UX Capability Build
Ecclesiastical – Specialist Insurance and Financial Services
Project Overview
Role
Senior Product Design Consultant
Timeline
5 months, extended a further 3 months
Team
Service Design Consultant, Product Owner, Scrum Master, Developers, 6 Business Analysts, Testing team.
Wider team
Group Directors, Architecture and Design, Product Owner Forum, Underwriting, Implementation Partner Company
Objective
Build UX capability across the organisation to improve product quality, team maturity and business performance.
Quick links to mini case-studies
The Challenge
- Design wasn’t integrated into delivery processes
- Product design was being attempted by Business Analysts and Developers but was inconsistent
- Design needed further buy-in from the senior leadership team
Strategy & Approach
- Understand
- Map stakeholders
- Baseline maturity assessment
- Define deliverables, responsibilities and a high-level project delivery plan
- Confidence & Practice
- Embedding design into product delivery
- Define ways of working
- Tailored UCD modules inline with identified needs
- Foundations
- Research
- Principles
- Community of practice
- Design-thinking learning modules
- Operate
- Research driven decision-making
- UCD advocacy
- Empowered, skilled cross-team collaboration
What we did
Research & Design Backlog
Ran foundational user research across products.
Identified pain points, gaps and opportunities.
Delivered a prioritised, insight-led backlog to inform design efforts.
Upskilling and Embedding Design
Coached delivery teams on design integration.
Introduced lightweight, sustainable UX practices.
Positioning & Community
Collaborated with senior leaders to define the role of design.
Created and shared UX principles and frameworks.
Launched a design community to foster internal engagement.
Design for Product Performance
Defined how design would contribute to measurable outcomes.
Research informed prioritisation of key areas within the product to focus UX efforts on.
Analysed product architecture to drive platform efficiency.
Reflections
What went well
- Team were open minded and keen to learn what UCD could do to improve their team
- The project was extended a further 6 months to further build maturity
What I would do differently
- Push for further design roles earlier
- Further workshops for the team to practice design methodologies
Next steps
- Focus research on particular areas of the product
- Embed a Service Designer into the architecture team
- Implement redesign of the screen with the most usability issues and establish design patterns before moving onto the next priority
Feedback
“It’s been such a productive, well organised and value driven few months for us as Sam has literally embedded herself within the team and engaged on every level. She’s had such a huge positive impact on what we’re doing so far I know there’s so much more value she could add.” – Scrum Master
“A pragmatic approach was always going to be needed in our environment, and Sam has found the right balance of challenging us to think about new ways of working in ways that are actually achievable in the confines we are working in.” – Product Owner
“She has brought an alternative take on the customer experience/journey, certainly a change to the way things are normally done in Financial Services. She has challenged and questioned current practices, making me think differently about the customer journey.” – Business Analyst
Sam Long – 2025