Katherine Wastell

Designing how organisations deliver for customers — Katherine Wastell Many teams and leaders are under pressure to deliver more, better, faster, with less. While the reality is that delivery feels harder than it should. There can be many reasons for this - capability g...

A lot of delivery problems aren’t delivery problems at all. They’re org design problems.

Step back to look at the org as a delivery system. Start from the customer experience, the products and services that shape it, and the internal systems that support.

www.katherinewastell.com/blog/2026/1/...

There's lots of talk of what AI means for design. The real impact will be felt in everyday customer experiences.

AI is artificial but so are most services. Screens, clicks, logins. Done well, AI could remove these barriers so experiences fit more naturally into life.

public.digital/pd-insights/...

Our latest @publicdigital.bsky.social book, competitive advantage by design, is here.

Today, design approaches shape how modern businesses are run.

This is a collection of stories that remind us of the joy of design and its transformative potential.

Get your copy public.digital/pd-design-book

Headshot of Katherine Wastell. Text reads: A senior director at Public Digital, Katherine is an experienced designer who has led design and customer experience teams in organisations unfamiliar with design.

Headshot of Alex Blandford. Text reads: Principal consultant at Public Digital working with clients across government, charities and higher education. 

#CampDigital - Meet our speakers!

We're delighted to announce that @kwastell.bsky.social and @blangry.bsky.social will join our lineup on 3rd July, with their talk 'Getting things moving in a system that doesn't want to!' 🥳

Grab your tickets today at: tinyurl.com/mw4bcyb9

Weeknote 2025/10 A message for International Women’s Day. Photo: me. Yesterday was International Women’s Day, so once again, I picked up the mantle of Asking Awkward Questions On The Internet. Why? Because DE…

In my latest weeknote:

👊🏻IWD internet shitposting, wrapped: 42 submissions. 33 companies called out for IWD hypocrisy. No responses. So what did we learn?

Also: HR Tech Europe (big on AI but not so much on experience), gigs (1 good, one meh), AMS looking fiiiine.

sharonodea.com/2025/03/09/w...

Flexible working isn’t 9 to 5 — Katherine Wastell There's a lot of talk about flexible working. Most organisations now recognise its importance, and many have policies in place. But too often, these policies miss the point. Flexibility isn't just ab...

Flexible working isn’t just about when you work. And work-life balance isn’t just about start and finish times. The reality is that work doesn’t fit neatly into a 9 to 5, and life doesn’t fit neatly outside it. Outcomes are more important than hours.

www.katherinewastell.com/blog/2025/3/...

“This evolution of tap design serves as a prime example of where capitalism and design have gone wrong.”

Designing on a cold, rainy night in Stoke — Katherine Wastell Over the years in the teams I’ve led and supported, I’ve observed a unique skill-set in the designers with transformation experience. They’ve learnt how to do design in challenging, high-pressure envi...

There's been recent focus on hiring designers from big-name tech companies (lnkd.in/eEjxq8EQ). Their skills are impressive, no doubt.

But in today’s climate of cost-saving, organisations need designers with the hard-earned experience of a transformation.

www.katherinewastell.com/blog/designi...

Photo of a book called, ‘I thought about that a lot’. The book is bright yellow, with an illustration of a cartoon figure who looks like they are thinking and has mini bubble heads floating out of their head. The book is on a white desk.

What a beauty 😍

www.ithoughtaboutthatalot.com/product/itat...

@amymcnichol.bsky.social @allconsuming.bsky.social

Yes 100%, and this needs to be combined with considering how people, and teams, work together.

Photo of a green post-it with a hand drawn sketch. The sketch shows a cluster of 4 circles, with arrows going round the outside. It says ‘E2E customer experience’.

Design how teams work together to make the end-to-end experience real. It’s not just about vision — it’s about delivery. Build teams with the right skills and group them to deliver the experience. Shape how your organisation runs, how colleagues are supported, and how teams work together every day.

Photo of a green post-it with a hand drawn sketch. The sketch shows 4 overlapping circles of different sizes. Inside the circles it says ‘Create an account’, ‘Order a card’, ‘Manage your finances’ and ‘Get financial advice’.

How you organise work should reflect what’s most important in the end-to-end experience. A seamless experience comes from all the parts working together so customers don’t feel the joins. Focus on key interactions and journeys, map how services connect, and prioritise around what’s most important.

Photo of a green post-it with a hand drawn sketch. The sketch shows a horizontal arrow with the words ‘E2E experience’. Underneath is a vertical arrow with the words ‘E2E org design + op model’.

To realise an E2E (end-to-end) experience you have to reflect it E2E in your organisation. Knowing the problems, having a vision and setting priorities isn’t all. If customer are leaving, delivery is slow and teams are siloed the issue runs deeper. You need to design how your organisation works E2E.

Photo of a green post-it with a hand drawn sketch. The sketch shows a horizontal arrow with the words ‘E2E experience’. Underneath is a vertical arrow with the words ‘E2E org design + op model’.

Photo of a green post-it with a hand drawn sketch. The sketch shows 4 overlapping circles of different sizes. Inside the circles it says ‘Create an account’, ‘Order a card’, ‘Manage your finances’ and ‘Get financial advice’.

Photo of a green post-it with a hand drawn sketch. The sketch shows a cluster of 4 circles, with arrows going round the outside. It says ‘E2E customer experience’.

Why do so many strategic initiatives fail?

Too often, organisations focus entirely on the target customer experience, without thinking about how they’ll make it real. They want to create a new experience, but their operating model holds them back.

Could anyone recommend a high quality fast turnaround place to get stickers printed in London?

Diginate isn’t fast enough for what we need.

How to prioritise your services, and your effort — Katherine Wastell

In an organisation that delivers services, it’s crucial to prioritise the effort you put into them. You need to focus where you’ll see the best return on investment. That could be for operational efficiency or a better customer and colleague experience. www.katherinewastell.com/blog/2024/5/...

A visual map with pink and green quadrants. Showing different qualitative research methods, plotted between structured vs unstructured, and observational vs conversational.

Doing user research is about looking for clues. And while user research can’t provide certainty, it will inform the bets you place in your organisational strategy.

Doing user research to inform strategy: public.digital/2024/02/21/d...

Screenshot of a section of a Miro board. Showing the people in the design community at Public Digital.

This is making me very happy today… the start of a design community of practice at @publicdigital.bsky.social

The phases of establishing design — Katherine Wastell

The journey to establish design in an organisation is not a straight path, but a cyclical process. Working across different organisations, I've noticed some common phases. As you navigate through these phases, it's crucial to adapt your leadership approach.

www.katherinewastell.com/blog/2023/11...

There’s an old saying, the best designer isn’t the best manager. While that’s true for some people, it’s unambitious.

For design leadership to be effective, we need a player-coach approach. We need to combine people leadership and design leadership.

www.katherinewastell.com/blog/2023/10...

Rapid and collaborative synthesis — Katherine Wastell

To identify user research findings, you need to distill lots of information into meaningful patterns.

Do it with your team, and do it iteratively.

And you'll rapidly synthesise your way to clear findings that the entire team has helped shape.

www.katherinewastell.com/blog/2023/co...

My nephew got a mullet, and he’s 13, so they must be back?

Hurray, will update!

Yes, it’s in review at the moment

Appreciation workshop (with Miro template) — Katherine Wastell

Appreciation is an important practice for everyone, and thankfully is much more common across teams in recent years.

Whether you're a small team of 3 or a team-of-teams, showing your appreciation for one another can work wonders for building connections.

www.katherinewastell.com/blog/2023/9/...