The ambition was bigger than a tool: increase customer lifetime value by creating a ‘circle of life’ engagement — from the first look at a car to the next one. I led a four-designer POD running discovery with cross-disciplinary teams, experimentation and accessibility-incubated design delivery, partnering with programme leadership on agreed OKRs across Europe, Canada, South Asia and the Middle East.

We started with four workstreams in parallel: synergy with the sister brand, UX audits, data insights from visits and drop-offs, and opportunity mapping on the wall. Then came the how — 15+ market benchmarks and audits across manufacturers, third parties and cross-vertical players; an accessibility centre of excellence bringing 36+ persuasive patterns; speculative user journeys; bottlenecks, data capture and wicked problems; and the dealership mindsets behind each market.

We took the evolving list of customer feedback and sorted every item through a lever framework — trust, usability, comprehension, cost and motivation. It gave us a cumulative impact score of 62.5 and a backlog of 22 voice-of-customer issues we could actually address, rather than a wall of complaints.

This is where the story turned. Today, we were making incremental improvements to the version explorer and configurator, at the risk of not solving the problem that drives customer value — and the configurator was built for a product line that was about to get simpler and electrified.

Tomorrow had to be different: dare to differentiate, fix the data structure underneath, shorten the time from idea to live, and close the gap between what customers expect and what we deliver.

We rebuilt the journey around three principles: tools that adapt to each person's interests and schedule; guidance at every step, so people feel confident from start to finish; and a smooth purchase when they're ready. Grade selection was redesigned mobile-first, and a two-week design sprint with market representatives settled the edge cases.

It scaled across 8 regions: a 48% completion rate (up 18%) and an 11% click-through, against 7% before.

Because the configurator had already been tested in three markets with strong usability feedback, we carried it to the sister brand — and refined it for the Middle East and Mexico, where buying habits and expectations are different. One system, tailored where it matters.

The offers hub was underperforming: people looked, then left. We redesigned it so every offer leads onward — book a test drive, text me this offer, request a quote, contact a dealer — and improved offer visibility across the shopping journey, including right-to-left markets.

Comparison had been built differently by different teams. After UX auditing and opportunity mapping, we designed one unified compare tool — adopted across PODs first, and then reworked for the sister brand — so people could make an informed, confident purchase decision without building a spreadsheet in their head.