UX leadership
Redefining UX at giffgaff by embedding user-centred design and aligning product strategies to balance user needs with business goals.
Role:
Head of UX
Team:
Product & Design
Skills:
Strategic Planning, Lean UX, Design Thinking, Usability Testing
Situation
Moving from Head of Content Design to Head of UX, I was tasked with maturing the UX discipline at giffgaff, ensuring it was valued and embedded in the product development process, balancing user needs with business goals.
Task
As Head of UX, my task was to redefine the UX function and align product development with a unified user experience strategy.
Action
Establishing roles and responsibilities
Team alignment: I clarified the roles and domains of Product Managers, UX/Product Designers, and Content Designers so that everyone understood their contributions to the user experience.
Building foundation: Together with the team, we developed a shared understanding of how we work across product teams, helping to unify the UX practice and product development.
Defining UX principles and ways of working
UX principles: As a team, we created a set of principles—Smart, Helpful, Human, and Playful—to define and guide the UX practice at giffgaff.
Ways of working: We created a way of working framework approach based on:
Storytelling: Using data and insights to shape our designs and communicate value.
Problem-solving: Designing experiences that are easy to use, simple to understand, and consistent.
Insightful driven: Sharing insights and working with other teams to deliver a connected user experience.
Embedding UX in business processes
Stakeholder engagement: I reshaped product demos so they were led by the UX team alongside Product Managers. This allowed us to demonstrate the value and impact of UX while involving stakeholders in the design process.
Community of practice: We established a community of practice and regular critique sessions to learn, develop, and support each other and evolve the UX discipline.
Introducing design sprints
Design sprints: Worked with Lead Product Managers to introduce design sprints, helping us to understand the current user experience, identify problems, and develop solutions that deliver UX outcomes.
Usability testing: Expanded our usability testing, collaborating with BI, Optimisation, and Marketing teams to ensure data and insights informed product development.
Building a design system
Design system development: I led the expansion of the giffgaff design system with a focus on accessibility and reusable components, streamlining development, wireframing, and prototyping processes.
Creating our design principles
Developing our way of working
Exploring and testing design processes
Working as a unit
Results
Stronger user-centred design culture
Successfully embedded UX principles and processes across the business, improving the organisation’s focus on user experience.
Improved product development
The design system, reusable components, and clear UX principles helped streamline the development process and increased consistency in user experience.Higher ROI on marketing spend
Through better user experiences, we maximised the value of marketing investments, allowing us to reinvest in product teams and further develop features that users needed.