John Lewis underwent a major brand redesign with a hard three-month deadline. From a usability perspective, one of the main challenges was that the branding agency had not optimised for digital platforms or accessibility.

As Lead UX Designer, I needed to facilitate agreement between diverse stakeholders while ensuring user needs remained central to decision-making, creating cohesive designs across digital touchpoints.

• Planned and led collaborative design workshops to establish a shared understanding.

• Used evidence from user research and analytics to ground discussions in facts.

• Created visual representations of different approaches and their impact on users, applying design thinking to complex problems.

• Set up regular drop-in sessions for design consistency and implementation questions, managing team expectations.

• Worked directly with the design consultancy on global navigation elements and information architecture to ensure usability was prioritised over aesthetics.

• Maintained open communication channels with product teams and senior management throughout, facilitating difficult discussions when usability and brand guidelines conflicted.

The approach successfully aligned stakeholders around a unified solution that balanced business needs while prioritising user experience. The resulting implementation met both commercial timescales and created the desired step change in brand identity whilst preserving the user experience. I was nominated for a Roof Raiser award for my work, which I was really proud of.