Giles Rollestone

About Giles

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Award-winning creative leader with 25+ years’ experience solving complex business challenges, building high-impact teams, elevating design and delivering state-of-the art customer experiences.

ex-Capco, ex-HSBC, ex-American Express, ex-Dealogic, ex-Brand Advocate, ex-MetaDesign, ex-Royal College of Art

Visionary. Strategic. Progressive. Pragmatic. Business-led. People-centred. Design-driven. Outcome-focussed.

Overview
I’m an award-winning product, design and business transformation leader with extensive expertise in driving creative and delivery excellence. I have a longstanding track record of developing customer-led organisations, and building digital design capabilities for start-ups, established organisations, and global brands including FTSE 100 and Fortune 100 companies in Asia, Europe, the UK and the United States.

25 years + working at the forefront of global user experience strategy, design, research and product/service innovation, mostly in fintech and financial services (capital markets, investment banking, retail and business banking), but encompassing also other industry sectors (energy and utilities, fmcg, media, real estate, transportation).

15 years + in formal leadership roles.

I have a PhD in Design, an MBA in Digital Innovation, and I’m a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

What I do
As a creative strategic servant leader, designer, problem solver, doer, mentor and coach, I thrive on agile environments where co-creation and a relentless focus on people, outcomes and value are absolute priorities.

I draw on my 25 years of practice and leadership in the digital UX, product and service design space to assist founders, leaders, early career designers, product teams, start-ups and established organisations with fusing strategy, customer-centricity and technology towards innovative, truly transformative, products, services, teams and environments.

Credentials
Formerly:
- Innovation & Design Capital Markets Lead; Head of Design at Capco
- Director of User Experience Research & Design at American Express
- Global Head of User Experience at Dealogic
- Head of User Experience at Brand Advocate
- Interval Research Fellow & Founding Member of the CRD Research Studio at the Royal College of Art, funded by the Silicon Valley incubator Interval Research.

“I help companies build and scale state-of-the-art customer experiences by fusing strategy, customer-centricity and technology through user experience design.”

Expertise.

↑ Build new and scale existing UX, research and product design teams with vision, strategy, org design, process, innovation and transformation operating systems guidance.
⦿ Up-skill, coach and mentor existing CX / UX / product design and research practitioners and capabilities to maximise impact, value and commercial results.
✓ Address challenges with product market-fit for zero-to-one and products that require deeper alignment to customer needs and journeys - increasing customer engagement, acquisition and retention.
→ Resolve delivery challenges and help to ensure value generating software is delivered at pace and aligned to your market and end users.
- CX and product discovery
- UX research
- Design thinking and design sprint facilitation and workshop creation
- Vision and strategy
- Zero-to-one new product and platform development
- End-to-end UX-UI design
- Existing product and platform improvement
- UX enhancement
- Product market-fit
- Customer co-creation, feedback and validation
- Design governance
- CX metrics, indicators and measuring value
- Scaling high-performance teams and functions for product / customer experience growth
- Vision
- Strategy
- Structure
- Operations
- Culture
- Performance
- Measurement
- Approach and strategy
- Programme and stakeholder management
- Experience architecture and emerging technologies
- Customer centricity culture evolution
- Ensuring multiple perspectives inform and shape change
- Getting organisations and teams closer to customers
- Governance and people
- Creating high-performance teams and functions at scale
- One-to-one executive coach and mentor (certification in-progress)
- Up-skilling and mentoring teams
- People leadership and performance management
- Manager of managers
- Career growth acceleration

90+

Front-to-back digital product and platform implementations from idea to launch and beyond..

14+

Industry awards.

£12m+

Yearly revenue generated from one product alone.

Current Focus. Urban Feedback +

I founded Urban Feedback in 2004 as a boutique digital innovation and design leadership advisory/consulting firm, aimed at envisioning and delivering innovative, truly transformative, capabilities, products, services and solutions to start-ups and established organisations.

As I refocused on Urban Feedback in 2023, I am currently acting as a Fractional Chief Experience Officer and Advisor, intent on elevating customer experience design-led innovation and transformation alongside like-minded companies and individuals.

AI User Experience - Blockchain & Crypto - Gamification - Web3 - System Design - Design Thinking - CX Strategy - Personalised Branded Experiences.

Track Record.

Fuse Beyond Typography Postcard Back.jpg

Interested in working with Giles?

Currently I have availability for additional projects, and with over three decades of experience in design and innovation, I love helping individuals, teams and organisations find human-centred opportunities for growth.

Please feel free to get in contact to discuss your business needs and explore how I could potentially help.