The Crisis of App Quality

When I started out, the Mobile app was at a critical moment. Due to recent changes in vehicle architecture the App was dangerously unstable, ownership across teams was fragmented, and it was primarily perceived as a remote control for the car. Its potential to be a way to make a user love their Volvos "For Life" had not yet been realised. Immediate reliability problems competed with the need to prepare for new cars and future capabilities to be delightful.

Set direction on repair while building "For Life" vision with app as center.

I led the UX organisation, established experience and product direction, and connected design, product and engineering. My responsibility included developing designers and managers and shaping working practices that brought customer insight into product decisions. I worked across research and business leadership to connect those decisions with what teams could deliver incrementally.

Building a culture obsessed with user value & quality

I helped App & Car teams focus on the everyday journeys that customers depended on: locking their car, setting climate, charging on the go and vehicle status. This helped designers and peers re-imagine their products as experiences that would occur over time and place.

Through deep collaboration with product & engineering partners, we established a quality baseline. This included features, metrics and the minimum lovable experience. We also enabled thinking on what new and delightful experiences we were missing. This set up a dual-track in our approach - quality baseline, improved new offers.

Repositioning Mobile app

I helped connect the app’s direction to the wider ownership relationship, including services, commerce and retention. The work linked long-term business ambition with experience decisions, so new capabilities could be considered as parts of a connected product rather than separate additions.

As a result, the Mobile App gained a more strategic place in overall company strategy - enabling a vision of "Volvo for Life".

Preparing App for sustained scale

I strengthened the design organisation through hiring, developing designers and managers, and introducing principles, rituals and ways of framing work. These helped design contribute earlier to problems and product decisions, while giving teams enough shared structure to collaborate across disciplines.

This work contributed to the foundations for Volvo Cars App 6.0, its largest redesign and release in more than four years. It brought the car and its key functions into a more coherent experience, prepared to support a broader range of vehicles and ownership needs.

Evidence & attribution

During the wider product transformation, global MAU increased from 1.6M in May 2024 to 2.4M in December 2025: a 50% increase. Reported year-over-year MAU growth was 28%. Customers used the app on approximately 9 of every 28 days, and app-related customer-care cases fell 60% year over year.

These outcomes reflect many teams’ work. My role was to lead UX and help establish the experience, organisation and collaboration behind that progress. The December 2025 endpoint follows the end of my Head of UX tenure in October.

Reflection & Learning

My biggest learning has been that difficult things take time, patience and empathy. It took time to bring people together, see common goals and objectives, ride wave after wave of change.

My biggest reflection has been to keep humans at the forefront - be it the user, or our teams. By creating direction, a stable foundation, a feeling of progress - we were able to create something beautiful and lasting.

Make the unknowns visible early.

My current work develops experience briefs for Volvo’s software roadmap, framing how future products and the capabilities behind them should deliver value.

Research, narrative, models and prototypes help different disciplines form a shared view of an experience opportunity before teams commit to delivery. Specific briefs and artifacts are reserved for the detailed private account.

Pioneer with purpose.

I led design for multiple teams in Volvo’s Innovation Arena incubator, using customer insight, narrative and prototypes to explore future value.

The work made emerging possibilities tangible enough to discuss, challenge and learn from. Specific concepts and process artifacts are reserved for the detailed private account.

Growth made every product decision more consequential.

I built and led the design team shaping Spotify’s subscription platform, Premium products and global partnerships. The work helped teams clarify value and improve important journeys while retaining the creative character of the product.

Spotify moved from roughly 10 million to 87 million Premium subscribers during my tenure. This describes company context, not an outcome I claim individually.

Connect commercial intent to product craft.

I helped frame problems, lead designers, shape critique and work with product, research, data and engineering partners. The work needed clarity without becoming generic growth optimisation.

Running already had rhythm. Could Spotify understand it?

I helped create Spotify Running from scratch: a listening experience connecting a runner’s movement, musical energy and Spotify’s catalogue.

The opportunity was not simply to make a running playlist, but to explore an experience responsive to movement and context. The introduction above shows the product in motion.

Prototype the feeling, not only the feature.

A responsive music experience had to feel effortless while coordinating complex inputs behind the scenes. Timing, transitions and feedback mattered to the feeling of the experience.

This story complements Premium: one shows sustained leadership inside a commercial system; the other shows focused product invention and interaction craft.

Bringing brand and commerce together.

At R/GA New York, I helped bring Nike’s brand and commerce together on Nike.com. The work connected interaction detail with the global brand and service experience around it.

Connecting brand and experience.

My R/GA work spanned global brand experiences for Nike. This chapter brings that work together as a distinct part of my practice, alongside commerce and connected sport.

Making activity visible.

I led sport and brand work including the FuelBand dashboard. This work developed the habit of moving between a single interaction and the larger connected product experience.