Be the best versions of us
We started Harvey as a two-person experiment that’s grown into a purpose-driven team we’re really proud of. Our focus is simple: bring in the right people, in the right roles, who lift the work and keep the culture we care about.
When we started Harvey, it was just the two of us — Simon and I — naively saying we’d never grow a team.
Like many family businesses, we built ours on honesty, resilience, and hard work, driven by a shared motivation to use business as a force for good.
Over the years, our team has grown far beyond family, but those same values remain at the core of everything we do. The real lesson? Growth isn’t about adding more people — it’s about bringing in the right people. The ones who share your values, strengthen your culture, and make the work (and the workdays) better.
That’s how you scale without losing the heart you started with — and how you build a team that still feels like family.
Team makeup
"Something I really value about Harvey is the personal ownership of the work, the responsibility to wear many hats, and the trust placed in us to do what we think is right and best. I strive for variety, be it client types or the tools I'm using, and since my first day at Harvey I've had the opportunity to try things I've never done before. To have the opportunity and encouragement to up-skill in different tools and processes is very exciting, and will allow me to become a more well rounded designer."
— Alex Turnbull, Senior Designer
We’ve always believed in hiring people who are smarter and more talented than us. That’s how you build a kickass business. And while the past financial year brought its share of learnings — a few plans that didn’t quite unfold as expected — it also brought clarity.
In October 2024, our team gathered in Castlemaine for a strategic planning day to pause and reassess what we want — individually and as a business. We reflected on what’s working and what isn’t across our operations, the work we take on, and how well our clients align with our values. At our strategic planning day in November 2024, alongside our core leaders Sarah and Celine, we made a conscious decision about the kind of growth we want: to bring in senior designers and developers who align with our purpose and elevate our craft.
The important thing is having the right people in the right roles — and making sure everyone gets energy from their work, most of the time. If we can nail that, we’re happy.
Meet the team
Earlier this year we welcomed Si Hoye who brings vast tech experience from large corporations, agencies and start-ups, including his own. He expands our development capabilities and technical depth significantly.
Later in the year Alex Turnbull joined with experience across digital design, brand systems, and creative direction across a wide range of sectors. With a deep appreciation for tech he elevates our design and web capability
Core team as of today.
Our extended team
Special shout out to the legends who are an extension of our team. Looking at you, Abdel (developer), Gareth, Kailey, Megan & Craig (virtual assistants), and super shout out to Julia Chua (financial management, book keeping and sister).
If you’re keen to join Harvey we are only growing slowly and carefully so roles come up a couple times a year, check out our careers page for current openings or to express interest.
Building an open, understanding and empowering culture
“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
— Roy E. Disney
Our values: Succinct, Sincere & Specific
Our values are embedded in everything we do and how we operate as a team. We celebrate them through shout-outs in our regular meetings and include them in every new business proposal, so clients understand who we are from day one. We also use a Succinct, Sincere and Specific feedback approach to ensure our values show up in practice — not as fluff, but as clear, grounded behaviour we hold ourselves and each other accountable to.
Work from anywhere
We’re also co-working Mondays, working out of Hub in Southern Cross, which has been great for collaboration and meeting like-minded businesses. The benefit of in-person is so real, we all love it, but the practical trade-off of commuting is something we’re evaluating.
Investing in team growth
For many months Sarah deep dived into the content for RIAA’s website build, learned a lot about the systems and culture around responsible investment across ANZ. Alongside her personal interest in finance and impact, she was excited by the opportunity to attend the RIAA conference.
Two incredible days in Sydney, the 2026 conference was the largest responsible investment gathering in the Southern Hemisphere examining how greenwashing risks and shifting geopolitics are reshaping ESG investment strategies globally and in Australia.
Team connection and reflection
From the all-hands Monday morning to the last hour of the last day of the week - we find ways to open and wrap our weeks together.
Daily stand-ups from our good ol’ Slackbot
Individually sharing where we’re at that morning. We get a ping to remind us to share how we’re feeling/thinking/needing, how we intend to be today, our intent for the day, reflection from yesterday and priorities.
We’re always looking for ways to make work easier.
We’re regularly trialling new tools, trying to keep up with their constant updates (Hi, Figma & Webflow we love you), and figuring out what works for our clients. Below are the shifts we made in the last year.
Stopped using
- Mural - A long-time favourite, now superseded by FigJam. FigJam is polished, integrated into our existing Figma plan and fits more seamlessly into our workflow (despite a few quirks, as all tools have).
- Crazy Egg - After 15–20 years of using it (Simon) for heatmaps and later A/B testing, it’s now outpaced by Shoplift and Microsoft Clarity — both of which provide deeper functionality, better pricing and more modern analytics.
- Superflow - Still a tool we love, just not one we’ve needed recently. The nature of our projects this year didn’t call for it, but we expect it will return when we tackle another large, content-heavy site like the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) project.
New entrants
- OpenAI Codex & Claude Code: went from fringe to core tools, and every time we use them we feel mixed, and sometimes find them low-value.
- Shoplift: for super smooth AB testing in Shopify, persistent tests across pages, utilise Shopify theme customiser, and we can create audiences in GA4 that let us do thorough post-analysis.
- Microsoft Clarity: For heatmaps, session recording, and is free (for now?) - this has been a wild card, and it's got some really clunky aspects to it, but also seems really good.
Some missing from the original thread
- HubSpot: Excellent for B2B CRM, forms, and email marketing. We're just scared/wary of their ever bloating and confusing subscription plans.
- Stripe: Essential for non-eCom sites that need some simple transaction integrations.
Monthly Impact Updates
We provide a transparent overview of how we’re tracking financially, review our clients and pipeline of new clients coming in, highlight a client project and share and celebrate each person’s ‘greatest hits’ for the month.
We review our strategic goals and projects, and reflect on what we should start, stop and continue doing. We also nominate two pieces of client work the team were particularly proud of, and share them in detail - these often go on to become our Case Studies.
Individual’s greatest hits
Monthly reporting on targets & progress
Investing in inner capability as leaders
This year, we invested in leadership coaching with the Global Leadership Foundation to strengthen our inner capability and raise emotional health across the team. Through this work, we deepened our understanding of how our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours influence those around us — and the personal responsibility we each have to respond with awareness and intent. The framework of “above or below the line” thinking has become a shared language within our team, helping us pause, reflect, and choose how we show up in any situation.
It’s been a powerful reminder that leadership isn’t just about what we do, but how we are — and that by understanding ourselves better, we can lead and collaborate with greater clarity, empathy, and purpose.
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