We are excited to welcome a new kind of consultancy to our membership and community: one that blends creativity, play and neurodiverse thinking to help teams connect, communicate and change. Dot and Dash Consulting, founded by Angel Takooree in March 2024, is all about transforming the way we work together by embracing different perspectives, thinking tangibly, and having a bit of fun along the way. We caught up with Angel to find out about her career, her experience as a neurodivergent founder, and her playful approach to serious change.

From food industry to facilitation

Angel brings a unique background to her consultancy work. After 24 years in the food industry, where she worked as a freelance consultant across more than 36 companies, she pivoted into digital through the Sheffield community. A chance discovery of Leg Up Social and many conversations with local digital professionals, helped her translate her extensive industry experience into the language of UX, user research and service design.

Driven by curiosity and a love of learning, Angel built her own portfolio from scratch, taught herself to build a website, and landed her first role as a UX designer in the games industry. This quickly led to work in user research, and later service design – always with the goal of returning to freelancing and launching her own consultancy.

Dot and Dash specialises in bringing a human-centred approach by using analogue methods to tackle digital and non-digital challenges. This applies to areas such as:

• Strategy alignment and culture setting for startups and scale-ups
• Communication support across technical and non-technical teams
• Bespoke support for leadership and teams navigating change.

The consultancy delivers specialist workshop and facilitation methods such as LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® , Technology of Participation®, Design Sprints, AI Design Sprints™, and Visual Facilitation.

Angel particularly enjoys working with entrepreneurs and innovators who embrace experimentation, who want to bring more creativity into the workplace and are interested in inclusive facilitation and alternative design methods..

Why play is at the heart of the work

One of the most distinctive aspects of Dot and Dash is Angel’s use of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, a structured methodology that uses Lego models to unlock team insights. Angel first explored Lego as a creative way to bring people together at her wedding – later discovering it was a recognised business tool.

Since becoming a certified facilitator, she has run team-building, retrospectives, visioning and strategic planning sessions using play to help clients gain clarity, reveal hidden assumptions and align around shared goals. A recent case with an indie games company helped bridge miscommunication between technical and design teams, using LEGO® models to help understand founders’ strategic goals and where misalignment was happening.

“Because it’s playful, it’s easier to unravel complex things,” says Angel. “You’re talking about the model, not the person – so it doesn’t feel personal, even though it is coming from you.”

Building neurodiverse and inclusive workplaces

Angel’s consultancy is deeply informed by her experience as a neurodivergent founder. After receiving a late diagnosis, she began exploring how to create a business that genuinely supports diverse ways of thinking and working.

One of Dot and Dash’s long-term goals is to become a “neuro-forward” company – a place where flexible, inclusive practices are baked into the culture, and where different thinking styles are not only accommodated but celebrated. Angel is also working on a side project: developing an app to support neurodivergent individuals navigating the world of work.

Through this venture, Angel has become a familiar face at Sheffield Technology Parks and a member of the Cooper Project, where she’s found community, support and inspiration. Whereas she used to avoid networking, the city’s informal, friendly events changed that, and she now regularly goes to social breakfasts (Geek Brekky included!) and a range of meetups.

Sheffield Digital has also played a key role in her journey, offering a supportive online community, the jobs board, event listings, and a vital sense of connection during her career transition. The Sheffield Women in Tech meetups in particular helped her navigate what initially felt like a male-dominated industry.

Angel’s invitation to others is simple: “Collaborate with fun and play.” She believes playfulness isn’t just a method, it’s a mindset. Her goal is to make workplaces more joyful, inclusive and effective by helping people and teams understand each other better.

“Sometimes we get stuck in the way things are,” she says. “Play helps us imagine what could be and how we all need to keep connected together as humans in a digital world.”

Get in touch

To learn more about Dot and Dash Consulting, book a workshop or explore partnership opportunities, connect with Angel Takooree on LinkedIn or follow the hashtag #FacilitateSheffield, where you’ll also find details of regular facilitation meetups. The same applies if you’d like to speak about the app that Angel is building and want to take part in research and/or testing. She’s always open to a chat – especially if it involves a pile of Lego and a good idea.