Jacob Spradley

Design

I create digital experiences that solve problems for users.

I established the UX & Human Insights team at The Economist Group, driving product innovation and using mixed methods research to uncover insights for clients. At Capital One, I led 0-1 consumer finance products that modernised the borrowing experience.

New

Sustainability Atlas

AI exploration of index data. Partnering with Infosys to combine all sustainability research from Impact into one experience.

The Economist Group / 2024

Impact Product Design

Driving the redesign of the Economist Impact site, alongside creating new product offerings.

The Economist Group / 2024

Value Chain Navigator

The first open B2B scope 3 emissions tool. Partnering with Infosys.

The Economist Group / 2023

Designing a new business model and way of borrowing to help Capital One compete in a post-Covid world.

A new marketing system for Capital One to diversify lead generation, increase customer lifetime value & boost loyalty.

Creating a new sensation for experiencing radio waves as my masters thesis.

Royal College of Art & Imperial College / 2019

Interaction design

Python

User research

Circuitry prototyping

Haptics

Post Office project Engaged Postmaster archetype

Coming soon

Post Office partnership

Defining the strategy and service of the first in-person presence for Capital One. I ran ethnographic research across the country, designed novel customer journeys for an MVP and scoped new products uniquely suited for a new customer base. I uncovered 54 insights across 9 themes, leading to 8 archetypes; 3 for the Post Office actors and 5 for customers, that informed the business strategy, product offerings going forward and identified core risks with moving to an in-person, third party-run experience.

Capital One / 2019

Ethnographic research

Product strategy

Service design

Business design

Strategy

Design delivers the most value when everyone gets involved. I use collaborative methods to shape business strategies and build roadmaps that deliver results.

Here is an overview of a selection of engagements I have led to address complex problems, shape product vision, and even design financial regulations.

These workshops include brand strategy, co-creation sessions, customer journey mapping, and more.

Economist Impact CMS strategy

A series of workshop run across the business to build a strategy for the new CMS. The goal was to understand existing CMS issues, create a vision for it going forward, align internal stakeholders to this vision, agree on build methodologies, and prioritise features over time.

Launch

Impact

6 months later

CMS used for 60-70% of sites. Costs down 30%

Dupont brand strategy

Following an underperforming first year of the partnership between Economist Impact and Dupont, I ran a short series of workshops to create a longer term partnership and brand strategy, and to align expectations about anticipated outputs and results.

Project renewal

Performance on year 1

$700k

Organic traffic up 19%.
Visit duration up 20%

Mastercard product strategy

After a successful partnership 4 years prior, Mastercard were looking to create a marketing product for their recent acquisition of a crypto platform. A plan was devised using customer research to inform brand strategy, and product direction.

IVA regaulation forums

A year long engagement with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to reform IVAs, a personal insolvency solution which had been abused by malign practitioners. The series aligned private, consumer protection, and regulator stakeholders on issues in the market and created a plan of action for resolving these.

Collaboration

Regulations

5 banks, 2 MPs, 6 charities

FCA creates new laws

Leadership

I enjoy leading teams through the more 'noodly' and political aspects of design, and helping others develop into the professionals they want to be.

I build open and collaborative environments for people to achieve their best. I liaise across businesses to change workflows and launch new initiatives, putting users at the centre of the business strategy.

Innovating formats

I led my team to create a series of workshops, each focusing on specific themes clients look for. The ideas were almost instantly incorporated into proposals

Engagement

Results after 6 months

50+ attendees

100+ new format ideas

New ways of working

To enact the user centric changes I aimed for, I established a new workflow with the product, tech, design, analytics, sales, and strategy teams, for how new products can be brought to market and how existing products are improved. The plan combined lean, agile and design thinking processes to leverage the best parts of each across both internal and client projects.

Building an insights practice

Over the previous 18 months I had informally introduced the company to mixed methods research methodologies and built excitement amongst sales, strategy, editorial, social and art direction teams.

With the creation of the UX team, I had sign off to formalise the practice and develop it as an official revenue stream and client offering. This also enabled us to implement continuous improvement on our products.

Design thinking coaching

I have built courses to teach teams across businesses how to do 'design thinking' and to be more creative in their work, via in-person and remote workshops.

Scale

Reach

20+ events

200+ trainees

About me

I combine design, business, research and product thinking to create experiences that delight and solve problems.

Originally trained as an architect, after a few years in practice I moved on to digital products. Since then I have created products across a number of sectors, using emerging technologies like Open Banking, AI and machine learning to solve problems for people and create business value.

Lately at Economist Impact I have been delivering a variety of client projects, modernising our design system with product, editorial and tech teams, alongside establishing the UX and Human Insights team, which counts Google, GSK and Infosys among its most recent clients.

I think people are fascinating to design for, so human insights are at the center of my work, and I thrive when I get to bring these to life in products and experiences.

Download my CV