Behind Hedgehog is a series of interviews designed to shine the spotlight on the fantastic team of individual experts who are responsible for bringing the Hedgehog vision to life. 

We’d like to introduce Lisanne Pinfield who is Head of Brand at Hedgehog. Lisanne is responsible for ensuring our brand is instilled in everything we say and do and making sure it has room to flex and grow, for it to work tomorrow as well as in ten years time.

‍‍Share a little about your previous experience

Just before I joined Hedgehog, I was with a brand agency in Bristol where I worked on a lot of creative projects in a short period of time. It was great to have worked with so many different brands, but I felt I wanted to be dedicated to one brand again and really evolve it over time – something I’d done in the past for apps like Trainline and BlaBlaCar in London. Cue a call from an old Trainline colleague. He had just joined Hedgehog and asked if I was interested in joining as well, to tackle everything brand related. I said yes almost immediately!

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Why did you join Hedgehog? 

Although not actively looking, I was definitely ready for a new challenge. And to me Hedgehog felt like the perfect one. A young company, at the start of its journey, a small team of excited colleagues, a great concept and a brand that needed work. With the experience I had built up over the years working both in-house and client-side in the Netherlands – my home country – as well as the UK, I felt like I could really add something here. And luckily, Hedgehog agreed! 

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What do you enjoy most about your role here? 

Getting the opportunity to lay out the first foundations for a brand – almost starting with a blank canvas – is really rare. There is always something that was put in place before you come along. Even with Hedgehog, there were certain things in place when I joined. But everyone was very keen to switch things up and understood we needed to work on positioning and strategy before anything else. 

What makes my job really great is working with such amazing people. Because we’re all remote, we put a lot of effort into the interactions we do have – whether that’s on video calls or slack. We respect each other's way of working and try to include everyone as much as we can in every project. And when it comes to branding, that’s so important, because we’ll all have to work with it – whether you’re a product designer or a compliance officer. 

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What excites you most about Hedgehog’s mission? 

What excites me most is the promise of growth this concept has. When working on the brand positioning, the easiest part was jotting down the purpose and vision, because it makes so much sense why Hedgehog was founded. It’s always a really good sign when everyone seems to know exactly why they’re here and what they’re helping to build.

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Quick-fire favourites

Favourite emoji  🤔 

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Favourite food 🍽️

Surinamese roti curry. Surinam food is big in the Netherlands! 

Favourite hobby outside of work 🏌🏾‍♂️

Really into making my own clothes. I’ve got the sewing down, now I’m exploring block printing fabric by hand.

Favourite way to spend your holidays ⛱️

Anywhere where it’s sunny and a lovely temperature. Slowing everything right down and really taking the time to enjoy great food and have long chats with friends. 

Favourite piece of career advice💡

Practise listening to your gut instinct. Try to formulate arguments around it. If it’s right, they’ll come naturally.

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