Vodafone
Summary of UX & Product Design
Vodafone is currently one of the world’s leading mobile communications providers, operating in 26 countries and in partnership with networks in over 55 more. Across the world, they have almost 444 million customers and around 19.5 million in the UK. Vodafone made the first ever mobile phone call on 1 January 1985.
Experience at Vodafone UK
UX Product Design – Hands-on Designer & Lead
- Hands-on Design: Hands-on experience with information architecture design, wireframing, scamps, graphic design mockups, persona analysis to design online journeys.
- UX Product Lead: Responsible for the end-to-end UX of key online journeys. Managed and improved customer journeys by understanding customer needs and online behavior to drive the development of content, products, tools, and capabilities, with the view of the omni-channel experience.
- Creative Direction: Leading creative teams (UX Architects/Product Designers, Interaction Designers, UI/Visual Designers, Copywriters, and Front-end Developers) to design new functionality. Included external agency resources.
- Led Design Thinking workshops: Engaged with design teams and diverse business teams (including senior management) to design differentiated online, mobile and omni-channel experiences. Aligning with customer experience principles and user-centered design methodology.
- Technical Team Leadership: Pioneered Agile Scrum Sprint & Design process within Vodafone UK from a UX perspective. Provided direction for scrums to integrate designs, performing UX lead scrum mastering and product ownership.
- UX Evangelism: Championed UX & Design in marketing, new business plans, and prioritization.
- Cross-channel UX Solutions: Simplification of complex technical problems across Self Care, eCommerce, and brochureware.
UX / Product Design Lead on the following projects:
- Enterprise-wide £250 million (~$300 million US) Greenfield transformation project to replace Vodafone UK back-end architecture with Oracle systems.
- Mobile Wallet & Mobile Payments (NFC)
- eBilling & Paper Bill
- Online Payments
- Self-Service My Account Portal
- eCommerce
- Single Sign-On
- Prepay Rewards Loyalty Portal
- Prepay Balance UX + UI Visualizations
- Online Video Training
- Website Redesign Transformation
- Porting Numbers
- Help and Support Center
- ‘Onenet’ – Unified Communications Portal
Experience at Vodafone Group (Global) / Seren
Senior UX Designer / Architect
- Secure Net Security Product: Developed concepts for enhanced browsing security on mobile devices and desktops for business and consumer users. The final product is now live in ten operating countries so far and allows users enhanced security while browsing the Vodafone network.
- Geo-fencing IoT / M2M Product: Locating users/assets remotely with IoT / M2M technology.
- Content Management System: Creating a multi-country, responsive, reusable and configurable common content management system intended to enable Vodafone’s next generation omnichannel customer experience web & mobile journeys.
- Global Style Guide: Key improvements to global style guide to be rolled out to networks in approximately 21 countries (with over 400 million subscribers).
Above: Some of the experience Stephen had during his tenure at Vodafone.
About Vodafone
Vodafone is currently one of the world's leading mobile communications providers, operating in 26 countries and in partnership with networks in over 55 more. Across the world, they have almost 444 million customers and around 19.5 million in the UK. Vodafone made the first ever mobile phone call on 1 January 1985.
Colleagues whilst working at Vodafone UK and Group
Amardeep Singh Shakhon
Senior Information Architect Consultant
I’ve worked closely with Stephen on several projects at Vodafone and he shares a strong passion for championing the user needs and goals in the end to end customer experience. His personality and strive to achieve the best experiences is reflected in his work. He has lead numerous project whilst working with him, however he is always open to new ideas and proactively promotes collaboration throughout the team. It was a pleasure working with Stephen as he is a true believer in better.
Keith Merriman
User Experience Manager
I’ve worked with Stephen for over two years, and what impresses me about him is the way he approaches working life with a level of openness, honesty and flexibility that makes him a real asset for any team, both as a member and a leader. Combine this with his years of high-profile UX design and management work, and you have a professional user experience expert who is always a pleasure to work with that can also achieve results. He is very hard-working, and the proof of this is seen in his ability to study for an MBA alongside his day job. But what I admire most is that he’s always willing to spare time to listen, talk, be supportive or give clarity when you need it most.
Hamish Buchanan
Solutions Architect - Hewlett Packard
Stephen is brilliant to work with, always puts in the hours and always has time for colleagues. I spent some months working with him on a project to build a replacement commerce site for Vodafone. He has a great understanding of UI design and in depth knowledge of the latest best practices. He’s skilled at understanding requirements and designing solutions for them.
Ian Pearce
Tech Lead - Hewlett Packard
I worked with Stephen for six months on a project based in Germany. We had a strong team ethic on that project and Stephen contributed to that both professionally and as someone you could chat with at the end of a long day. His cheery disposition and thorough approach to delivery meant that his was a face you were always glad to see. I’d happily work with Stephen again.
Rajesh Pancholi
UI Design Contractor
Stephen was my main contact at Vodafone. His structured approach and direction helped me immerse myself into the world of Vodafone. He operated within a sizeable team of internal and external agency resources with multiple skill sets and a collection of stakeholders to ensure their satisfaction. He’s very dependable and always seemed to have time to discuss any issues that may have arisen, he excels in responsive customer experience design and delivery. I would certainly recommend Stephen to any future employee and look forward to working with him again.
David Copeland
Senior Online Strategy Manager
Stephen’s understanding of user centred design and the underlying principles of experience are second to none. Working with extremely complex technical solutions he’s able to do what all good UE managers do and keep the focus on what matters….the end user.
Modi Elnadi
Intranet Consultant
I recommend Stephen highly, and especially applaud his ability to work under tight deadlines while maintaining high quality and continuing to be creative.
Jeanine Redfield
Programme Finance
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Stephen, he is very approachable with great communication skills with both senior stakeholders and colleagues. Very knowledgable about Online customer experience channel and could provide timely concise information. He is a strong team player and would be an asset to any team he is part of.
Steve Povey
Business Analyst
I worked with Stephen for some time at Vodafone UK on a very challenging project. Stephen was always articulate in defining what he wanted, was alsays prepared to put the effort in to make sure his requirements were understood and adopted a very pragmatic approach to finding solutions and work rounds where requirements could not be met within the timescales. Stephen was also very honest, trustworthy and a delight to work with.
Caroline Brayshaw
User Experience Manager - eService
Steve was a pleasure to work with. We worked together on the business side at Vodafone and I found him always approachable, knowledgable, upbeat and always having time to chat and give his feedback on things. He has a great amount of knowledge on UE being an old hand at Vodafone. I would definitely recommend him for UE and Project Management roles.
Trevor Fifield
Online Content Editor
I worked with Stephen at Vodafone UK and always found him a pleasure to work with.
Scott Bowley
Digital Producer / Account Manager
It’s been a pleasure working with Steve. He’s managed to maintain a high level view and complete understanding of an extensive billing project whilst delving into the details and practicalities where necessary. This demonstrates great project managing skills. Steve works with a healthy balance of innovation and customer obsession to create the best possible user experience for customers.
Nithyanandan PD
Lead Consultant - Vodafone UK
Worked with Steve on couple of projects in Vodafone. He is a thorough professional, dedicated, knows his subject and always has given his best as ever. As an on-line user experience manager, he owns and delivers the user experience end to end, covering not just on-line across all platforms, but channels including email and other customer touch points. Gives good attention to the details and manages the vendors effectively to deliver the creative pieces to the standards. Very friendly and helping nature at work and otherwise too.
Priyanka Chawla
Prepay Product Manager - TopUp, International & Roaming
Stephen acted as a UE lead and supported me on the delivery of a few e-commerce-related products. He is a enthusiastic and passionate professional who puts customers at the heart of everything he does. His collaborative style and positive attitude have always been an asset. I wish Stephen all the best and would not hesitate to recommend him.
Jesus Suarez
Application Support Manager
Stephen is a result driven professional who really understands customers’ needs and customer behaviour making him a valuable asset for any organisation.
Yellapu Sailesh
Business Analyst
In my brief work experience with Stephen,i found a person with such a profound knowledge of the customer experience area and to top that he had the energy to make me comfortable to understand the existing functionality and also help me in producing the next level requirements. Apart from the work side he was the guy whom i could rely on for suggestions on the work culture.
On the personal front he was the best colleague i had met and i would love to work with again.
Setur Kanabar
Principle Application Development Manager - Web Factory
I have know Stephen in the capacity of a User Experience lead; I would have no hesitation in recommending Stephens work can vouch for his dedication, quality, and commitment to the role.
Nicolette (Nicky) Conti
Online Consumer Manager
I’ve worked with Stephen on many mobile/internet-related projects and not only is he a very helpful and easy-to-work with person but is also customer oriented and ensures that every project is job well done and delivered on time. He’s meticulous in his work and takes a personal initiative to go beyond what’s asked for to ensure that the various aspects of business are fully integrated within scope of work. He is tech and internet savvy and is able to see beyond the technology and provide solutions. I would not hesitate to recommend Stephen.
Richard Child
User Experience Manager
Stephen is very personable and a thoroughly dedicated UX professional who I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside recently. He demonstrates great stakeholder management skills. I’ve witnessed this in multiple UX reviews where he has the ability to influence differing stakeholder opinions in order to drive and push through key UX objectives. He has shown a great commitment to collaborative design and makes an effort to form strong working relationships between VF UK and VF Group (on the My Vodafone and Billing projects).
Alejandro Flores
Principal Manager Service Design
Stephen has been instrumental on helping us designing customer and online user experience for business customers. He has been open and capable to consider multiple points of view and build a consistent customer experience that we are sure will see customers engaging on.
Hannah Kops - Seren
Head of Experience Design
Stephen is a reliable UX Lead with a positive and pro-active attitude. He has led an important project for us, involving stakeholder engagement and early concept development for a multi-channel experience. His work was perceived well by the client and I would hire him again.
Katherine Moonan
Accessibility Lead
Stephen is fantastic to work with. He understands accessibility requirements and will work to ensure designs are as accessible as possible.
Dirk Beushausen
Visual Designer
Stephen Isaac is an excellent UX-Expert with an extensive knowledge about designing modules for the web.