HIGHLIGHTS

    • Leadership

    • Vision and strategy creation

    • UX research

    • Design direction

    • Product UX/UI design

    • Design thinking and workshop facilitation

    • Stakeholder management

    • Roadmap planning, launch and communication strategy

    • Product and UX strategy

    • Target future state experience models

    • Information architecture blueprint, 30 + user flows, 80 + UX/UI designs and 2 prototypes

    • Solution architecture blueprint

    • Target operating model

    • Product roadmap

    • Marketing pack and promotion video

    • Buy-in and investment for phase 2

    • A signed-off vision and experience strategy provided the foundations for success, a rapidly accelerated execution and a platform for customer adoption

    • Leveraged existing bank innovations and resources to accelerate delivery, maximise efficiencies and reduce cost

Expertise

  • 14 years + in formal digital and design leadership positions as Director/Head of UX design/research in startup, agency, consultancy, in-house and global corporate contexts.

    I have extensive experience in setting strategic direction, vision, day-to-day team and stakeholder management. Emphasis on developing impactful new/existing teams; providing bespoke coaching as well as establishing design focussed capabilities, communities and operations.

    Recent focus:

    • Components of a design-led organisation.

    • The value of design across the organisation and linking to business metrics.

    • Scaling design in a fast-growing organisation.

  • I bring a wealth of experience directing research and design teams as well as cross-functional design, architecture, engineering and operations teams on large-scale product innovation and digital transformation projects, including R&D focused experiments, and pilots.

  • Strategy helps brands and companies uncover new opportunities to create value and deliver sustained growth from a business and design perspective.

    Strategy is never fixed and should ideally adapt and evolve in tandem and in alignment with the unique challenges organisations and teams face over time.

    I emphasise a hypothesis-led, collaborative, people centred, test and learn focussed approach to strategy creation. Drawing from user research, qualitative and quantitative insights, alongside experiments with propositions and different strategic plays.

    Recent focus:

    • Vision and strategy sprints for product teams.

    • North star and strategy for a design team.

  • Agile and lean startup advocate who thrives working in fast-paced, challenging innovation and product development focused environments. I’ve not only helped organisations bring design-led approaches to innovation and product delivery, but built new capabilities and led organisation-level training and coaching programs to help bring about company-wide conversion to design thinking and human-centred design principles.

  • Customers expect top-notch user experiences from all brands and companies, regardless of whether the company is a startup or an existing brand.

    As user experience is embedded in everyday culture, customers measure their experiences not only across industries, but across all types of digital interactions, benchmarking them against their lifestyle and individual choices. At the core of this process is each user’s unique digital fingerprint.

    In such an environment, experiences must continuingly surpass themselves, pushing forward unceasingly sophisticated outputs and outstanding visions for the future.

    With a PhD in Design and loads of experience leading global research teams in the UK and the US ensures a relentless focus on people with the know-how to lead design-led research programs at scale. Understanding key behavioural contexts, goals and drivers through research and customer engagement programs helps to identify pain-points and intelligence necessary to predict customer needs and desires for the future.

    Recent focus:

    • Helping companies and teams learn from users.

    • Customer engagement programmes.

  • I’ve designed and built my own products, as well as products for diverse customers and organisations across the globe. 

    Building a product or disrupting a marketplace isn’t just about defining the UX and UI, or building out features: it’s about designing a business based on real customer needs and solving real problems. 

    I can lead you through the process of designing, building, launching and scaling your idea, or digitally transforming an existing product. My significant expertise and experience means I can help you avoid common problems encountered by business and product owners across the globe.

    Recent focus:

    • Design for platforms and product eco-systems. Delivering exceptional customer outcomes and experiences through beautifully crafted products, software and services from zero-to-one to continual evolution. 

    • Design governance frameworks and process.

    • Design component library development. 

  • Elevating customer centricity through design thinking. Leading and facilitating programs, helping leaders and organisations build cultures that foster creativity and customer centricity by adopting Design Thinking; a collaborative, outcome-driven innovation process to uncover people’s problems and generate alternative strategies and creative solutions to solve them.

  • Designing agile blueprints and human centred customer experience structures with multiple user needs at the fore ensure cohesive systems and pathways are in place for future growth.

  • Performance and career coaching for groups and individuals. I’m passionate about helping individuals, teams and organisations find human-centred opportunities for growth.

    As experienced design leader and practitioner, I’m well-positioned to share best practices and help leaders and aspiring leaders navigate common challenges.

    As a coach and mentor, I bring a bespoke and situational approach to evoking change, and helping leaders find their own path forward.

    This is drawn from a multiplicity of experiences, organisations, and contexts. As part of this approach, I employ distinct styles based on the business and human context, and the specific demands of the situation.

    These styles spring from varied components of emotional intelligence and have a direct and unique impact on the individual, the business and team.

  • Building and scaling high-performance teams and functions for high-growth businesses. Defining the frameworks, processes and systems teams required to ensure cohesive and consistent experiences are delivered at scale and at pace.

Digital Product Design & Innovation Leadership Solutions 

Speaking

Panels. Keynotes. Conference Presentations. Lectures. Workshops. Talks.

Track Record.

I’ve worked in global corporate enterprise, in-house, client side, management consultancy, digital agency, startup, academia and innovation incubators in B2C and B2B contexts.

25 years + working at the forefront of global user experience strategy, design, research and product/service innovation.

Including 15 years + in formal leadership roles as Director of UX/XD, Head of UX, Head of Design and Transformation Director.

I’m passionate about people, agility, product environments and innovation. I embrace the power of fusing strategy, customer centricity and design to humanise technology and bring equitable, purposeful, inclusive, innovative high-value outcomes for businesses, organisations and individuals.

My Visual Journey.

Laboratory - Archive 001

Giles Rollestone

Publications

Interactive Media & Writing - Articles | Book Chapters | Papers | Practice-based Design Research

  • Proven Expertise

    250+ websites, apps, products designed and delivered from idea, strategy to launch.

  • Industry Recognition

    14 industry awards in recognition of outstanding work.

  • Commercial Success

    $12m revenue achieved from 1 x product alone.

Services

Leadership.
Vision and strategy creation.
UX research.
Design direction.
Product UX/UI design.
Design thinking and workshop facilitation.
Stakeholder management.
Roadmap planning, launch and communication strategy.

Deliverables

Product and UX strategy.
Target future state experience models.
Information architecture blueprint, 30 + user flows, 80 + UX/UI designs and 2 prototypes.
Solution architecture blueprint.
Target operating model.
Product roadmap.
Marketing pack and promotion video.

Results

Buy-in and investment for phase 2.
A signed-off vision and experience strategy provided the foundations for success, a rapidly accelerated execution and a platform for customer adoption.
Leveraged existing bank innovations and resources to accelerate delivery, maximise efficiencies and reduce cost.

Areas of expertise.

  • Oversight, leading and managing capabilities, teams and project initiatives. Setting the strategy, ensuring user centred practices are at the fore, collaborating with other departments to align design with company goals and shaping the product’s user experience at scale.

  • Uncovering deep insights to inform bespoke strategies that deliver cohesive, consistent and innovative experiences.

  • Delivering exceptional customer outcomes and experiences through beautifully crafted products, software and services from zero-to-one to continual evolution. 

  • Creating website strategies that go beyond the design of a website helps inform and drive the proposition, the content created, marketing efforts, customer engagement activities and ultimately, successful business growth.

  • Elevating customer centricity through design thinking. Leading and facilitating programs, helping leaders and organisations build cultures that foster creativity and customer centricity by adopting Design Thinking; a collaborative, outcome-driven innovation process to uncover people’s problems and generate alternative strategies and creative solutions to solve them.

  • I bring a wealth of experience directing research and design teams as well as digital transformation programs. Able to embed into existing teams and projects to help lead CX strategy, research and experience design.

  • Designing agile blueprints and human centred customer experience structures with multiple user needs at the fore ensure cohesive systems and pathways are in place for future growth.

  • Designing highly curated product and service experience systems aligned to individual needs and goals.

  • Performance and career coaching for groups and individuals. I’m passionate about helping individuals, teams and organisations find human-centred opportunities for growth.

  • Building and scaling high-performance teams and functions for high-growth businesses. Defining the frameworks, processes and systems teams require to ensure cohesive and consistent experiences are delivered at scale and at pace.

25 years + working at the forefront of global user experience strategy, design, research and product/service innovation.

Including 15 years + in formal leadership roles as Director of UX/XD, Head of UX, Head of Design and Transformation Director.

I’m passionate about people, agility, product environments and innovation. I embrace the power of fusing strategy, customer centricity and design to humanise technology and bring equitable, purposeful, inclusive, innovative high-value outcomes for businesses, organisations and individuals.

I work with start-ups, founders, leaders and growing brands to help unlock value and accelerate business growth.

Focus.

I’m a Chief Experience Officer, Experience Design and Product Leadership Consultant, intent on elevating customer experience-led innovation and transformation alongside like-minded companies and individuals.

Whether I’m creating or helping shape the CX/UX strategy and product market-fit execution for ‘zero-to-one’ B2B/B2C products and beyond.

Or bringing customer-centricity, UX research and experience design expertise to an established product experience and/or developing a design team, I help companies and people unlock untapped value and accelerate growth.

Transforming the Experience.
Transforming the Team.
Transforming the Organisation.
Transforming the Business.

I would be happy to share case studies and my portfolio by request.

APPROACH

I embrace a hybrid and bespoke approach which integrates the best of human-centred design thinking, strategic problem solving, UX research/design practice and my unique longstanding expertise in design, innovation and customer experience, alongside a strong dose of pragmatism, business acumen and commercial focus.

London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Tokyo, Porto, New York and Brighton ++

Portfolio.

Fractional, advisory and coaching services.

UX design and product innovation leadership | UX strategy, research and design product market-fit partner | UX audits | UX mentor and career strategy coach

Publications

Thought Leadership. Papers. Book Chapters. Articles. Reviews.

Book or contact Giles.

With over two decades of experience in design and innovation I help individuals, teams and organisations find human-centred opportunities for growth. 

Have any questions? Need to clarify anything? Or would you like to discuss booking Giles? Please feel free to get in contact and/or schedule an intro call.

I’m an award-winning leader with extensive experience solving complex business challenges, building high-impact design teams, and delivering state of the art customer experiences.

25 years + working at the forefront of global Customer Experience Strategy, UX-UI Design, UX Research and Product/Service Design Innovation.

Including 15 years + in formal leadership roles as Director of UX Design & Research, Head of UX, Head of Design, Digital Transformation Director and Global Head of Product Design.

What I Do

I work with growing designers, product teams, start-ups and established organisations to unlock untapped value through strategy, design and delivery of new products, services and capabilities.


Advisory | Consultancy | In-house

I’m currently a CXO, co-founder, a chief experience design advisor, fractional portfolio executive & coach helping companies elevate customer experience design.

#Fintech #Web3 #FinancialServices #CXStrategy #CustomerJourneyTransformation

250+ websites, apps, products designed and delivered from idea, strategy to launch.

14 industry awards in recognition of outstanding work.

$12m revenue achieved from 1 x product alone.

Zero-to-one

Building a start-up business and ecosystem from scratch with human-centred design leadership at the fore.

Role: Partner / Cofounder - Chief Experience Officer
Company: Ateaya
More: Coming soon

Scaling innovation & design

Winning business development, strategy and delivery for breakthrough innovation and design projects in the Capital Markets space. 

Role: Head of Design / Innovation & Design Leader in Capital Markets
Company: CAPCO
More: Digital innovation

Design thinking applied – evolving HSBC’s client platform experience

Post trade zero-to-one product innovation and digital transformation through design.

Role: Programme & Global Design Lead
Company: HSBC
More: The art of UX design in financial services

Creating a customer-centric culture from the inside-out

Bringing user-centricity and design thinking to American Express internal product and service teams.

Role: Director of User Experience / Digital Transformation Director
Company: American Express

Design systems & governance

Assisting the HSBC global design function, defining standards, creating new product journeys and exploring technology based emerging innovation opportunities.

Role: UX strategist & account design lead
Company: HSBC

Beam

Compelling flagship product and new UX DNA, promoted innovation and opened-up Dealogic’s addressable market.

Role: Global Executive Head of User Experience
Company: Dealogic
More: Mobile access to personalised real-time content

What I Do.

I help companies build and scale exceptional human-centred customer experiences.

I work with start-ups, founders, design leaders, VCs, scale-ups and global brands to help unlock value and accelerate customer experience-led growth.

Visual journey.

Featured highlights.

What I Do.

I work with growing designers, product teams, start-ups and established organisations to unlock untapped value through the design and development of new products and capabilities.

Advisory | Consultancy | In-house

What I Do.

As a creative strategic servant leader, designer, problem solver, doer, mentor and coach, I thrive on agile environments where co-creation and a relentless focus on people, outcomes and value are absolute priorities.

I draw on my 25 years of practice and leadership in the digital UX, product and service design space to assist founders, leaders, early career designers, product teams, start-ups and established organisations with fusing strategy, customer-centricity and technology towards innovative, truly transformative, products, services, teams and environments.

I’ve always been passionate about people, design, and technology. I am known for taking a vague idea or emerging possibility and concretise it through the power of design and user-centred transformation, whilst bringing colleagues, partners and stakeholders on board.


Consultancy | In-house | Interim

Introduction.

 

Here you can see some of my previous commercial projects, pioneering experimental and award-winning interactive media design work, practice based design research, alongside image/text artworks from 25 + years at the forefront of user experience design.

From my journey as an artist-designer, design leader, experience design director and UX designer, information architect, interactive media designer, creative director, graphic designer, academic, teacher, coach and mentor.

Introduction.

 

Capco, HSBC, American Express, Dealogic, Brand Advocate, Central Saint Martins, Barclays Bank, Sapient, Scient, Meta Design, Royal College of Art, Diverse Interactive, Inform RDD ++

Here you can see some of my previous commercial projects, pioneering experimental and award-winning interactive media design work, practice based design research, alongside image/text artworks from 25 + years at the forefront of user experience design.

From my journey as an artist-designer, design leader, experience design director and UX designer, information architect, interactive media designer, creative director, graphic designer, academic, teacher, coach and mentor.

Recent Focus.

From strategy to execution, recent work I’ve played a key role includes:

➔   Design-led digital platform strategy and product design for a global bank

➔   Customer engagement lab to unlock business growth and enhance digital product adoption

➔   Established a new in-house design capability for a global bank


➔   Design-led digital platform strategy and product design for a global bank

➔   Customer engagement lab to unlock business growth and enhance digital product adoption

➔   Established a new in-house design capability for a global bank

Award-winning entrepreneurial user experience design and research leader with extensive expertise in driving user experience product focused innovation, developing human-centred design organisation cultures and building design and research teams in start-ups, scale-ups, and global brands in the UK, Europe and the United States. 

25 years + working at the forefront of global user experience strategy, design, research and product innovation.

11 years + in formal design-led innovation, business and transformation leadership roles as Director of User Experience / Head of UX / Head of Design / Transformation Director.

Leading through Design. I have a consistent track record of developing highly effective teams in start-up, scale-up and global brand contexts and providing leadership to deliver impactful human centred award-winning digital experiences, and businesses.

Introduction.

 

London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Tokyo, Porto, New York and Brighton ++

Here you can see some of my previous commercial projects, pioneering experimental and award-winning interactive media design work, practice based design research, alongside image/text artworks from 25 + years at the forefront of user experience design.

From my journey as an artist-designer, design leader, experience design director and UX designer, information architect, interactive media designer, creative director, graphic designer, academic, teacher, coach and mentor.