Résumé

Ella Britten-Jones

Finding the story | Earning trust | Making across formats

I find stories in what people actually do. Nearly four years at MECCA taught me to listen without a script, earn trust before offering an answer and recognise patterns across thousands of conversations. Building VESSEL took one of those patterns through research, positioning, writing, product design and a first physical sample. I bring the same curiosity and editorial judgement to film, software and web work: understand what is true, then choose the format that makes it useful.

Experience
Mar 2026 — present
Travel skincare system — insight, positioning, brand voice and product development, built independently

Founder & Product Lead

VESSEL
  • Customer insight to product: identified an unresolved problem through frontline relationships at MECCA—customers were repurchasing, decanting or compromising products they already owned because existing travel systems preserved volume but not application method, labelling or routine; translated that pattern into VESSEL's five-format architecture.
  • Evidence before action: diagnosed a structural flaw in the first physical sample by measuring it against the locked specification before writing a correction, tracing the fault to the testing process rather than assuming manufacturer error — then rebuilt the methodology around physical validation.
  • Positioning & competitive narrative: ran a 10-competitor strategic audit that informed the AUD $149 price point, reframed VESSEL's category language and treated competitor scale as validation of the underlying customer behaviour rather than a reason to imitate the product.
  • Research and production: directed market research, competitive analysis, specification documentation and content iteration across 78 documented specification versions, using AI tools to accelerate the work while checking the decisions against source evidence.
  • Brand voice & copy: defined VESSEL's positioning, messaging architecture and editorial standards across every customer touchpoint, ensuring the same strategic narrative remained consistent from research through launch planning; wrote the origin story developed for VESSEL's press and gifting-guide copy.
  • Audience research: tested pre-launch product and content assumptions through direct conversations and Instagram polling, then revised messaging in response to recurring objections and language patterns.
Oct 2022 — present
Thousands of unscripted conversations, translated into trust, training and customer care

Store Host → All-Rounder

MECCA, Double Bay
  • Trust and community: conducted thousands of unscripted customer conversations, learning how to read what different people needed, build trust without a script and turn recurring patterns into useful recommendations.
  • Commercial outcome: achieved the store's highest recorded individual client sale (>$10,000) through consultative, needs-based selling, not persuasion.
  • Team contribution: relationship-led approach recognised internally by MECCA founder Jo Horgan; trusted to train new team members in product knowledge and consultation technique.
Feb 2025 — Feb 2026
Project-basis marketing support for a careers-coaching business, alongside full-time work at MECCA

Marketing & Content Support

Peak Performance Careers
  • Owned-channel content: wrote and produced the brand's social content and copy across email, web and social, working inside an existing voice and offer positioning rather than reinventing it — one person taking a message from idea to published post.
  • Audience and cadence: monitored engagement to read what the audience responded to, and planned a recurring content calendar so the brand's presence stayed active and had a reason to publish each week.
Additional product systems (prototype-stage)
  • Relay and OFFLINE working prototypes built from two behavioural questions and taken through product logic, interaction design and clickable screens; exploratory projects, not active ventures.
Leadership & public speaking
  • Vice Head of Dalton, Year 12: led a 100-student mentorship program and delivered regular public speaking at assemblies and to parent audiences.
  • Volunteer, Cancer Council: ongoing involvement including public speaking and mentoring.
Education
University of Sydney

Bachelor of Laws and Commerce — Dalyell Scholars Program invitee; deferred 2026.

Regent's University London

Bachelor of Global Business Management — average mark 90/100 (2019–2020).

Skills & tools
Story-finding from real behaviourWriting & editorial judgementBrand voicePositioning and competitive narrativeProducing across formats — film, web, softwareDesign fluency & art directionQualitative customer insightAudience research and testingCommunity and trust-building, in personAI-assisted research & productionTechnical specification & documentation