Built an in-house design practice and product operating model.
Seven permanent hires, a new operating model, and a Design System for the digital products regulated firms use.
A regulator moving to agile, without the design practice to match
The FCA regulates the financial firms that serve UK consumers and maintains the integrity of the country’s financial markets. It was moving towards agile, user-centred, continuous delivery, to respond faster to changing user and regulatory needs. The challenge was to accelerate that digital maturity by designing and embedding a delivery model and ways of working, aligned with public sector and industry good practice.
Make the FCA more user-centric, and able to stay that way
As the design specialist in a consultancy team of four, I was asked to find where the FCA could become more user-centric, and to turn those opportunities into a proposal, roadmap and implementation plan. I then oversaw the initiatives through delivery over 18 months, and stepped in as Interim Head of User-Centred Design until a permanent lead was hired.
Build the team, then the system it works from
The work ran on two strands. The first was capability: rather than relying on suppliers and contractors, we built a permanent in-house design team, placed designers inside product squads, and set up a centre of excellence to champion the end user. The second was consistency: a Design System for every external-facing product, so that team had shared, accessible foundations to build on.
Four problems a single system had to solve
An inconsistent face to firms
Regulated firms met dated, inconsistent digital products every time they dealt with the FCA.
Generic tools, inaccurate data
Off-the-shelf platforms handling intricate data entry led to inaccurate submissions and a poor experience.
Accessibility at risk
Disparate UI patterns made it hard to meet WCAG 2.2 consistently across products and services.
The cost of rework
Time and money went on fixing poorly designed and formatted journeys after the fact.
Working with the FCA’s design department, we proved the system’s value inside a single product first, testing and learning there before extending it to others.
It started from GOV.UK’s components, the product of more than a decade of embedded research and design. We deliberately detached it from that origin, giving the FCA’s own team the autonomy to solve problems specific to a regulator.
A design practice the FCA owns
Seven permanent hires now form a dedicated centre of excellence that champions the end user, and helps the FCA meet its regulatory objectives in the process. With permanent designers in product squads, the FCA no longer pays costly day rates to suppliers and contractors for that work.
“A trailblazer for embedding a digital product operating model and ways of working whilst building an in-house design practice.”
Brian McIntyre · Head of Digital, FCA