Cameron Tan
Senior product and content designer
I came up through copywriting, talked my way into behavioural science, then switched to content design at Atlassian. Currently Head of Design at a climate tech startup.
I design products that change behaviour for the better.
Kind words
Ivy Lu
Head of Product • UPowr
I worked with Cam at UPowr. I led product, he led design.
Cam’s strength is in the fuzzy zero-to-one phase of work. Give him a vague problem and he’ll bring clarity through research, user flows, wireframes, and documentation. I’d routinely throw him in the deep end of something messy, and he’d bring it to life, and turn it into something the team could get behind and run with.
The other thing I’d call out is how he handles disagreement. We didn’t always see eye to eye on craft or roadmap, but I knew we could have a proper debate, and that the work would be better for it. The rest of the team felt the same way, and I could see that they had a lot of respect for him, which isn’t always easy as a manager.
After four years of working alongside Cam, I’d happily sign up for four more.
Warren Thompson
Experience Design Manager • Atlassian
Cam is able to take ambiguous projects and requirements, distil them down into actionable items, and then methodically work through them. Cam always has the customer front and centre in his work, and makes sure that his solutions solve for real problems and needs.
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Cameron Vaea
Head of Product & Design • Properti
During our time together we worked on some of the most challenging and complex platform, regulatory and compliance problems of our careers. Those problems made a lot less fuzzy by Cam's ability to synthesise information and explain it to me in a way I could understand.
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About me
I got my start as a copywriter at a digital agency in Sydney. After working my way up to senior, I transferred to the new Singapore office as the creative director's first hire. The clients were impressive, and the budgets were huge, but it felt empty.
While there, to sharpen up, I read a book on science-based behaviour change. It introduced me to the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), a social-purpose consultancy that uses behavioural science to improve people's lives.
At that time, I knew I didn't want my next role to be in advertising. So when I returned to Sydney and saw a job ad for BIT, I applied. I was their sixth hire, and here I helped unemployed Australians find jobs faster, helped the Rural Fire Service reduce escaped farm fires, and ran trials on energy bill letters that later shaped national guidelines.
BIT was full of incredible psychologists and economists. I majored in psych, but I wasn't an academic. What I had, though, was the ability to take research and turn it into something people would actually use. That became my specialty.
After BIT, I joined Atlassian as a content designer. My idea was to learn how software gets built and combine it with what I'd learned at BIT. I worked first on Bitbucket, where I wrote in-product copy and public docs, and produced walkthrough videos that I scripted, recorded, and edited myself. I then moved to admin tools, focusing on HIPAA compliance and data residency. I was about to switch to a management track, then UPowr came along.
UPowr was the sweet spot, software for the clean energy industry. I joined as the first design hire and spent four years as Head of Design, building the function from scratch and shipping work across product, content, and brand.
I'm now looking for a Senior IC role. After four years as a manager, I want to spend the next phase on craft. I'd also like to see how other design leaders run their teams. I know how hard it can be, and I want to learn from people who do it well.
I'm most interested in roles where the work has a clear pro-social angle, usually climate, government, or public health, but open to anywhere the product is genuinely making things better.
Outside work, I'm a keen bike rider and I'd love to help you plan a safe route to your workplace. I also make artworks for my kids with hidden messages for them to one day find. I'm in Sydney and open to any setup, including coming into an office whenever it helps the team.
