Driving business change by revolutionising design operations

Client

Flipdish

Timeline

9 Months

Sector

SAAS

Website

flipdish.com

Challenge

Flipdish faced a fragmented product experience and stalling momentum. Without clear leadership or a unified strategy, the design team was operating in silos, resulting in a complex, inconsistent interface that frustrated users and slowed down development.

Challenge

Flipdish faced a fragmented product experience and stalling momentum. Without clear leadership or a unified strategy, the design team was operating in silos, resulting in a complex, inconsistent interface that frustrated users and slowed down development.

Challenge

Flipdish faced a fragmented product experience and stalling momentum. Without clear leadership or a unified strategy, the design team was operating in silos, resulting in a complex, inconsistent interface that frustrated users and slowed down development.

Solution

I overhauled the design and product culture by implementing three pillars of excellence: strategic clarity, user-led validation, and operational scalability. This turned a “service-desk” design team into a strategic partner that drives measurable business growth.

Solution

I overhauled the design and product culture by implementing three pillars of excellence: strategic clarity, user-led validation, and operational scalability. This turned a “service-desk” design team into a strategic partner that drives measurable business growth.

Solution

I overhauled the design and product culture by implementing three pillars of excellence: strategic clarity, user-led validation, and operational scalability. This turned a “service-desk” design team into a strategic partner that drives measurable business growth.

Impact

Staff turnover rate during my tenure

0%

Team satisfaction score (internal)

+23%

Impact

Increase in coversion

100%

Team satisfaction score (internal)

+23%

Impact

Increase in coversion

100%

Team satisfaction score (internal)

+23%

Defining "What Good Looks Like"

Designers were previously working without a compass. I collaborated with the CEO and VP of Product to author a set of North Star Principles. This gave the team a shared vocabulary for quality, reducing feedback loops and ensuring every pixel served the overarching business goal.

Evidence based design

To eliminate guesswork, I embedded design research into the heart of the process. By co-authoring data-driven audience archetypes, we shifted the team from "designing for features" to "solving for users." This cultural shift ensured that product initiatives were validated before a single line of code was written.

Scaling through systems

The tech stack was weighed down by five competing design systems. I led the consolidation into a single, unified library. By championing this across the engineering org, we didn't just improve UI consistency, we realised a 20% reduction in UI build time, significantly increasing the team's shipping velocity.

High-performance leadership

Stagnant career growth was affecting morale and output. I introduced a robust career framework and an OKR-based structure. By narrowing the team's focus to fewer, high-impact initiatives and providing clear paths for promotion, I transformed team morale and secured immediate performance wins.

Andrew Dunne

Senior Product Designer

"I would highly recommend Ryan to any organisation looking to build a high-performing, people-first design team."

Before Ryan joined, the design team lacked clear direction and defined growth opportunities. Ryan quickly changed this by establishing strong foundations across the team. He worked closely with designers and senior leadership to define clear design principles, introduced a structured growth framework from junior to principal for both Product Designers and UX Researchers, helped establish a unified design system to improve consistency and scalability, and set up regular design feedback sessions to raise quality and consistency.

Andrew Dunne

Senior Product Designer

"I would highly recommend Ryan to any organisation looking to build a high-performing, people-first design team."

Before Ryan joined, the design team lacked clear direction and defined growth opportunities. Ryan quickly changed this by establishing strong foundations across the team. He worked closely with designers and senior leadership to define clear design principles, introduced a structured growth framework from junior to principal for both Product Designers and UX Researchers, helped establish a unified design system to improve consistency and scalability, and set up regular design feedback sessions to raise quality and consistency.

Andrew Dunne

Senior Product Designer

"I would highly recommend Ryan to any organisation looking to build a high-performing, people-first design team."

Before Ryan joined, the design team lacked clear direction and defined growth opportunities. Ryan quickly changed this by establishing strong foundations across the team. He worked closely with designers and senior leadership to define clear design principles, introduced a structured growth framework from junior to principal for both Product Designers and UX Researchers, helped establish a unified design system to improve consistency and scalability, and set up regular design feedback sessions to raise quality and consistency.

Contact

Start scaling your design output now.

Want to see how I can scale your business? Lets chat.

Book a Discovery Call

Book a Discovery Call

Contact

Start scaling your design output now.

Want to see how I can scale your business? Lets chat.

Book a Discovery Call

Book a Discovery Call

Contact

Start scaling your design output now.

Want to see how I can scale your business? Lets chat.

Book a Discovery Call

Book a Discovery Call