Brand and product design leadership.
We bring a shared design direction to your brand and digital products. Working alongside your internal team, agencies and development partners, we guide creative direction, product experience decisions and quality standards.
Tell us about your team, products and the design problems you want to solve. We will define the working arrangement and priorities together.
What this service addresses.
When different teams develop brand communications, websites, mobile apps and internal products, design decisions can drift apart. Visual language, user experience and technical implementation may each head in a different direction.
Design leadership gives brand, interface and experience decisions a shared framework. Alongside your existing teams and partners, we clarify priorities, review critical work and maintain design quality across the product.
Who it is for.
- Companies working with multiple design, product or development teams
- Organisations seeking senior guidance for internal design and product teams
- Companies aligning brand identity with digital product experience
- Brands aligning agencies and software partners around a shared design standard
- Teams needing an experienced design lead for product, feature, design system or transformation decisions
- Companies seeking regular design leadership without creating a full-time management role
Scope.
The scope reflects your brand, products and existing team structure. Design leadership can cover both brand communications and digital product experience.
- Brand and product design direction
- Design priorities for each planning period
- Review of new product and feature concepts
- Digital product strategy and experience decisions
- UI/UX reviews
- User flow and information architecture decisions
- Review of critical screens and user flows
- Design system direction and component standards
- Direction for brand identity and visual communications
- Creative review of campaigns, presentations and launches
- Decision support for internal design and product teams
- Design alignment across agencies and development teams
- Pre-launch Design QA
Process.
- 01We review the brand, digital products, team structure and current workflows to identify where decisions diverge and where leadership is needed.
- 02Together with the teams, we define the design principles, priorities and review criteria for brand, product and experience.
- 03At agreed intervals, we review work in progress, critical screens, product decisions, campaigns and design system work.
- 04We identify the direction that serves the objective and explain the reasoning to design, product and development teams.
- 05We follow design decisions through to the working product, brand applications and different channels. Where needed, we carry out pre-launch Design QA.
- 06We prioritise new needs, design debt and improvements against business goals, setting the design agenda for the next period.
Deliverables.
Depending on scope, deliverables can include product experience reviews, user flow decisions, design system direction, concept proposals, Design QA reports and a design roadmap.
- DELIVERABLEDesign direction and principles
- DELIVERABLEReview notes
- DELIVERABLEDecision records
- DELIVERABLEPriority plan
- DELIVERABLEDesign standards for your teams
What each model does.
The four ongoing design models serve different purposes. Design leadership provides the decisions and standards that can guide the others.
Frequently asked questions.
Can you work with our existing design team?
Yes. We work alongside your team to align design, product and brand decisions. We agree the working arrangement and decision responsibilities at the start.
Can you work with our agencies and software partners?
Yes. We review their work against shared design principles and provide clear, reasoned and actionable feedback.
Is this limited to brand communications?
No. Alongside brand identity and visual communications, it can cover websites, mobile apps, SaaS, internal software, UX and design systems.
Do you also produce the designs?
We can contribute directly to critical design work within the agreed scope. The service centres on direction, decision support, priorities and quality standards. Regular production can be scoped separately through a design subscription or product design support.
How are meetings and reviews organised?
The schedule reflects your product timeline, team structure and volume of work. We use regular reviews, decision records and interim feedback channels where needed.
Does this replace our design manager?
No. Internal management, team and budget responsibilities remain in place. We provide an experienced external perspective and regular guidance on brand, product and experience decisions.
Can we work together on a specific project?
Yes. The service can be ongoing or focused on a period such as a product launch, design system setup, brand refresh or digital transformation.