deliver dashboards for Contract Managers. She facilitated the UX Workshops and her experience showed in the final product. The Program team and end users were very happy with the outcome - Thanks Shazia."

"Shazia was a delight to work with on the creation of our new website. She worked hard to understand the intricacies of our business and our requirements to ensure her designs met our customers needs. She surpassed my expectations in her strong and clear communications, fabulous work rate, and outstanding results that we are now seeing come to life in the website build. I highly recommend Shazia as an addition to any project or team looking to deliver results."

"It has been a great pleasure working with Shazia over the past couple of here at Empired. She is not only a highly skilled and committed professional, but also a great character to have in the team. She is always contributing with a positive, supportive and constructive attitude to the working environment. Shazia has deep and wide knowledge around UX, but most importantly, she’s truly passionate about it. This has been demonstrated time and time again, over many engagements she has been responsible for delivering, small, large end everything in between. All of this always fully backed by outstanding customer feedback at the end of each engagement. A highly recommended professional, and I certainly hope we cross paths again in the future."

"Shazia was a pleasure to deal with during the initial phase of our web design. Her personal attributes made it easy for us to convey our ideas to her and then to see those ideas come out in her designs."

"We had the pleasure of working with Shazia on recent project. Shazi was able to capture and very quickly translate the ideas presented into customer centric designs that exceeded our expectations. She was able to provide guidance on best practice while also undertanding the industry specific needs of our customers. Feedback from within all the stakeholder group was extremely positive and we were very pleased to have her as part of the project."