BT Group
Product Manager - Design Systems
BT Group
From BT to New EE
The role
I’m product manager for BT Group’s Consumer Design System: Loop. I set the vision, strategy and roadmap for our products and services.
Our products are: a documentation website, with best practice guidance for product design, content design, and engineering; and our tools, a Figma library, Flutter codebase for app and React codebase for web. Our services are: support for over 50 squads; and contribution, with over 30 contributors so far.
The problem
In 2021, BT Group made a seismic strategic shift. EE would replace BT as the Group’s primary consumer brand. And EE the telco would transform to EE the techco, with an app-first proposition to reach every household in the UK.
At this time, Loop was in its infancy, and was a BT brand, web platform design system.
How could Loop support the new strategy?
The goal
Position Loop as a key enabler for New EE by making it an essential tool for journey squads transitioning from BT to EE.
Meet or exceed the target, informed by user research, of making journey squads 20% more efficient during this change.
My input
I set a new vision and strategy that would see us transform Loop from a BT web system to an EE app and web system within 6 months.
I shared the new vision and strategy with senior stakeholders and had agreement on Loop’s pivot within 1 week, ensuring no time was lost in meeting our deadline.
I represented Loop on the New EE Brand Working Group. Together with Loop's Product Design and Content Design Leads, I ensured that the refreshed EE brand would meet the needs of the Digital Team, including compliance with WCAG standards.
I created and delivered an internal communications strategy to launch Loop v2.0. I regularly presented to audiences of over 200 people as I ensured that Loop's users understood the importance of adopting Loop to move to New EE with maximum efficiency and consistency.
I kept the Loop squad motivated despite needing to archive 95% of their previous work by ensuring they felt appreciated, for example by arranging hand-signed Thank You cards from the Digital Directors.
The outcome
The Loop squad delivered Loop v2.0 on schedule.
Around 50 journey squads adopted Loop to transition to New EE. User research showed that these squads were able to design and build up to 35% more efficiently compared with legacy tools.
The Loop squads' efforts were recognised with a Quarterly Team Award.