Résumé

Ella Britten-Jones

Customer Understanding | Editorial Taste | AI-Native Systems

Reads people from two seats at once: first as the customer trying to achieve something, then as the builder responsible for making it possible. Nearly four years at MECCA taught her to build trust before recommending a solution—the customer's seat. Founding VESSEL required her to turn repeated customer frustration into positioning, product architecture and a manufactured prototype—the builder's seat. Across both, the method is the same: understand behaviour first, then build the solution around it. AI increases speed; judgement decides direction.

Experience
Mar 2026 — present
Premium travel skincare system — insight, positioning, launch and brand voice, 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.
  • Market intelligence: directed and synthesised AI-assisted research into Australian market sizing, category CAGR data and a competitive deep-dive, then used the findings to revise launch-timing assumptions rather than defend them.
  • AI-powered production system: designed and operated a structured workflow across ChatGPT, Claude and Lovable to run research, competitive analysis, specification documentation and content iteration across 70+ documented iterations — infrastructure for the work, not one-off prompting.
  • 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
Unscripted customer intelligence, translated into trust and premium conversion

Store Host → All-Rounder

MECCA, Double Bay
  • Customer read: conducted thousands of unscripted customer conversations, identifying recurring patterns in how people adapted their routines when products fell short and translating those observations into trusted recommendations.
  • Commercial outcome: achieved the store's highest recorded individual client sale (>$10,000) through consultative, needs-based selling, not persuasion.
  • Recognition and enablement: relationship-led approach recognised internally by MECCA founder Jo Horgan; selected for founder-led entrepreneurial workshops and 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
  • Content & copy: wrote and produced social content and copy across email, web and social channels, working from the brand's existing voice and offer positioning.
  • Community & cadence: monitored social engagement to keep the brand's presence active, and planned a recurring content calendar to guide what to produce next.
Additional product systems (prototype-stage)
  • Relay and OFFLINE working prototype-stage products built in Lovable using AI-assisted workflows, applying the same behavioural-diagnosis method to consumer AI and marketplace design; 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
Editorial judgement & brand voicePositioning and competitive narrativeAI-native workflow design (ChatGPT, Claude, Lovable)Product launch & go-to-marketQualitative customer insightTechnical specification & documentationAudience research and testingBehavioural insight → product strategy