In this episode of the DevReady Podcast, host Anthony Sapountzis sits down with Joe Woodham, CEO and Founder of Torii Consulting. Joe shares his entrepreneurial journey from door-to-door sales and recruitment to building one of Australia’s leading UX and service design consultancies. He reflects on the lessons learned from failed ventures, like importing kitchen sinks from China, and how he leveraged those experiences to successfully pivot into recruitment and later into human-centred design. Today, Torii Consulting partners with some of the biggest enterprise brands in Australia, including Australia Post, NAB, Telstra and Coles, helping them improve digital experiences, streamline customer journeys, and maximise ROI through thoughtful design.

Joe explains how his recruitment business evolved into a consultancy by spotting gaps in the market and staying ahead of industry trends. Unlike large consultancies that dominated the development space, he recognised that design remained relatively under-served and offered opportunities to deliver more tailored value. By building strong connections and maintaining a people-first approach, he positioned Torii as a specialist in UX and service design. He emphasises that design is not just about aesthetics but about improving usability, reducing friction, and creating digital products that deliver measurable business outcomes.

A key theme in this conversation is how poor design drives dependency on customer support and chatbots, while great design eliminates these problems entirely by enabling users to self-serve. Joe illustrates this with examples such as Amazon’s one-click purchase, which removes friction in the buying journey and boosts conversions at scale. He contrasts the rapid but often short-sighted approach of startups, which rush products to market without sufficient design research, with enterprises that eventually circle back to fix these gaps. Both he and Anthony agree that designing upfront is far more cost-effective than retrofitting fixes later in the process, which is also the foundation of the DevReady methodology.

The discussion also explores the role of AI in design and product development. Joe highlights how many enterprises treat AI as a tick-box exercise, adding tools like chatbots without a real strategy or measurable value. To address this, Torii Consulting has partnered with Gen AI Labs to provide AI-led training for design teams, giving them the knowledge and confidence to integrate AI effectively into workflows. He argues that without training and proper adoption, businesses risk falling behind, as employees cannot deliver meaningful results with AI. This focus on education, accessibility, and adoption reflects Torii’s commitment to preparing both enterprises and smaller businesses for an AI-first future.

Finally, Joe shares how he personally keeps up with the pace of AI innovation by actively learning, experimenting, and cascading insights to his team. He acknowledges that resistance to change is common but stresses the importance of fostering a culture of continuous upskilling. Anthony reinforces this point by describing his own approach to consuming hours of AI content each week and using automation to share key takeaways with his team. Together, they underline the urgency for businesses to adopt AI thoughtfully and train their teams effectively. Torii Consulting’s strategy of evolving with SMEs and scale-ups ensures they stay ahead of enterprise adoption cycles, positioning themselves as trusted partners when larger organisations inevitably accelerate their AI adoption.

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