Globalising BPP
a professional education brand
BPP Education Group has scaled it’s operations and development speed by 4x.
The Product Design team’s critical thinking led the way for this renaissance in education with the introduction of Design Thinking culture.
The 3 year journey
Leading the implementation of BPP’s inaugural Product Design team and shaping a digital transformation which has placed this business at the centre of the education renaissance.
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June 2023
Once I joined BPP I scoped the shape of change that was needed based on the businesses vision. From this I addressed the value great craft and critical design thinking can give to lead the business into this new era. Then came the fun bit, finding and nurturing excellent designers and building a strong design culture.
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September 2023
In my first 3 months at BPP we recruited a combination of freelance and permanent designers. A flexible mix of expertise to allow us to define the core design foundations that we continue to build from over the following years. We focussed on founding a design system, this was a real lynch pin to allow all discussions to move faster by holding UI design decision making in one key area, thus allowing the designers to focus more time on finding the right solution to the problems they were tackling.
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January-December 2024
Let’s be honest, not many people have heard of BPP, it’s not a high street name, but it has huge growth potential.
This potential is valuable to model when initiating a design culture in a business that had previously not valued design thinking or theory.
We established our expertise as critical thinkers balancing user needs and business value all while showcasing the honesty of experimenting and working closely with user research to add value to our hypotheses. We also focussed heavily on articulating our thought process by explain design theories and how they can influence user behaviours.
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2025-2026
The use of design thinking is reshaping how businesses grow by promoting flexible, human-centered methods that teams across the organisation can adopt. With expert, on-demand advice available by the hour—from strategic planning to hands-on problem-solving—companies can access targeted support exactly when they need it. These focused consultations clarify objectives, map actionable next steps, and reveal untapped opportunities for growth, making it easier for the wider business to embed iterative, user-driven practices and scale solutions with confidence.
Constant growth = Satisfying employment
To ensure I could retain great talent in my team, I had to focus on allowing my team to find satisfaction in their role.
Autonomy
Each designer has to take ownership of a key area of the business transformation (domain, product, feature). At BPP this largely aligned with product domains (websites/ student life/learning experience etc). This lets the designer and the team they work with to find their own rhythm and bring their design personality.
Presentation skills
My number one focus for any designer in any business is to ensure they are constantly growing and exercising their presentation skills. Product Designers must become expert presenters because they are the conduit between concept and reality for the business. More on this later☝️
Reward
Yes financial reward is very important and I do my very best to make sure designers are fairly paid but reward comes in myriad ways. Physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing are key players but also reward with respect to recognition.
Career opportunity
Working at BPP is offering an opportunity to be part of huge growth and with that comes the ability to climb the career ladder. Having a team that can enable the growth of all and allow people to reach their next career destination can be the most satisfying aspect of choosing to work at BPP.
the #1 skill for any designer
Presenting & communicating
Product Designers need to be excellent presenters, not just clicking through prototypes but become great storytellers.
Engaging stakeholders, colleagues and users with the world of possibilities to shape a better more valuable future comes with developing a strong understanding of communication techniques.
You don’t have to become comfortable with presenting, heaven knows I still find it nerve-wracking, but finding the abilities to enthral, persuade and steer minds with the use of data, design and business knowledge really puts the designer in the steering seat.
At BPP I’ve orchestrated several training sessions to skill not only designers but analysts, engineers, product managers and more in the basics of Presenting and Communicating effectively.
I’ve also taken many extra measures to find opportunities for my team to flex their skills thus increasing their visibility to the business, growing their autonomy and in turn allowing stakeholder trust to bloom.