Bank of Queensland
Head of Design Secondment

Bank of Queensland Group

Design Leadership | Stakeholder Management | Digital Transformation | Design Systems | Multi-disciplinary team | Multi-platform | Multi-brand

Directing a 15-person cross-functional design team, embedding customer-centric practices across BOQ Group’s digital transformation, and influencing strategic executive initiatives.

Overview & Context

While at Deloitte I undertook a secondment at Bank of Queensland (BOQ) as the Head of Design for 14 months. As head of design, I oversaw and directed all UX, UI and SD capabilities during a major digital transformation across BOQ, Virgin Money, and ME Bank. I helped operationalise the newly formed team, supporting them in BAU and strategic programs, creating a culture of support and success. Below are a few major points from my time at BoQ:

  • Connected Design Work to Business Strategy – Helped designers, product developers, and business analysts understand how their work aligned with broader business objectives.

  • Optimized Ways of Working Across Brands – Helped unify design processes, tools, and methodologies across the three brands for better efficiency and collaboration.

  • Drove Customer-Centric Thinking – Despite initial resistance, embedded a stronger focus on customer experience within the broader digital transformation program.

  • Led Cross-Brand Standardization – Helped align BOQ and Virgin Money, with ME Bank's digital design system and operational workflows post-acquisition.

  • Expanded the Design Team by 30% – Advocated for and secured additional design resources to better support business needs across BoQ group.

  • Gained Executive-Level Exposure – Reported directly to the CEO of Virgin Money, influencing strategic initiatives and gaining insights into board-level decision-making.

Here is a case study that details how I led the design team to respond proactively to a board-level oversight, expose the impact of CX investment, resulting in the elevation of Design’s role in strategic product decision making.

1/4 Challenge & Problem

Unfortunately due to budget constraints, there was a decision to deprioritise investment in the migration experience for existing customers, as Head of Design I saw this posed a major risk to the bank’s brand and reputation with loyal customers.

Without proper transition support, these customers faced significant issues, which threatened customer satisfaction and retention. Despite our advocacy for a more seamless migration experience, leadership opted to focus on new customer acquisition, leaving existing customers to navigate the transition with minimal guidance. This led to anticipated (and ultimately realised) customer frustration, negative press, and an increased customer support burden.

2/4 My Role & Approach

As the head of Design I took a proactive approach to mitigate the expected pain points, anticipating further support would be required. So ahead of the launch I:

  • Reallocated my lead service designer to create a service blueprint, mapping anticipated challenges, pain points and gaps in the migration journey for existing customers.

  • I also advocated for better change management, ensuring that even if the business did not formally invest in the transition, our team had a structured framework ready for when issues surfaced.

3/4 Process & Execution

To address the issue, I led the following key steps:

  1. Blueprint Development: My team and I developed a detailed service blueprint, mapping customer pain points, transition hurdles, and potential solutions.

  2. Stakeholder Collaboration: Despite initial pushback, we engaged cross-functional teams—including product, development, and support—ensuring that when issues emerged, we had a pre-prepared action plan.

  3. Launch Day Crisis Response: When negative press and customer complaints surfaced, our service blueprint became a critical asset, allowing BOQ to pinpoint key problem areas and rapidly implement solutions.

4/4 Results & Impact

  • Crisis Mitigation: The service blueprint became a critical reference, helping the business quickly identify pain points and improve customer experience post-launch.

  • Elevated stakeholder awareness and recognition of design’s strategic value: This proactive effort raised the profile of design within BOQ, reinforcing the need for further customer experience investment.

Learnings & Next Steps

To me, this experience reinforced the importance of proactive design leadership, even in environments where design is not initially prioritised. Key takeaways include:

  • Design’s Role in Business Strategy: This project strengthened my ability to advocate for design’s impact at an executive level, helping bridge the gap between design and business priorities.

  • Anticipating Challenges & Preparing for Impact: Even when investment in CX is lacking, having structured frameworks (like the service blueprint) can enable teams to respond quickly and effectively.

  • Team Leadership & Growth: Successfully balancing design advocacy, stakeholder management, individual mentorship, and team expansion was a key leadership milestone.

  • Future Improvements: If faced with a similar challenge, I would push harder for early-stage investment in change management, leveraging data to quantify the risk of neglecting existing customers and overlooking CX.