01NEWSROOMS
→Pressure taught me clarity.
At RIA Novosti and the Daily Mirror, deadlines were real and audiences were huge. I learned that clarity, standards and delivery have to survive the same moment.
Digital leader · SEO strategist · hands-on builder
I build thingspeople can find,use & remember.
Alex PlayerLondon / 51.5072° N
A design, search and technology partner for ambitious teams.
15+ years turning fuzzy ambition into useful digital experiences.Press + hold · every millisecond changes the blast
The short version / how Alex got here
From newsrooms to intelligent systems.
This portfolio makes more sense with the thread visible: every chapter added a discipline, but none replaced the one before it.
02DIGITAL PRODUCTS
→Publishing became product thinking.
I moved from shipping stories to shaping journeys, platforms and the systems behind them—joining editorial instinct to UX, analytics, development and search.
03BUILDER + FOUNDER
→Then I built the whole thing.
I designed, coded and launched the work myself: agency sites, global platforms and NexDirectory, a WordPress product I ultimately sold.
04LEADERSHIP + AI
●Now I connect teams and systems.
Today I lead digital work and SJH Studios while developing governed AI systems. The automation can research and prepare; judgement, consent and accountability stay human.
WHAT CONNECTS IT
I am not a strategist who disappears before delivery, or a builder who ignores the story. I connect the brief, the audience, the interface, the search opportunity and the system that keeps improving after launch.
Selected work / 01—06
Work that moved the needle.
WORLD ENGINEERING DAYIN COOPERATION WITH UNESCO + WFEO
04 / MARCHFlagship global platform / created end to end
World Engineering Day online.
MY ROLECreated the complete digital presence—from the experience and visual system to the platform, content structure, search and continuous delivery.
01THE MANDATE
One unmistakable global home.
World Engineering Day—in cooperation with UNESCO and WFEO—needed more than a campaign page. I created the complete online presence: identity, experience, content system, search foundations and a useful place for a global audience to act.
4 MARcelebrated worldwide
Explore the live platform ↗More screens / fewer claims
A few more websites in the wild.
Real screens from agency, trades, beauty and home-improvement work—designed to be useful first, distinctive second and measurable throughout.
01We Are HypeAgency website / design + development↗
02A Jones ContractorsService ecosystem / local search + build↗
03Newin StudiosBeauty brand / booking journey + build↗
04Express Windows GroupMulti-device website / design + delivery↗
Earlier chapters / proper headlines
Newsroom speed taught me to ship.
Two career moments that explain the operating style: make complex stories clear, build for a huge audience and deliver when “later” is not an option.
RIA NOVOSTI / GLOBAL VIDEO
Making global news clear—at newsroom speed.
As Head of English Video Content and a news reader, I led the English-language video operation for the Russian state news agency. The job joined editorial judgment, production systems and live delivery.
- 01 / RECEIVEA complex global story arrives.
- 02 / SHAPEThe English-language angle must be clear and accurate.
- 03 / AIRThe team publishes while the story is still moving.
DAILY MIRROR / PRODUCT LAUNCHLAUNCHED
THE iPAD APP
THE iPAD APP
As Digital App Editor and Senior Content Manager, helped turn a high-volume national newsroom into a touch-first Daily Mirror product—launching the iPad application and shaping its app, web and audience-facing publishing.
Playable interlude / the reality of delivery
Cross the messy middle.
Newsrooms taught me that delivery is never a straight road. The frog is the useful idea; cars are deadlines, the river is handover risk, and the logs are dependable systems. Get the idea from brief to outcome.
SCORE 0000LIVES ◆ ◆ ◆CROSSED 0
BRIEFGET THE IDEA SAFELY TO THE OTHER SIDEOUTCOME
Swipe or tap the board · use the big buttons · keyboard: arrows / WASD
Founder-built product / WordPress + Chrome
I built and sold NexDirectory.
Not a concept deck: a working product, a public launch, a commercial offer and a companion browser extension.
A complete WordPress directory engine.
NexDirectory connects discovery, maps, calendars, submissions, moderation and monetisation in one self-hosted system. The same engine can power events, local businesses, job boards and marketplaces.
- Unlimited basic listings in the free core
- Front-end contribution and moderation workflows
- WordPress-native data, REST access and extensibility
FROM IDEA TO PRODUCT / 01
Identify
Saw directory and event teams stitching together search, submissions, maps and payments across unrelated plugins.
Two AI-agent stories / problem → action → outcome
Two agents. Two useful jobs.
No chatbot theatre. Follow each story from the messy human problem, through the work the agent performs, to the point where Alex takes control.
01
Case study 01 / Job-search automation
A truthful job-application engine.
Alex starts with hundreds of scattered vacancies. The agent finds the live, relevant ones, builds an evidence-backed application—and stops before the final decision.
BEFORE
→Hours lost across job boards, duplicate listings, expired roles and repetitive tailoring.
THE AGENT
→Searches live sources, reopens vacancies, extracts the facts, scores fit and prepares a tailored application pack.
THE HUMAN
→Alex reviews the fit, owns identity and consent, handles CAPTCHAs and makes the final submission decision.
AFTER
A ranked shortlist and honest application pack, ready for Alex to review and submit.
104 roles shortlisted in this recorded run
A role-specific CV, ready for human review
CASE-STUDY COMPANIONThis robot can search, compare and prepare. It cannot pretend to be Alex.
WATCH THE STORY UNFOLD
Read left to right, or select any scene.
SCENE 01 / AGENT
Discover
Search employer sites, recruiters and the wider web for fresh roles that match location, seniority and working-pattern constraints.
WHAT CHANGESFresh opportunity queueCoverage without hours of repetitive browsing.
02
Case study 02 / Commercial automation
An evidence-led business engine.
The agent looks for companies with a provable digital problem, scopes the smallest useful fix and prepares one specific proposal. A person controls every promise, payment and send.
BEFORE
→Generic lead lists, cold outreach and activity metrics with no connection to useful work.
THE AGENT
→Finds demand signals, researches the company, checks commercial history, scopes a useful intervention and drafts a specific proposal.
THE HUMAN
→A person approves external messages, financial commitments, publishing, payment status and final client delivery.
AFTER
One evidenced opportunity, a sensible fixed scope and a proposal worth reviewing.
From a verified local request to an approved reply
VISIBLE NEED→PROOF→SMALLEST FIX→HUMAN SENDNO MASS OUTREACH
CASE-STUDY COMPANIONThis robot can research and draft. It cannot make a promise, spend money or press send.
WATCH THE STORY UNFOLD
Read left to right, or select any scene.
SCENE 01 / AGENT
Observe
Inspect public demand, replies, broken customer journeys, unfinished sites and other high-intent signals.
WHAT CHANGESProblem signal queueStart with a visible need rather than a generic prospect list.
Playable biography / four chapters
Chase the chapters. Meet the person.
Collect the four large story pellets. Each one unlocks a real turning point—and explains how a newsroom editor became a hands-on digital leader and AI-system builder.
Why Alex's range matters / one brief, no handoff
One brief. Four modes. No lost intent.
Most projects pass between specialists and lose a little intent at every handoff. I work like a one-person relay: changing mode, but carrying the same problem all the way from evidence to a shipped result.
01 / DEMANDINSPECTING MODE
What do people need—and how will they find it?
I start with audience behaviour, search demand and the commercial goal. That keeps the project attached to a real problem instead of an internal assumption.
INPUTAMBIGUOUS BRIEF→OUTPUTUSEFUL RESULT
Strategy and code, kept together.
How I workFor 15+ years I've worked across search, web development, content, analytics and audience journeys. That range is useful because the interesting problems rarely stay in one department.
I lead digital development for a creative media group, serve as Managing Director of SJH Studios, co-founded an AI learning platform—and still enjoy solving the fiddly problem myself.
CASEFA
18174982018
18174982018
FUN FACT / THE INTERVIEW THAT REACHED LEGAL
I over-prepared. Bloomberg's lawyers noticed.
I built bloomberginterview.com as a one-off candidate presentation. The intention was earnest. The domain name was—how shall we put this—extremely confident.
INTERVIEW PREP LEVELSO CONVINCING IT TRIGGERED A DOMAIN CASE10 / 10
01 / THE INTERVIEW
The brief: stand out at Bloomberg.
I wanted to present my thinking as a working digital experience rather than another slide deck. The intent was a one-off, non-commercial candidate presentation.
PUBLIC CASE RECORD ↗AI makes options. Judgement makes decisions.
What changedThe tools are fast now. A first draft, ten variations, working code—volume stopped being the hard part.
Exploration, momentum and getting something real in front of people quickly.
Knowing what is good, what is true and what should never ship.
How ideas become outcomes
Explore. Shape. Ship.
The tools make more paths possible. I keep the decisions connected from the first question to the live result—and into the next improvement.
Explore
Find the useful problem and open up the option space.
Shape
Join strategy, content, experience and technical choices.
Ship
Get a real version live without losing the original intent.
Improve
Measure, learn and turn the win into a repeatable system.
Hidden systems lab / move the light
Reveal what the interface is hiding.
No decorative controls. Just move the flashlight across the scene, catch the rogue signal and expose the evidence, memory and human approval beneath the surface.
AP.EXPERIMENT / 07
Move the flashlightto reveal the agentbeneath.
The visible interface is only the surface. Signals, approval and memory are running underneath.
CATCH THE SIGNAL 00 / 05Click the travelling pixel
A separate game / Space Invaders
Defend the idea.
This is Space Invaders—its own game, in its own location. Move the ship, fire at the incoming noise and keep the useful signal alive for another wave.
SCORE 00000WAVE 01SHIELDS ◆ ◆ ◆
Curiosity is the advantage.
Things I build, test and keep learning from.
On camera / Prompt News
I test emerging AI, then explain what works.
Long before “AI workflow” became a standard line in a bio, I was publishing practical, working experiments for a growing audience.
EARLY SIGNAL / 2023LLM → ALEXA
I connected ChatGPT to an Amazon Echo and published the complete build before voice agents were a product category. My description at the time said it best: “World first… possibly.”
155K views later ↗
PLAY ↗01 / LATESTAI Agents Can Now Control WordPress… This Changes Everything
13:54 · Agentic web workflows
PLAY ↗02 / WORLD FIRST? · 155KUse ChatGPT inside your Alexa For Free
23:40 · A very early voice-agent build
PLAY ↗03 / 124K VIEWSHow to give ChatGPT live internet access
5:12 · Connected AI tutorial
Playable interlude / game 02
Break the wall.
Keep moving.
A playable breather about persistence: move the paddle, clear the wall and try not to sacrifice all three lives to “one more tiny change”. Every brick now breaks into its own debris.
SCORE 00000LEVEL 01LIVES ◆ ◆ ◆
SJH GROUP✦SJH STUDIOS✦PROMPT MUSE✦NEXDIRECTORY✦NEXUS✦EGGHEAD DESIGNS✦EMOJI GAMES✦HAYMARKET✦DAILY MIRROR✦RIA NOVOSTI✦SJH GROUP✦SJH STUDIOS✦PROMPT MUSE✦NEXDIRECTORY✦NEXUS✦EGGHEAD DESIGNS✦EMOJI GAMES✦HAYMARKET✦DAILY MIRROR✦RIA NOVOSTI✦
What I bring to a project
Four disciplines, connected.
Explore each capability and see how it contributes to one useful digital result.
strategy.systemLIVE
Turn ambiguity into a useful plan.
Audience needs, commercial goals, search opportunity and technical reality—shaped into one roadmap people can actually act on.
Roadmaps↗Discovery↗Stakeholders↗Prioritisation↗
Stop throwing strategy over the wall.
When disciplines separate, good intent gets diluted. Keep the thinking and making close, and every decision carries further.
+ Ambitious brief
DISCONNECTEDStrategy deck↓Design handoff↓Build compromise
CONNECTEDShared direction+Live prototype+Useful result
WORDPRESS · REACT · SHOPIFY · GA4 · SEARCH CONSOLE · FIGMA · AI WORKFLOWS
Built with you, not handed down.
A clear four-part rhythm that keeps decisions visible and momentum real.
Discover
Questions, evidence and a shared definition of the useful problem.
→Prototype
Real journeys and interactions early enough to change without drama.
→Deliver
Content, code, search and quality moving toward one launch.
→Compound
Measurement, iteration and reusable systems for the next thing.
↗Questions people ask.
What kind of work are you looking for?+
Senior digital, web, SEO and product-shaped challenges where strategy and execution need to stay connected.
Are you still hands-on?+
Yes. I can lead the roadmap, speak with senior stakeholders and still get into the CMS, analytics, front end or automation when that moves the work forward.
Where does AI fit?+
As an accelerator for research, exploration, quality checks and repeatable workflows—with human review and clear responsibility.
Do you only work in one sector?+
No. Publishing, film, AI, games, ecommerce, local services and media have all taught me different ways to solve audience problems.
Where are you based?+
Surbiton / London area, working comfortably with local, remote and international teams.