About Monica
Hi, I'm Monica — Service Designer, Design Thinking Practitioner, and Academic Tutor at the University of Sydney. If you're studying design at university and finding the concepts hard to grasp, you're not alone. Design thinking, service design, and human-centred design use a specialised vocabulary that can be difficult to understand — especially if English is not your first language. I'm here to help.
I have over 15 years of professional experience in service design, customer experience, and innovation, working for major organisations including Vodafone, News Corp, and Westpac. I am also a graduate of the University of Sydney's Master of Design (Innovation) program, where I received the Dean's List Award for Academic Excellence, and I now teach as an Academic Tutor in the Design School and Business School.
I know the course content, assessment expectations, and teaching methods at Australian universities. I also know first-hand what it's like to be a recent Masters student — I can help you navigate group-work dynamics and work effectively with your teammates, tutors, and lecturers.
Subject Expertise
What I can help you with
I specialise in undergraduate and postgraduate design subjects, including:
Design Thinking
The methods and mindsets of the design process.
Human-Centred Design
User research, synthesis, insight generation, and co-design.
Service Design
Journey mapping, service blueprinting, and process optimisation.
Systems Thinking
Understanding complexity, interdependencies, and designing for whole systems.
Customer Experience
Connecting customer needs to business and operational strategy.
Innovation
Opportunity identification, concept development, and value proposition.
How I teach
I explain things clearly and in plain English, starting from where you are. I bring real industry examples into every session — when I explain a service blueprint, I'll show you ones I've built for large organisations. This makes abstract concepts concrete and easier to apply.
Sessions are tailored to what you need: working through a concept, preparing for an assessment, or building understanding across a semester. I align to your unit's learning outcomes so we stay on track at all times.
A Note on Integrity
My goal is to help you genuinely understand the material. I won't write your work for you, but I will help you develop the thinking and skills to do it yourself. Students who understand the concepts perform better across their whole degree, not just in one submission.
