Luminate

Two existing products with opposite users had to be modernised at once and aligned with Luminate's new brand: an internal portal where music industry data is ingested and managed, and a subscription platform where clients consult that data. Direct access to end users was limited, so their pain points had to be found through the people who knew the tools best. The brand's music-world energy had to work inside two data-dense dashboard products, and design had to stay aligned with development's constraints while still delivering what the client wanted and what served users best.

• Diagnosed what each product needed and shaped both teams: I interviewed and hired three visual designers, and gave the senior one room to lead the subscription platform.
• Set one visual direction for both products, breaking the brand down into lines, angles and colour and applying them even to the most repeated components.
• Set how the music world would show up in dense data tools: a header built around musicians' photography in the internal portal, artist and album images in avatars and tables, and modern brand-coloured dashboards in the subscription platform.
• Led the product design of the internal portal across eight core flows, with designers joining the team along the way.

I explained every design by the job it did, including the emotional role of the visual design, to take subjectivity out of the discussion, and I brought the client into the process so they understood where each decision came from. Over time the client trusted my judgement. Both products moved forward under one design direction, and I answered to the client for planning, resources and quality on both teams.