A journey from a personal advisor to UX/UI design

Passionate about user centricity and consistently looking for ways to improve people's wellbeing through delivering excellent digital experiences and encouraging others to do it too.

Digital Strategy Lead

Current role - since April 2024, TSB Bank

Defining TSB’s digital user experience vision across our public website, internet banking and mobile app, by constantly evaluating customer expectations using research, data, market trends and competitor analysis and aligning with core business objectives and compliance needs.

Bringing the vision to life through immersive prototyping and delivering improvements through tactical and strategic implementation of the digital roadmap

The day to day

  • Reviewing the performance of our digital journeys, identifying pain points and areas of improvements

  • Understanding our user base, their behaviour, preferences and needs to shape our roadmap

  • Championing Human centred design through collaborative workshops across all levels and validate high level roadmap features or customer need using prototypes, UX research tools and collaborating with other research teams

  • Working with senior leadership to define key digital objectives and results, ensuring they aligning with broader business objectives and meet genuine customer needs

  • Implementing tactical UX/UI changes using our content management system

  • Owning our central digital backlog, prioritising per business case and working with vairous business and change teams to implement

Digital Design Lead

Sept 2021 - April 2024, TSB Bank

The day to day

  • Oversight of all digital changes to TSB’s mobile app and website covering UX, UI and Accessibility

  • Working with senior stakeholders to define the roadmap, ensuring design readiness and dev support for 11 feature team.

  • Outwardly promoting the design teams skills and talents and being integral to the digital design process

  • Supporting team members personal development, solving design problems, measuring performance and optimising design processes

  • Designing core patterns and leading more complex journeys.

  • Migration from Sketch to Figma in 10 weeks

    Lead the transition from Sketch to Figma, ensuring new tooling was operational for new design work, including design libraries, file structures, access management and migration / rebuild of over 70 journeys.

  • Improved team efficiency by 20%

    Through reviewing the end to end design process, defining processes, governance, roles and responsibilities, re-booting the design system, moving to agile methodology

  • High team satisfaction scores

    Fostering a strong design culture based on mutual respect, openness to feedback and challenge to make us all stronger, reflected in above average employee satisfaction survey scores

  • Successfully delivered over 100 changes across mobile and web

    Over 2.5 years in the role, increasing app store ratings, Net promotor scores, and high journey conversion and improved accessibility

Key Achievements

Key skills learnt

  • Lead a cross functional team of UX, service designers and accessibility designers creating new mobile and web journeys across sales and servicing.

    With a strong working relationship with UI, UX Copywriters, Solution Architecture and Development teams.

  • Embedding a design operational mentality to our ways of working to deliver consistency with scalability, through the creation of a UXUI guild/ chapter and agile ways of working

  • Mentored both junior members of staff and external partners on good design and management practises.

Product Designer

Sept 2020 - 2021, TSB Bank

Day to day

Responsible for delivering end-to-end designs, shaping concepts, carrying out research and testing, wire framing, working with a UI designer and the development team to see my designs delivered into mobile app and web site.

App 2.0

Designed and introduced new app information architecture, increasing discoverability and space for future roadmap features. Post delivery the app NPS score improved by +25 in the following months as customer ‘found’ existing features easier – despite no major new functionality

Introducing the design system

Lead a cross functional design team including UI and accessibility designers to create, test, and build a design system. This improved both our design and build efficiency whilst delivering a more consistent user experience.

    • Figma

    • Sketch

    • Invision (Prototyping)

    • Zeplin

    • Userzoom (Research)

    • Lead moderated testing covering a range of topics including speaking to users with accessibility needs.

    • Comfortable creating unbiased surveys and usability tests. From card sorts to full UI prototypes.

    • Commissioned third party research including setting objectives, participant guides and playback.

    • Applying for a loan

    • Card services (Feeze, Unfreeze)

    • Credit card sales including eligibility

    • New app navigation and system patterns

    • General Insurance sales (web)

    • Approving online payments

    • Small change enhancements

Other roles

Digital Product Owner

June 2019 - September 2020, TSB Bank

  • Delivered a new chat / AI

    Delivered new features into the mobile app, introducing a new cloud-based infrastructure, with multiple new suppliers and using automated testing

  • Oversight of conversation design

    Improving intent accuracy and identify future opportunities to leverage platform

  • Lead 2 off-shore agile design and development teams

    Replicating web functionality into the mobile app, to deliver greater customer and business value

  • Managing a cross functional team over design and development.

    Also included influencing senior stakeholders to prioritise our backlog based on business and customer insight

Mortgage Advisor

January 2014 - December 2014

  • Obtained certificate in mortgage practice

    Enabling me to provide regulated mortgage advice, selling mortgages directly to customers

  • Exploring customers financial goals

    Understanding the customers needs to make personalised mortgage product recommendations to help them achieve them

Product Strategy and Experience Manager

January 2015 - June 2019, TSB Bank

  • Internal consultant

    Working across all product teams to answer key strategic questions following robust frameworks.

  • Provided recommendations to improve business performance

    Using data and insight to find opportunities to maximise existing capabilities and enhance customer experience

  • Created the medium-term product vision

    Including creating the business case for providing customers with greater insights, validated though user research

  • Identifying new commercial opportunities

    Feeding in to strategic direction of the bank through comprehensive understanding of customer problems and identifying solutions.

Before banking

  • Lived abroad in Australia and Canada, working as a beach lifeguard and in logistics for the winter Olympics

  • Swimming and triathlon coach through senior school

Continuous development

  • Member of the Interaction design foundation, taking regular courses. The most recent have covered topics like

    • AI for designers

    • Accessibility designing for all

    • Mobile UI design

  • I enjoy listening to a range of podcasts covering topics like design, accessibility, fin tech and human behaviour.

    Some of my current favourites are:

    • Design better (Invision)

    • Access all (BBC)

    • Fin tech insider

    • Money box

    • Freakonomics Radio

  • I aim to read a book a month covering a range of topics from design, behavioural economics and psychology.

    • Virtually attend/follow key industry events from Apple, Google and Figma config

    • Regularly check the most popular apps and websites, download and use them

    • Swop between Android and iOS devices to see the latest operating systems

    • Follow key influences on social media

Qulaifications

Certified SAFe 6 Agilist, Safe Studio

September 2023

User experience design, General Assembly

February 2021

Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice (up to level 3), Institute of Finance

February 2014

BA (HONS) Economics for Business, Leeds Metropolitan University

September 2006 — September 2009

2.1

Mountains

When I’m not designing

I’ve been a keen cyclist since I was 5 and over the past few years entering events like riding a stage of the tour de France, a 5 day race across the dolomites and riding 300 miles in a day from Manchester to London.

Alternatively I’ll be at home resting with my wife and cat.