Story 01 · Product strategy
Product strategy
HMI
Product ownership
The story in 20 seconds
Challenged the inherited direction
The flagship was expected to carry forward an experience created for a different product level.
Proposed a new experience
I pushed for a new direction rather than treating the flagship as a visual variation of what already existed.
Took it through delivery
The direction progressed through experience, system, architecture, product and delivery scrutiny before being implemented.
The starting point
An established experience already existed. Reusing it kept implementation change and delivery risk relatively low. From a delivery perspective, it made sense.
Consistency
Patterns were understood.
Effort
Less technical impact.
Timing
Easier to accommodate.
Risk
Less uncertainty.
The existing direction had been created for a different product level. The flagship represented a higher product ambition.
If the product ambition was changing, why were we treating the experience as fixed?
The intervention
Rather than treating the flagship as another implementation of the existing experience, I proposed that we rethink the experience itself.
The strategic tension
Option A — Carry everything forward
Lower change and implementation risk. One shared direction; limited experience improvement; inherited constraints remain.
Option B — Create a flagship exception
A stronger experience for one product. More design freedom; two directions to maintain; future inconsistency.
My direction
I used the flagship as the reference point, then separated what genuinely needed to change from what could remain shared.
Keep
Rules and components that supported the intended experience.
Shared interaction patterns, familiar controls and behaviours that did not need to change.
Improve
Behaviour that worked, but could be refined.
Existing interactions that were understandable, but could be clearer, more efficient or better aligned with the flagship experience.
Redefine
Rules where carry-over constrained the experience.
Inherited behaviours that prevented the new direction from working consistently and needed a new product rule.
Flagship direction
→ What is product-specific? What should become shared? What needs a new rule? →
Adapted wider system
Evidence, not preference
Experience
The new direction simplified the interaction, clarified hierarchy and reduced unnecessary steps. In testing, the revised experience showed 70%+ better usability performance than the previous direction.
Usability / Human Factors
We tested the interaction against key usability and Human Factors concerns, then refined the design around clarity, discoverability and task flow before taking it through senior review.
Product coherence
Instead of designing a one-off experience, I worked with the wider system and component constraints so the flagship could lead the direction without fragmenting the shared product experience.
From proposal to commitment
Is it better?
Design comparison · Usability · Human factors
Can it work?
System capability · Architecture · Performance
Can we deliver it?
Effort · Timing · Components · Dependencies
Is it worth the risk?
Product impact · Quality · Programme risk
Approval wasn’t the finish line
Implementation brought shared components, library rules, feature dependencies, system concerns and programme timing.
Component strategy
Strict reuse vs a local solution.
Feature dependencies
One change affected other features.
Timing pressure
The delivery window reduced.
My role changed with the project
Direction
Proposal · Principles · Experience
Alignment
Design · Product · System · Architecture
Delivery
Priorities · Ownership · Specification · Risk
From challenge to delivery
01 / Carry-over planned
02 / Direction challenged
03 / Uplift initiated
04 / New experience proposed
05 / System adapted
06 / Direction agreed
07 / Implementation negotiated
08 / Released · 2026
What began as questioning a carry-over decision became my first product direction taken from initial challenge through to delivery.
Stronger experience
Brand new experience design for flagship + related carlines.
Reconsidered rules
Assumptions were challenged, not simply reused.
Delivered direction
The core idea survived scrutiny and implementation.
Story 02 · Coming soon
Delivery exposed a deeper problem: the rules and validation process around the design were incomplete.
Read the decision
