Context
Onto was the UK’s leading EV (electric vehicle) subscription service, operating a fleet of approximately 7,500 vehicles. Customers subscribed to an EV through a digital-first service that spanned a marketing website, a customer app connected directly to vehicles, and internal systems used to manage operations.
The service needed to work seamlessly across consumer and commercial customers, with increasing pressure to scale, launch confidently in new markets, and maintain consistency across an expanding product ecosystem.
My role
I joined Onto as Head of Design, responsible for leading and scaling the design function. Design covered the marketing website, customer app, and internal tools. Initially managing a small team of designers, I was accountable for assessing future needs and growing the team to support projected organisational and international growth.
I reported directly to the CTO (C-suite) and worked closely with the CMO, partnering across product, engineering, data, and commercial teams to ensure design was embedded in decision-making rather than operating as a delivery function.
The approach
My approach focused on establishing a scalable, resilient design organisation aligned to the company’s growth ambitions. This included:
Assessing the existing organisation against projected growth and product complexity
Defining a future-state design capability, spanning product, service, content, research, and systems design across the UK and Europe
Recruiting and onboarding designers, with clear expectations and progression
Supplementing the team with contractors, agency support, and tooling where appropriate, stepping in hands-on to unblock or set direction when needed
Establishing clear ways of working to support quality, consistency, and collaboration
Design leadership in practice
This role required steering multiple teams and disciplines while maintaining coherence across the service. My focus was on enabling designers to do their best work while ensuring design had an overall steer across product teams. Key leadership practices included:
Establishing OKRs
Establishing OKRs for the design system, linking quality and consistency to measurable outcomes
Introducing and maintaining ceremonies
Building on regular design crits, introducing show-and-tell sessions, and an ‘internal conference’ to strengthen craft and shared understanding
Team development
Designing and implementing a progression framework and regular 1-to-1s to support individual development
informed challenge
Providing informed challenge at senior level, including balancing UX quality against marketing and SEO considerations, such as navigation and information architecture decisions
While my role was primarily strategic and coaching-focused, I stepped in hands-on where necessary. This involved setting up tools, shaping research questions, and offering detailed critique to unblock teams and maintain standards.
Snapshot
SEO vs UX
The challenge
Onto’s website navigation had become crowded and unstructured over time, with multiple teams adding content to support marketing and growth. This resulted in a confusing user experience where key information was difficult to find.
At the same time, Onto’s organic search performance was significantly underperforming compared to paid search. The marketing team proposed a new, SEO-driven content architecture to address this, but there was a real risk that improving search visibility would come at the expense of usability.
The design responsibility
My role was to lead the approach that balanced these competing needs. The site acted as a critical marketing funnel, helping customers understand the service and book vehicles, while also sitting on top of complex in-house and third-party systems that managed fleet utilisation and delivery. Any change to navigation needed to remain clear, scalable, and user-centred.
Screenshot showing initial page. Good for SEO, untested for usability
What we did
We tested assumptions rather than choosing sides.
The outcome
By grounding decisions in evidence, we delivered a navigation structure that supported SEO goals without compromising usability. The final solution tested well with users, provided a scalable content framework, and gave marketing confidence that search performance could improve without degrading the customer experience.
Image showing tree testing to measure directness and success.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Joe at Onto. He is a fantastic design leader with a deep knowledge of product, service and content design.
Joe is a great strategic thinker, balanced with an exceptional focus on the finer details of design. He also has a real strength in building connections between teams. As a manager, Joe provides support and mentorship whilst empowering his team and nurturing collaboration. He brings a positive mindset, always offering valuable and constructive feedback.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Joe and would highly recommend him.”
Lead product designer
Leadership reflection
This case study reinforced my belief that effective design leadership is about creating the conditions for others to succeed. By focusing on structure, clarity, and shared ownership, I was able to scale both the team and the quality of outcomes without becoming a bottleneck.
I aim to lead design through direction and judgement rather than control, steering multiple contributors towards a common goal, while stepping in when experience or context is needed. This approach has shaped how I continue to build high-performing, collaborative design organisations.