Rachel Flitman

Director, Design

NousGroup Background Pattern
Rachel is a strategic designer who works at the intersection of human-centred design, policy and community development across a range of sectors, including transport, aviation, emergency management and education.
She brings expertise in co-design, facilitation and communications, and thrives on helping people explore ideas, develop solutions and engage in powerful and experiential ways.

Influential work

  • Developed an award-winning shared responsibility framework and planning tool for emergency management practitioners to dynamically define who is most at risk before, during and after an emergency
  • Designed a service blueprint of the student, employee and teaching experience for a Victorian TAFE, articulating a customer-centric aspiration that underpinned a new digital strategy
  • Led the co-design of an emergency management planning inclusion framework with a Tasmanian council, disability advocacy group and people with disabilities to improve access to emergency planning processes and systems
  • Led customer-centred design for the Western Sydney International Airport reference design, contextualising insights for engineers and architects to deliver a terminal design with a strongly embedded customer narrative
  • Delivered a research-backed User Experience Framework for Melbourne Airport Rail Link, producing over 130 recommendations to optimise user experience.

Outside of Nous

Prior to joining Nous, Rachel was a Lead Experience Designer for Aurecon, where she co-established the first User Centred Design practice for an engineering firm in Australia. She began her career working as a speechwriter and media adviser to foreign diplomats in Canberra and later worked with Australian Red Cross driving national disaster preparedness strategy and resource development.

Rachel holds a Master of Community Development (emergency management) from Southern Cross University, a Bachelor of Global Arts (international relations) from Monash University, a Certificate in Public Participation from the International Association for Public Participation, and a Certificate in Workplace Training and Assessment from All Australian Training. She is a fellow of the Social Impact Hub Scaling Impact Fellowship and delivers design thinking workshops, masterclasses and coaching to community leaders.

In her spare time...

Rachel loves wandering around markets and mountains, taking her kayak out on the bay, and connecting with interesting people, recipes and books.