Designing and helping to scale a COVID-19 testing start-up business from £10m to £110m during the pandemic.

Cignpost are a UK based life sciences company who wanted to seize the opportunity presented by the Covid pandemic and use their expertise in lab testing to create a start-up which would become Express Test.

Initially the company helped TV and film production before moving in to helping customers travel in and out of the UK during the pandemic the pandemic developed. 

They had an online and in-store presences at airports and shopping centres across the UK used to test validate customer covid tests. 

I was the Lead UX Designer on the project.

It was my job to help plan the design tasks and work in partnership with the Business Analyst, Project Manager and Development Lead to determine the long and short term product roadmap as well as the work required each sprint.

I would liaise directly with C-suite members at Express Test when needed regarding product/business needs.

The other 'design' team members included internal customer experience, another agency from Manchester and 2 Capgemini members whom I helped guide on the project. 

My role was responsible for Capgemini's input and speaking with the other parties to ensure collaboration and harmony amongst us all to achieve success.

The business had been established and wanted to ‘scale-up’ from using Umbraco to a solution which could better manage and create larger order quantities. They opted to use Salesforce and Capgemni as the chosen consultancy partner. 

The work was extremely fast-paced and the client needed to respond ASAP to continuous UK government changes regarding travel and testing policy which effected things like:

• business operations

• product ranges

• price margins

• customer requirements as part of their purchase

On joining the business, it was clear that user-centred or even design thinking was not in place and agile methodologies were not properly being adhered to.

I set about first presenting my ideas, then putting in place structure which would ensure design was embedded in to the development sprints with regular alignment sessions. 

I then looked to understand what had been put in place previously with regards to design and branding which would be developed further in Figma to become a new design system for the Salesforce design and development teams to work from.

Sprints were often extremely fast-paced and the backlog driven by an internal Express Test Product Owner.

Hotjar was however in place to try and track user behaviour, whilst we would often hold internal sessions for user feedback on design iterations.

Before arriving on the project a component library was in its very early stages.

We took an 'atomic' approach to buyild out the component library from:

• Typeface

• Icon library

• Brand colour

This would become the foundation for all designs and components. We also use the Salesforce Lightining Design system in cooperation with the developers to ensure quick high quality, accessible designs could be developed.

Design inspiration from Airbnb was taken for the design of some of the pages and continuation in to the checkout journey.

The page split up in to two and one third as well as having a floating fixed 'receipt' of information on the right hand side kept customers informed of their purchase decisions and expected costs.

All the designs were created with a mobile-first methodology. 

Breakpoints were established as part of the design system and Desktop design always created for each section of the designs.

Myself and the team were responsible for the booking, checkout and after-care parts of the journeys which included creating email and guidance content.

We collaborated with the existing agency on the homepage which introduced the products in order to achieve perfect alignment on designs, colour palettes and content.

I would also help to review and support the external agency and internal teams, fostering a great tema ethos and enhancing Capgemini's reputation on the project. 

Although the COVID-19 pandemic was a testing time for everyone, it was really exciting and satisfyign to be part of a true start-up success story which grew annually from £10m to over £110m over the course of just 12 months.

I developed my design and leadership skills as well as being able to foster great working relationships with the client at all levels of the business. 

Being an important daily contributor and strategic influence for the business.