Design Ops in a Global Fintech

DESIGN LEADERSHIP, PRODUCT DESIGN, DESIGN OPS

Challenge

IRESS, a global fintech with a fragmented design approach, lacked UX consistency, formal processes, and cross-functional visibility. The design team had potential but needed structure, leadership, and confidence. There was no design system, weak research capability, and limited collaboration across teams.

My Approach

Built a strong design culture: hired for complementary skills and values, introduced career frameworks, regular 1:1s, and design principles.
Embedded UX into business operations by joining the Operational Leadership Team and partnering across sales, support, and execs.
Standardised processes: rolled out a ‘4D’ design process, cloud-based asset libraries, and accessibility standards.
Created open, collaborative environments: redesigned team spaces, introduced daily stand-ups, and weekly critiques.
Launched Project Cohesion - a global atomic pattern library to unify product experience and code across IRESS platforms.
Brought front-end developers into the design team to build and distribute the shared component library - laying the foundations for a full design system.

Impact

UX became a strategic function with executive buy-in and C-level representation.
Cohesion across the platform improved customer satisfaction and advocacy.
Share price rose >30% during tenure.
Design culture influenced the broader organisation: open spaces, Think Tanks, and design thinking embedded into ways of working.
Project Cohesion evolved into a scalable design system with Figma, Zeplin, and code integration used globally.

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