Case Study
Umi Digital
Growth Driven Design Transformation
Led the adoption of Growth Driven Design principles across hospitality and travel clients, replacing traditional website projects with continuous optimisation driven by customer insight and measurable outcomes.
Role
Head of UX & Design
Duration
2 Years
Methods
User Research
Continuous Optimisation
Workshop Facilitation
Skills
Leadership | UX Strategy | Customer Research | Digital Transformation
Table of Contents
Situation
Umi Digital operated using a traditional agency delivery model where work moved through separate departments in a linear process. Projects were often sold based on assumptions, with limited validation of customer needs before solutions were designed and developed.
Challenge
The hospitality industry was accustomed to purchasing websites as one-off projects that would remain largely unchanged for several years. Internally, teams worked in functional silos, creating handovers between sales, marketing, design and development. This often resulted in solutions being designed around assumptions rather than customer insight, reducing opportunities for learning and optimisation.
Actions
Introduced Growth Driven Design principles across the organisation, adapting concepts from Design Thinking, Lean and continuous improvement methodologies.
Developed frameworks, training materials and workshops to help teams understand customer-centred approaches to problem solving.
Encouraged multidisciplinary collaboration earlier in the project lifecycle, bringing sales, marketing, design and development teams together to shape solutions collectively.
Promoted research-led decision making, MVP thinking and iterative improvement rather than large upfront assumptions.
Outcome
Helped shift organisational thinking from project delivery towards continuous improvement and customer-centred problem solving.
Increased collaboration between departments, creating stronger ownership of outcomes across teams.
Established a foundation for research-informed decision making and ongoing optimisation.
Skills Demonstrated
- Service Design
- Organisational Change
- Change Management
- Workshop Facilitation
- Stakeholder Alignment
- Design Thinking
- Leadership
- Continuous Improvement