L E A D E R S H I P

Leading design strategy and UX functions for 10+ years, ranging from start-ups to global multidisciplinary teams. I firmly believe effective leadership hinges on your ability to influence and work with people. So, building strong relationships with Product and Engineering is essential to helping any business create impact and memorable user experiences, especially through the use of design thinking and user-centred methodologies. Leading the development of individuals and teams is important to me, while maintaining a hands-on role in UX.

CASE STUDY 01

Company: AND DIGITAL
Role: Head of UX / UX Principle
Duration: 2022-2024

Elevating UX maturity, growth and awareness

I led the transformation of the UX practice within my Club, Dekker. I focused on enhancing UX capabilities, implementing robust operational structures, defining a clear vision and mission, while fostering a collaborative culture.

Key achievements include establishing a formal competency framework, launching structured upskilling programs, improving team processes and morale, and strategically growing the team's capacity and influence.

CASE STUDY - AND DIGITAL

Leadership

Focused leadership elevated UX maturity via clear processes, a shared vision, standardized frameworks, and fostering continuous improvement. Team capability strengthened through structured upskilling, guild activities, and defined career pathways, enhancing cohesion and morale via team building and open communication. Streamlined workflows and regular showcases improved operational efficiency and increased UX visibility. This supported strategic team growth, onboarding talent to boost capacity and address skill gaps.

Challenges

Key challenges included a small, stretched team lacking clear strategic vision and consistent design processes. The absence of a competency framework hindered structured growth, while low internal visibility and a gap in senior capability impacted engagement, quality consistency, and mentorship opportunities.

CASE STUDY 02

Company: Adevinta Central UX Team
Role: UX Strategy : Experimentation Initiative Lead
Scope: Global Marketplaces : Europe / South America / Africa

Advancing global experimentation maturity

Recognising experimentation as the fastest, most insightful method for low-risk, user-centric product innovation, Adevinta faced varying maturity levels and differing perceptions of 'good' experimentation across its diverse marketplaces. This initiative aimed to create awareness and a unified platform to embed experimentation as an integral part of product development, driving continuous learning and improvement to ultimately enhance business KPI impact.

Leadership

Focused on fostering cross-border collaboration across Adevinta's global marketplaces, engaging key stakeholders such as Product Directors and Heads of UX. I took a hands-on approach to assess the experimentation maturity levels within different teams, subsequently developing and guiding the implementation of targeted learning strategies. A significant part of my role involved championing the value of experimentation to senior management to secure their buy-in for wider adoption. Furthermore, I successfully advocated for the creation of a Global Research Portal, encouraging local marketplaces to contribute and share their valuable experimentation knowledge and best practices.

Challenges

Securing dedicated time with busy senior management and addressing stakeholder perceptions that increased experimentation might slow down project delivery. Additionally, limitations in existing team expertise (know-how), constrained timelines, and insufficient budget allocation presented obstacles to widespread implementation.

CASE STUDY - ADEVINTA

CASE STUDY 03

Company: Schibsted Product & Technology
Role: Head of UX: Global Advertising Platform 4x Teams
Project timeline: AUG 2016 – JULY 2018

Leading 4x global advertising products for 200 million consumers across 30 countries

Schibsted Media Group, a leading international online classifieds and media company across 30 countries. Responsible for the day-to-day management of the UX team - 5 Designers, 2x Researchers. Stakeholder management with Product, Tech and Data-insights teams to drive design innovation to improve product experience and adoption. Crafting a UX Strategy that informed Product strategy to create strategic vision and set annual goals

Managed 4x global UX product teams to build a holistic advertising platform

Self-Serve Ads tooll: for SMBs to book ad campaigns, utilizing bespoke targeting and reporting capabilities
Audience Targeting tool: for creating segments, enabling greater demographic targeting of campaigns for sellers
Advantage Reporting tool: for sales teams, to ensure effective monitoring of AD campaigns and report generation
Rose Booking tool: forecasting for booking Ad inventory, and daily monitoring.

Leadership + mentoring

Developing the Product Vision
Actively collaborating with stakeholders to define and refine the product's strategic direction.

Prioritising the Product Backlog
Playing a key role in ordering tasks and features to ensure focus remained on delivering the most valuable work.

Establishing the User Research Strategy
Developing the overall approach to user research whilst facilitating team training to enhance skills in conducting effective research.

Leading Weekly Design Reviews:
Facilitating regular sessions to critique design work within a supportive environment for constructive feedback.

Championing UX with Management
Advocating for user experience considerations and ensuring they were prioritised in discussions with management.

Fostering Team Presentations
Encouraging and supporting team members to present their work, thereby building their presentation skills and confidence.

Challenges + impact

An engineering-led approach initially made it challenging to prioritise user-facing improvements within sprints, even those promising significant user experience benefits. To overcome this, the new Product Owner and I established a dedicated product backlog specifically for UX enhancements, prioritised directly from user research findings. Within six months, this approach resulted in a measurable and significant increase in user adoption.

SCHIBSTED ADS - CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY 04

Company: Schibsted Product & Technology
Role: Head of UX, Global Privacy
Project timeline: JAN 2018 - JUL 2018, LONDON / OSLO / STOCKHOLM

Led UX team through a research and discovery phase to help inform and enable all Marketplaces to be GDPR-compliant.

Overseeing UX & Product research to fully understand users' perception of data privacy in different regions. Developed a blueprint for ‘key products journeys’ allowing users to better manage their data, while feeling safe and with their interests in mind.

Managed global UX team across UK / Norway / Sweden to inform strategic direction

Leadership

Timely delivery
Successfully delivered the project over a six-month period, meeting the GDPR deadline of May 28, 2018.

Addressing global needs
Collaborated with C-suite stakeholders across multiple regions to ensure that diverse cultural perceptions of privacy were incorporated into the overall strategic direction. The primary objective was to advise on and create a common white-label user experience template.

Running weekly design reviews
Organising sessions to review design work and provide a safe space for feedback across the region.

Challenges

The team was spread across various locations, including Oslo, Stockholm, London, and Barcelona. This required frequent visits to each hub while also empowering team members to take ownership and responsibility for their work.

SCHIBSTED GDPR - CASE STUDY