Strategic design consultancy

Better decisions create better experiences.

Northgrain helps organisations decide what to build, how it should work and how the whole experience should come together. We bring clarity, alignment and momentum to products, services, systems and experiences shaped by AI.

From the first idea to real world use, we help teams create experiences people understand, trust and choose to return to.

[Services]

Where Northgrain
helps teams move forward.

From unclear ideas to fragmented experiences, Northgrain brings direction to the decisions that shape what gets built.

Design Direction and Alignment

Clarify what you are trying to create, why it matters, and what teams need to agree on before moving forward.

Design Direction and Alignment

Clarify what you are trying to create, why it matters, and what teams need to agree on before moving forward.

Strategy and Service Design

Look beyond individual screens to understand the full experience before, during and after people interact with it

Strategy and Service Design

Look beyond individual screens to understand the full experience before, during and after people interact with it

AI Opportunity Design

Identify where AI can genuinely help, what it should simplify, and how the experience can earn people’s trust.

AI Opportunity Design

A clearer view of what is not working, where friction exists, and what to improve next.

Standards and Systems

Create shared principles, patterns and tools that help teams make more consistent decisions without slowing them down.

Standards and Systems

Create shared principles, patterns and tools that help teams make more consistent decisions without slowing them down.

Need clearer direction?

Start a conversation

Need clearer direction?

Start a conversation

[Featured Offer]

Experience Alignment Diagnostic.

Built for clarity

A focused review for organisations where a product, service, system or AI initiative feels fragmented, unclear or harder to use than it should.

Northgrain looks across the whole experience to show what is not working, why it matters and where to focus first.

Typical timeline

4 weeks

What you leave with

A clear view of the current experience, the most important gaps and opportunities, and a practical plan for what comes next.

What’s included:


  • Stakeholder conversations

  • Experience and service review

  • Journey or system mapping

  • Friction and alignment analysis

  • Prioritised recommendations

  • Final roadmap and playback

The outcome

Clarity, alignment and confidence in where to focus next.

  • Current experience

  • Friction gaps

  • Alignment

  • Priorities

  • Recommendations

  • Next steps

[Approach]

See the whole.
Find the direction.
Help teams move.

Northgrain brings structure to complex problems without making the process more complicated than it needs to be.

01

Understand

Get clear on the challenge, the people affected, and what success looks like.

01

Understand

Get clear on the challenge, the people affected, and what success looks like.

02

Connect

See how products, services, systems, teams, and decisions fit together.

02

Connect

See how products, services, systems, teams, and decisions fit together.

03

Shape

Set a clear direction, shared principles, and choices that guide what gets built.

03

Shape

Set a clear direction, shared principles, and choices that guide what gets built.

04

Move

Set practical priorities and help teams move forward with confidence.

04

Move

Set practical priorities and help teams move forward with confidence.

[About]

Why Northgrain.

Technology helps teams move faster. But speed without direction can create more features, more noise and more fragmented experiences.

Northgrain brings a clear point of view to the whole experience. We connect business goals, human needs, design decisions and delivery so what gets built feels coherent, useful and worth trusting.

Technology helps teams move faster. But speed without direction can create more features, more noise and more fragmented experiences.

Northgrain brings a clear point of view to the whole experience. We connect business goals, human needs, design decisions and delivery so what gets built feels coherent, useful and worth trusting.

Northgrain combines strategic design thinking with hands-on experience in onboarding, enablement, internal systems, and transformation.

The goal is not to decorate problems. It is to bring clarity to them, structure a way forward, and design experiences people can actually use.

Someone has to hold the experience together.

Phillip Penaluna

Strategic experience design leader with experience shaping products, services, systems, standards and transformation inside complex organisations.

Phillip Penaluna

Strategic experience design leader with experience shaping products, services, systems, standards and transformation inside complex organisations.

Founder led. Built to grow thoughtfully.

Northgrain is led by Phillip and can bring in trusted specialists when a project needs additional research, design, technology or creative expertise.

Founder led. Built to grow thoughtfully.

Northgrain is led by Phillip and can bring in trusted specialists when a project needs additional research, design, technology or creative expertise.

Founder led. Built to grow thoughtfully.

Northgrain is led by Phillip Penaluna and can draw on trusted specialist collaborators when projects call for it.

Let’s bring clarity to
what comes next.

Start a conversation

Start a conversation

NORTHGRAIN

© 2026 Northgrain. All rights reserved.

Email

phillip@northgrainstudio.co.uk

Let’s bring clarity to
what comes next.

Start a conversation

Start a conversation

NORTHGRAIN

© 2026 Northgrain. All rights reserved.

Email

phillip@northgrainstudio.co.uk