Case study · Flutter UKI Customer · 2025–present
Growing a design team from 4 to 9 to support 28 squads
How I used AI to cut through complexity, and brought structure, visibility and a leadership layer to a small design team serving four product tribes.
The challenge
After 11 years in Sport, I moved into Customer. Once the Sky Bet migration finished, each of Customer’s four tribes had seven squads ready to go, and there were four designers. Requests went straight to designers, and with no structure I had to be hands-on everywhere. That built context fast, but it wasn’t sustainable.
My role
As Senior Design Manager, I lead product and content design for Customer, line-manage two leads, and agree priorities with the leadership of each tribe, within a UK and Ireland design organisation of nearly 70.
The approach
A front door for every tribe
Requests come through one channel, then a quick call with the designer and product manager, a ticket on the roadmap and a kick-off.
Make capacity visible
Roadmaps are open to the whole tribe, so product can see where new work will realistically land. Prioritisation moved into product sessions.
Build a leadership layer
I told my Head of Design and MD the team was too thin. We grew to nine through hiring and promotion: a mid-level designer became senior, and a senior became a lead.
Bring in service design
I’ve pushed the team to lead on service design methods. An alignment workshop I ran brought senior stakeholders together on a large initiative.
AI in practice
A single source of truth, built with AI.
Our documentation was scattered, and much of the work involves a complex internal tool. I built a skill in an internal Claude-powered tool, loaded it with everything we had and set clear rules for how it behaves. A lead and two designers use it regularly to get to the heart of problems, and it helped me plan that workshop.
I’ve also connected our three Jira tools with AI, so work flows from discovery through to delivery.
Key decision
Spend my time where the team was least experienced.
With 28 squads and a handful of designers, I couldn’t be everywhere. Two tribes had experienced designers, so I focused hands-on support where people were newer, and used the roadmaps to make the case for growing the team quickly.
Leading the team
A leadership layer, and a weekly pulse on how people are doing.
I line-manage the two leads, one promoted from within and one hired externally, and they manage their own teams. That frees me to work on priorities with tribe leadership.
I also set up a weekly check-in in Slack, so anyone can raise a blocker or ask for support without waiting for a one-to-one.
Results
- 9
- Designers in the team, up from 4 when I joined in 2025.
- 4
- Tribes with their own front door.
- 2
- Leads, one promoted from within.
- 28
- Squads supported across Customer.
- The design leadership team adopted the roadmap approach in other areas of the business.
- In 2026, bringing teams onto one connected Jira workflow, from discovery to services.
What I learned
A new area needs a fresh approach, not a copy of what worked before.
When everyone can see the roadmap, prioritisation becomes a shared decision.
What I’d do differently
Set up the structure from day one.
I’d put the front door and the leadership structure in place straight away, and give earlier hands-on support to designers newer to working at this scale.