Design leadership for complex systems

I help leaders ship trust-critical digital products and services across EU and MENA - aligning strategy, delivery, and governance so teams can move fast without losing quality.

Strategic design executive with 20+ years leading complex, trust critical digital products and services

across Europe and the Middle East. I align strategy, delivery, and governance so teams can move fast without losing quality. 

What you get when you hire me

Scope

Strategy, product and service design, operating model, and design governance. 

Domains

Regulated and high trust systems (financial services, identity, smart cities, health) where risk, compliance, and adoption matter. 

Delivery style

Turn ambiguity into decisions - and decisions into delivery artefacts: principles, roadmaps, patterns, state models, acceptance criteria, governance rituals 

Leadership

Built and scaled teams (launched Fjord Italy; led 30+ designers at Deloitte Digital; led distributed teams at Globant). 

Specialisms

Agentic Experience (AX)

Human-Al collaboration that ships.

• Human in the loop workflow UX, escalation patterns, trust cues, recovery paths, auditability 
• Al enabled service operations: triage/queues, dashboards, exception handling, measurable outcomes 

Smart Cities

Urban platforms, designed as ecosystems.

• Multi stakeholder service ecosystems, capability alignment, governance, adoption-oriented journeys 
• Platform thinking: interoperability, partner enablement, operational readiness 

Digital Identity

Privacy-first trust patterns.

• Identity onboarding, consent, permissions, recovery, cross market compliance expectations 
• Designing high stakes moments: verification, security, fraud prevention, resilient fallbacks 

Futures & Facilitation

Decision-making at scale.

• Executive workshops, scenario thinking, prioritisation, alignment under uncertainty 
• Turning strategy into execution: principles, roadmaps, operating rhythms, decision records 

How I can plug into your organisation (freelance agility)

• Fractional/Interim Head of Design / Product Design Director (1-3 days/week)
• Embedded hands on lead (discovery + delivery in a squad)
• Executive advisory (vision, governance, quality bar, operating model)
• Workshop-driven acceleration (2-10 day engagements to unblock decisions, align stakeholders, and define roadmaps)
• Comfortable shifting altitude: IC Lead Director Exec advisor, based on what the business needs now. 

Proof signals (quick scan)

• 20+ years delivering complex digital products/services across EU + MENA
• 10+ years senior freelance/consulting leadership across EU+UK
• 250+ workshops (executive alignment cross-functional delivery acceleration)
• Leadership in top consultancies: Fjord / Deloitte Digital / Globant
• Trusted in high stakes contexts: identity, privacy, fraud/risk, regulated adoption

Selected client ecosystems (examples; NDA safe detail available)

• Financial services & payments: UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, Santander, BBVA (Spain/Mexico), Danske Bank, Eurobank, Nexi, Cofidis (among others) 
• Retail & luxury: Prada, Intimissimi/Calzedonia, Brunello Cucinelli (selected)
• Large-scale ecosystems: Miral (Abu Dhabi), Qiddiya City, Seven (KSA), Porta Nuova (Milan) smart-city and destination-scale platforms 

Selected domains & programs

• Financial Services: retail + corporate banking, cards, payments, regulated experience programs
• Identity/Biometrics/ Fraud prevention: onboarding patterns, consent flows, group/individual enrolment journeys in high-trust contexts
• Commerce & luxury: end-to-end commerce journeys and service touchpoints (e.g., Prada, Intimissimi/Calzedonia, Brunello Cucinelli)
• Smart cities/giga-project ecosystems: platform and service experiences across multiple operators and stakeholders
• Travel, leisure, entertainment: large-scale service ecosystems and visitor journeys across physical + digital touchpoints

Services clients hire me for

• Executive-level design leadership for complex systems (product strategy, experience direction, governance) 
• Discovery proposition roadmap (journeys, service blueprints, capability mapping, prioritisation) 
• Operating model & design governance (ways of working, quality bar, decision rights, review cadence, rituals) 
• Design system acceleration (standards, component strategy, scalable patterns, contribution model) 
• High-trust experience design (identity, privacy, compliance, fraud/risk-sensitive journeys) 
• Multi-market delivery enablement (teams, stakeholder alignment, localisation-aware service design) 

Engagement modes

• Fractional Head of Product/Design or Design Director (1-3 days/week) 
• Interim leadership during transformation, replatforming, or team rebuilds 
• Embedded hands-on lead in a product squad (discovery + delivery) 
• Executive advisory (strategy, governance, quality bar, portfolio coherence) 
• Workshop-driven sprints for alignment and fast decision-making (remote or on-site) 

Working model

• Remote-first when effective, on-site when it accelerates outcomes (discovery, alignment, delivery peaks)
• Clear weekly cadence: stakeholder sync, design/PM/Eng triad, delivery reviews, decision log updates
• Output-driven: artefacts that engineering and delivery can execute without ambiguity

NDA Safe Case Study Index

Agentic Experience (AX) Human + Al collaboration that ships

• Context: Al-enabled service operations and customer communication workflows
• My role: Design leader (strategy + hands-on)
• Outputs: workflow models, state machines, escalation patterns, trust cues, error/fallback systems, dashboards
• Impact signals: faster resolution, reduced manual load, higher operator confidence, fewer failure loops
• Keywords: human-in-the-loop, auditability, transparency, escalation, operational UX

Al-assisted Service Operations - Triage, queues, and routing

• Context: High-volume service environment with repetitive interactions
• My role: Service/product design lead partnering with PM/Eng
• Outputs: queue/triage UX, role-based views, exception handling, decision support patterns
• Impact signals: improved "time-to-decision," lower training burden, clearer ownership and hand-offs
• Keywords: workflow UX, ops dashboards, service tooling, readiness

Digital Identity - Privacy-first onboarding and consent

• Context: Cross-market identity onboarding with compliance and adoption constraints
• My role: Experience lead (discovery patterns governance)
• Outputs: consent models, identity states, recovery patterns, transparency UX, acceptance criteria
• Impact signals: increased completion, fewer drop-offs, stronger trust cues, compliance-ready journeys
• Keywords: privacy-by-design, consent, verification states, recovery

Fraud/Risk-sensitive Journeys Trust without friction

• Context: High-trust flows where abuse/fraud risks must be reduced without harming usability
• My role: Design lead (service + product)
• Outputs: risk moments mapping, friction calibration, safety cues, resolution flows, escalation rules
• Impact signals: reduced false friction, clearer decision points, improved incident handling
• Keywords: risk UX, trust signals, guardrails, resolution

Smart Cities - Urban platform as an ecosystem

• Context: Multi-operator platform connecting citizens, services, partners, governance
• My role: Strategic service design lead
• Outputs: ecosystem maps, capability model, service blueprint, future-state roadmap, governance rituals
• Impact signals: aligned stakeholders, clearer ownership, executable sequencing across partners
• Keywords: ecosystem design, platform services, governance, adoption

Replatforming / Platform Transition - Legacy to modern

• Context: Moving from legacy platform to scalable architecture while keeping customer value shipping
• My role: Product & design leadership (operating model + roadmap)
• Outputs: dual-track roadmap (Run/Transform), golden journeys, migration decision criteria, quality gates
• Impact signals: continuity without fragmentation, reduced migration risk, improved delivery predictability
• Keywords: platform strategy, migration, operating model, quality gates

Knowledge & Self-Serve - Information architecture at scale

• Context: Large content/service environments requiring findability and resolution efficiency
• My role: IA/UX lead
• Outputs: taxonomy, navigation, content models, search/retrieval patterns, governance
• Impact signals: improved findability, reduced support load, better content reuse
• Keywords: IA, taxonomy, content governance, help experience

Commerce Experience - High craft + operational reality

• Context: Premium e-commerce and service touchpoints across brands and categories
• My role: Experience director
• Outputs: journey improvements, checkout/account patterns, service touchpoints, design standards
• Impact signals: improved clarity, higher conversion confidence, consistent cross-touchpoint UX
• Keywords: commerce UX, service touchpoints, design systems

Theme Parks / High-throughput Guest Services - Biometrics onboarding

• Context: Identity/biometrics onboarding for individuals and groups in high-throughput environments
• My role: Service design lead
• Outputs: onboarding journey patterns, consent/communication touchpoints, operational readiness blueprint
• Impact signals: smoother enrolment, clearer guest guidance, operational feasibility
• Keywords: biometrics UX, group onboarding, compliance-aware design, service blueprint

Destination-Scale Entertainment Ecosystems - Digital ID + Wallet + Platforms

• Context: Large-scale visitor and operator ecosystems (B2C+B2B)
• My role: Product/service definition lead 
• Outputs: product definitions (Digital ID, Wallet, B2B/B2C), information guide, end-to-end experience blueprint 
• Impact signals: coherent platform logic, aligned stakeholders, roadmap clarity 
• Keywords: platform definition, identity, payments, ecosystem services

Financial Services - Retail + Corporate digital experiences

• Context: Banking and payments journeys with high trust/compliance expectations
• My role: Experience director/service design lead
• Outputs: target journeys, service blueprints, operating playbooks, governance, delivery artefacts
• Impact signals: stronger customer outcomes, clearer execution, improved cross-team alignment
• Keywords: regulated UX, service design, governance, delivery readiness

Facilitation & Futures Decision-making at scale

• Context: Executives need clarity under uncertainty (strategy, prioritisation, transformation)
• My role: Facilitator + strategic design lead
• Outputs: scenario frames, alignment workshops, decision logs, principles, roadmap options
• Impact signals: faster decisions, reduced stakeholder churn, coherent direction across teams
• Keywords: facilitation, futures thinking, prioritisation, alignment

Earlier career (selected)

• Service Design Lead (Contract) - Fjord (Madrid)
• Mobile UX Product Owner (Contract) Mr Green
• Information Architect - Teachers TV/ Ten Alps (London)
• Digital Lead / Information Architect

How to use this index

• Tell me the problem (e.g., "identity onboarding drop-off", "Al agent handover", "replatforming confusion")
• I'll share the closest 2-3 case studies, the artefacts I'll produce, and a delivery plan (2-6 weeks) with outcomes and cadence.