Drove product and design transformation at Hive by leading a multidisciplinary team, overhauling key user journeys, and scaling design operations - resulting in a unified experience, empowered team culture, and measurable uplifts in conversion and revenue.

Context

Hive, part of Centrica, is the UK’s leading smart home platform with over 1.2 million users. The platform enables customers to manage connected devices such as thermostats, lights, smart plugs, sensors and EV chargers via a mobile app and e-commerce site. With increased demand for smart-home solutions, Hive needed to improve the user journey, elevate product performance, and align teams around a consistent experience.

My role

I joined Hive as a Product Design Lead, and later took on people leadership responsibilities (Global Design Lead). I led a multidisciplinary team of Product Designers, UX Researchers, and Visual Designers. My responsibilities spanned:

• Design direction and decision-making
• Team building, mentoring and growth
• Cross-functional collaboration with Product, Engineering and Marketing
• Introducing and evolving design processes  

Challenges

• Fragmented user experience due to inconsistent IA and design patterns
• Low conversion in key areas: product pages and checkout
• Lack of scalable design operations
• Team needed stronger rituals, growth opportunities and cohesion

Approach

Team & Culture

• Built a multidisciplinary team blending product designers, researchers and marketing creatives - ensuring both functional depth and brand consistency across the customer journey
• Designed career paths and clear growth opportunities within the team
• Introduced tailored rituals - weekly 1:1s, collaborative design reviews and cross-functional critique sessions - fostering a healthy feedback culture
• Prioritised design empathy and autonomy; encouraged initiative-taking, ownership of features, and peer mentoring within squads
• Balanced day-to-day delivery with team wellbeing - including coaching, internal workshops, and morale-building initiatives

Ways of Working

• Transitioned from rigid Scrum to Lean UX for faster iteration
• Advocated user-centred thinking across the organisation
• Collaborated with cross-functional stakeholders to embed UX into the roadmap

Key Initiatives

New Information Architecture

• Redefined site structure and navigation to improve discoverability and decision-making between Single Products, Bundles and Services
• Delivered a roadmap and full sitemap ready for rollout
  

👉 Result: Early testing showed improved task success and reduced time-to-product across core journeys

Product Page Optimisation

• Simplified content hierarchy and configuration steps
• Introduced clearer value propositions and more scannable UI
  

👉 Result: Increased page-to-basket ratio by 26%, leading to a direct revenue uplift

Checkout Funnel Redesign

• Removed friction points like forced sign-in
• Streamlined the journey with a cleaner, linear flow

👉 Result: Reduced drop-off from 70% to 48%; improved overall conversion by 18% and cart-to-order by 15%

Design System Implementation

• Created cloud-based Sketch libraries and coded component versions
• Established scalable templates and UI consistency

👉 Result: Accelerated delivery and reduced rework across product teams, while enhancing the end-user experience

Impact

• Strengthened team culture and promoted internal growth
• Delivered measurable improvements across critical business metrics
• Established Hive’s first fully functioning, process-driven design system
• Contributed to increased revenue and engagement through better product journeys

What I learned

This experience underscored the power of balancing design leadership with strategic product thinking. Building trust, improving collaboration, and focusing on measurable outcomes allowed us to elevate both the product and the team behind it.