Results:
£130M+ in attributable revenue
+37% unique retailer engagement
22% uplift in customer retention
60% faster time-to-market
Created Zilch’s financial hub (now 2nd most engaged product)
TL;DR
Built Zilch’s design function from scratch—scaling the team, systems, and product experience to drive £130M+ in revenue and +37% customer engagement.
Led design across regulated fintech flows, marketing surfaces, and lifecycle UX—turning design into a strategic growth driver from early-stage to scale.
Zilch
Reinventing a fintech experience through systems, clarity and product thinking
Role
Head of Product Design
Timeline
October 2022 – Present
Scope
Joined as Zilch hit product-market fit. Built the design function from scratch and scaled it to a 14-person team. Created the design system, led strategic CX programs, delivered £130M+ in revenue impact.
The Challenge
Zilch had just reached early product-market fit with 3 million users but the product experience was fragmented, design lacked influence, and growth was plateauing in key areas.
No design system
Misalignment across product and marketing
Complex credit model creating trust and clarity issues for users
My Approach
I treated this as a founding design challenge: clarify value, scale design operations, and increase product confidence and adoption.
Key priorities:
Create and roll out a company-wide design system
Build the team: hiring, structure, rituals, and performance
Embed design into cross-functional planning and OKRs
Drive initiatives that tangibly improved user activation and retention
Result: A 60% reduction in time-to-market, and design was credited in £130M+ attributable revenue.
Key Initiatives:
Design System
I led the creation of Zilch’s first design system (Figma), integrating accessibility by default.
Result: 60% faster design/dev delivery
Used by all product squads
Lifecycle UX & Personalisation
Identified key drop-off moments and redesigned onboarding, home, and merchant surfaces.
Result:
+37% unique retailer engagement
+22% customer retention
Boosted subsidy value from partners
Financial Hub Homepage
Proposed and designed a new “hub” experience to drive recurring usage and product education.
Result:
2nd most engaged screen across the app
Improved navigation to rewards, balances, and payments
Cross-functional Design Culture
Grew the team (design, content, research) and embedded weekly critiques, OKRs, and strategic planning alongside C-suite.
Result:
92% team retention
Weekly alignment with CPO and CEO
Reduced churn on product decisions
Reflections
This experience solidified my approach to product design as a strategic lever, not just a delivery function. I learned how to build a high-performing team, unify a fragmented brand, and bring clarity to a complex, regulated financial product. It’s the type of challenge I now seek out—where design becomes a multiplier across the business.