Talent Health Check
A fixed-fee, 3 to 4 week diagnostic: interviews, a data review and a management-ready report with clear priorities and suggested next steps.
Book a Health Check →The people plan behind the masterplan.
Design Your Talent is the talent partner for firms across the design and planning industry. I help businesses hire well, grow leaders and plan succession, drawing on 12 years in HR and talent leadership at Gensler, the world's largest architecture firm.
15+years recruiting for the built environment
12years in HR and talent leadership at Gensler
18countries worked in
150+roles filled
30+Director-level or above hires
The gap
Built with rigour. Staffed by chance?
Your firm plans every project in exacting detail, so don't leave your talent plan to chance. I bring the same rigour to people: a brief, a plan and a structure that holds as your firm grows or changes.
Just a few of the challenges I have helped leaders to address
- 01A new office opens before its leadership team exists.
New markets are won on the strength of a bid. They are kept on the strength of the people you put there.
- 02Your best designers leave the year before they would have stepped up.
Promotion criteria live in partners' heads, so talented people cannot see the path.
- 03Partner succession is a conversation nobody has scheduled.
Founders build the firm. Without a handover plan, the firm stays dependent on them.
The method
Study. Blueprint. Build. Handover.
A four-stage method tailored to your landscape so that you can start at any stage.
Stage 1
Study
Where are our talent risks?
A diagnosis of your pipeline, succession, retention, hiring and skills training needs.
Stage 2
Blueprint
What should our people plan be?
Talent strategy, new-office staffing plans, leadership-team design and promotion criteria.
Stage 3
Build
How do we put it in place?
Leadership pipeline programmes, senior hiring and onboarding, key skills training plans.
Stage 4
Handover
How do we make it last?
Succession plans, coaching for leaders stepping up and an ongoing talent partnership.
Services
See all services and fees →
Hire well. Grow leaders. Plan succession.
Talent Blueprint
Your people plan, designed: talent strategy, a succession map, leadership-team design, promotion and partner criteria, or a New Office and New Market staffing plan.
Plan your people →Leadership Pipeline Programmes
Cohort programmes named for the step, not the skill. Workshops, one-to-one coaching and a live firm project.
See the programmes →Senior and Critical Hires
Confidential and discreet advisory-led search for leadership roles only, shaped by your Blueprint so every hire fits the plan.
Discuss a role →Leading Through Change
Executive coaching for people stepping up, relocating or changing direction, either as part of firm engagements or on an individual basis.
About my coaching →
Talent Partner · By invitation
A Head of Talent for a select few firms.
For firms without senior or strategic HR partnership, I act as a fractional Head of Talent: hiring, succession, employee relations, compliance, people decisions and coaching for the leadership team. I keep this partnership to three firms at any one time, so each gets real depth.
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Three partner places. Enquiries for 2027 are now open.
Who I partner with
- Purpose-led firms that design for people, places and the planet.
- Leaders who invest in people, not only in projects.
- Organisations ready for their next stage of growth and looking for a partner to help them achieve it.
About
From inside the industry, for the people who shape it.
Leading through disruption, for the people who shape places.
I'm Sophie Mockett. I spent 12 years in HR and talent leadership at Gensler, hiring senior business leaders, opening offices, building promotion paths, developing training programmes and planning succession.
Now I bring that experience to firms that want their people plan to be as considered as their projects. I am based in Abu Dhabi and work across the Gulf and beyond.
- Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR)
- ICF coach training (completing in March 2027)
How healthy is your talent pipeline?
Twenty questions across hiring, leadership, succession, growth, culture and retention. Five minutes, with an instant report on your firm's strengths and risks.
Take the Talent PulseExample reportUnder strain
61out of 100 overall
Warning sign: no named successor for key client relationships.
Contact
Let's talk about your people plan.
Tell me a little about your firm and what's on your mind. I reply personally, usually within two working days.
- LinkedInConnect with me on LinkedIn
- Based inAbu Dhabi, working across the Gulf and beyond