Creating a new website and mobile app for a Premier League football team

The old website for this leading Premier League football team needed a refresh. Its design looked dated, and the membership areas were not performing as well as they could. Many of the customers were mobile-first, and their user experience hadn’t been optimised.

Another major challenge was that the consulting company I was working for had acquired a design agency. This was the first programme in which the two organisations would be brought together. Digital agencies typically produce design outputs but are not responsible for building them. This can mean their designs need extensive modification to be built. That would have been inefficient and add unacceptable risk to the target release dates. A more iterative approach was required.

I worked as the programme manager, bringing all of this together.

Up front activities

Brand definition, such as tone of voice and colour pallet, takes time to get right. These are the foundations that all the designs are built upon. A project plan was used for this. At the same time, the development teams designed and built the initial systems architecture. This allowed both teams to experiment and not rush too quickly into development. Creating a working end-to-end flow is important to prove the systems function.

Operating model

I created a user-centric time-boxed delivery method with 6-week increments. Part of the website and mobile app would be built within each increment.

Before each 6-week period:

  • A theme was selected for development, such as news articles

  • A high-level product backlog was shaped based on research

  • These backlog items were prioritised

  • The design team then created a UX sketch

  • When ready, it was discussed with the development team

  • Modifications were made as needed alongside high-level capacity planning to ensure it could be built in the time period

  • The UX sketches were then shown to a large number of users for feedback

  • Finally a more detailed backlog was ready to be built out

  • Architectural components such as two-factor authentication were also designed during these periods

During each 6-week build period

  • Three two-week sprints were used

  • User stories and tasks were planned against these

  • Progress tracking using product burn-ups was used to track scope creep and progress

  • Business and user testing took place post-build

Building an operating model for a design agency is challenging. The temptation to perfect design outputs and then conduct big hand-offs can be very wasteful. This dual-track Agile process allowed the team's space and time to think and gain the benefits of an iterative approach. Integrating user research before build and after ensured the results were optimised.

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