Hi, I’m Dan
A versatile product design leader with 20+ years’ experience across agency and client-side. I build and manage contract and perm teams, implementing strategies grounded in team discipline, structure, consistent process and continuous improvement to deliver impactful experiences.
Focus is placed on discovery (customer insights) - existing and new - that align with goals to help teams make timely product decisions, using research and design practices that prioritise outcomes over deliverables.
From biotech and finance to government, telecoms and media, bringing broad expertise across Product: visual, UI, UX, research and design operations, leading UX teams embedded in product squads, ensuring alignment, scale, and operational clarity.
Led high-performing people to deliver on programme targets and transformation initiatives, shaping teams that work effectively with product and engineering in agile environments, with a clear focus on value.
Equally confident with design strategy, hands-on delivery, or working with leadership on existing direction, bringing clarity and measurable impact.
Simplifying, improving, and scaling usability across end-to-end journeys.
Industries
Biotech / Healthcare
Postal / Courier
Tech / Telecommunications
Sport
Finance
Insurance
Government
Travel / Hospitality
Transport
Homecare
Recruitment
Health Tech
Automotive
Energy
Cyber / Defence
Security
Luxury
Publishing / Literature
Institutes / Charities
Music / Broadcasting
& Brands
Abcam / Mölnlycke Health
Royal Mail / Parcel Force
O2 / Motorola / HP / Sage / Tntra / Sony / Nokia
FIFA / Adidas / APT Tennis / The Open Golf / LTA
Clerical Medical / BoA / RBS / PwC / Worldpay
Churchill / Allianz
FCDO / Met Police / UK Trade & Investment / DfT
Holiday Inn / Eurostar
Transport for London
Procter & Gamble / Unilever
Huntress Group
Philips / Oral B
VW / BMW / BSM Driving
Shell / British Gas
The Security Company / Qinetiq /
UK Hydrographic Office
Hotel Chocolat
FT.com / Roald Dahl
Office for National Statistics / RNLI / Leonard Cheshire
TV Licensing / UKTV / PPL
Strategy & Methods
Discovery through insights
Discovery delivers the insights, data, and context required to shape user-centred solutions. It gives your product purpose, direction, and a defined audience.
Many businesses have the answer to growth and future opportunities as part of their existing customer feedback data.
Priorities:
Highlighting key customer responses and current friction
Identifying improvements and future opportunities
Cross-validating data using various sources to highlight areas where previous findings have changed.
Implementing processes to collect customer insights to deliver data required for analysis.
Discovery benefits:
Proactively identifies core customer challenges
Validates ideas using real customer feedback
Identifies the most effective use of resources
Enhances post-improvement customer satisfaction
Fosters a customer-focused approach
Leadership
UX vision / strategy / value
User research & analysis
Goals / objectives / KPIs
Experience metrics & alignment
E2E design lifecycle - B2B2C
Team management
Recruit / develop / mentor
Team structure & planning
User Experience
Embedding UX in Agile squads
Roadmaps & journey mapping
Discovery, research & analysis
UCD strategies
UX audit & competitor analysis
Site performance reviews
WCAG accessibility
User behaviour insights
Agile
Discovery & continuous insights
Customer feedback loops
Behaviour tracking applications
Iterative-focused design
Resourcing perm & contract
Design team planning
Product methodologies
Agile design operations
Plan
Discovery and your MVP lay the foundation for future success. Utilise discovery activity and customer insights to identify pre‑release improvements and key opportunities. Prioritise stability and relevance to user needs, and avoid overreach; it can alienate users, erode advocacy, and put strain on your team.
Refine
Continuous feedback will shape priorities, enable iterative improvement and deliver meaningful capabilities. Your foundation layer will be tested at this stage - by customers and when adding new experiences. Review scope and challenge unsupported ideas to avoid delays and rework.
Transform
In many cases, strategies are launched but get lost in day-to-day activities. Keeping strategy visible boosts team awareness and ongoing alignment. Continuous research and iteration build on past achievements, helping teams adapt to user needs and deliver improved utility and lasting customer value.
Scope
Scope can be overlooked amid the momentum of new ideas. Share, communicate and mitigate early to avoid future friction or delay.
Product
Expectation - How will added scope shift delivery.
Value - Clarify what extra value is gained.
Budget - If there isn’t “more for more,” communicate any risks.
Time - Not all tasks are equal. Data prep, content migration, etc. can vary greatly in size and complexity. Focusing on task clarity leads to clearer roadmap impact.
Assessment - Consider the broader impact of scope increase on your roadmap.
Change control - Embed a process for this from the start.
Collaboration - Updating people of change across teams, removes any ambiguity.
Estimate and revise - With a shared understanding of the impact, change can be a positive opportunity to improve.
Design & Research
Extra design and research are not always scope creep but can add risk.
Design inconsistency - Use a centralised, evolving design system with active design team input.
Design handoff - Integrate a solid design to dev handoff process to avoid rework and delay.
Unclear or changing requirements - That journey, which has been tweaked several times… step back, assess full journeys, and consider the impact of change across architecture, design, and engineering.
Keep these in check with:
– Capacity planning
– Scalable systems
– Oversight of requirements
Scale
Underestimating scale can lead to delays and unmet expectations. Culturally, trying to “do more” in the same timeframe usually results in frustration and missed delivery.
Product
Timeline and resource - hiring and onboarding processes can disrupt mid-programme plans.
Priorities - Align goals, metrics, and priorities early.
Backlog & tech debt - Often unnoticed, they grow over time. Resolve them gradually or through targeted sprints.
Stakeholder requests - Assess scope and priorities before adding to the plan.
Legacy - Flag legacy system constraints early to avoid scale issues when adding new features.
Promote strong cross-functional squads - Involve people outside daily ceremonies to share updates and build an understanding of the digital process. Can improve ways of working across the board.
Early signs of scale issues - Reduced velocity, inconsistent design, last-minute hires, and repeated refactoring signal the need for a review.
Design & Research
Capacity - Capacity planning on a team/individual basis can avoid design team overstretch.
Research roadmaps - A clear research roadmap helps ensure every squad is fed with the insights needed to support timely decisions.
Discipline ratio - Where more hands are required to scale, use your team, structure and disciplines available to identify an effective ratio, over design:research:engineering averages.
Overstretch - Communicate the ratio to prevent hiring delays and overstretch, which can result in some withdrawing from teams to complete extra work .
Keep these in check with:
- Clear priorities and goals
- Cross-channel connections
- Regular team capacity and ratio reviews
KPIs & Alignment
KPIs and alignment can help all teams understand their objectives.
KPIs - Clear KPIs help teams align around shared goals. When teams focus only on their own targets, friction can build. Defining a single ‘north star’ metric keeps decision-making focused and ensures everyone moves in the same direction.
Alignment - When everyone understands the goal, being aligned increases the chance of success. The key is leadership alignment. Misaligned goals can slow or derail collaboration as cross-team collaboration becomes more critical.
Define and agree on priorities and metrics early.
Align teams, avoid friction, and achieve goals together.
Work
Right Product, First Time
Expanding search capability, improving efficiency and increasing relevancy
Insight & Foresight
Predictive ML capability & customer journeys
Values & Recommendations
Design begins with customer voice
Identify where value is added
Recognise need over preference
Positive friction can be valuable
Insights drive relevant design
Stability is a key release priority
Prioritise user abilities and context
Dan leads Product Design with a rare mix of customer focus and strategic insight, translating complex problems into intuitive solutions, aligning cross-functional teams around a shared vision, and consistently shapes ideas into impactful products. He is collaborative, approachable, and passionate about elevating both experiences and the people he works with. I would highly recommend Dan as an influential and thoughtful design leader.
Susana Cuesta - Senior Director of Product - Digital Commerce
Dan Applies deep expertise in customer behavior to drive evidence-based, user-centric design. A strategic, research-led approach streamlined processes and improved engagement. Aligns teams around shared goals, fosters collaboration, and delivers intuitive, impactful experiences. Through continuous discovery and data-informed roadmaps, reduces friction and drives clarity. A strong design leader with sharp insight and process focus, consistently delivers meaningful product outcomes.
Dan Phelps - CEO
Focus on being outcome-driven
Simplify for users at every step
Know your customers’ needs
Align on what’s in scope
Identify journey friction
Focus on end-to-end experiences
Design for intuition and consistency
Dan was an outstanding Head of UX at Abcam, fostering a collaborative environment that empowered the team to deliver exceptional experiences. He combined strategic direction with supportive mentorship, encouraging autonomy while sharpening our skills. With deep expertise in user-centred design, advocating research-driven practices and balanced aesthetics, functionality, and data to strengthen usability. His blend of design expertise and leadership makes him an invaluable asset.
Alex James - Senior UX Designer
Collaborated with Dan as Senior Product Manager at Abcam. He is one of the most thorough and trusted UX leaders I’ve worked with. He combines vision, insight, and design expertise to deliver intuitive, meaningful experiences. As Head of UX, Dan aligned product and design teams around shared opportunities and communicated complex ideas with clarity and empathy. As a leader, he empowered teams to elevate journeys while staying grounded in research and data. Any organization would be fortunate to have Dan driving both outstanding products and a strong, positive design culture.
Adam Zaschke - Senior Product Manager
Let’s connect
For contract or project engagements, please share a brief outline of your objectives and requirements.