Head of Design • 2018 – Present
The Conversation
Highlights
Ran a design audit, brand refresh, expanded brand guidelines, brand personality and development of a new design system for a website that spans 9 global editions across 4 languages.
Advised on strategy and overhauled user journeys across entire reader funnel (Promos, Newsletter subscription and Donations) resulting in a record-breaking multi-million donation campaign for our pilot edition.
Reached target Lighthouse accessibility score of 95% across entire site by end of 2022 (up 10% year on year)
What I did
As Head of Design, I have developed The Conversation’s network-wide design strategy across brand and digital, coaching various roles across the Design and Audience teams. Without a dedicated PM, I’ve communicated product vision, identified the problem statement, set metrics, built consensus with independent stakeholders, shared in product management and delivery. I’ve made business cases for growth and scalability, conducted quant and qual research; and collaborated closely with engineering, CEO, editorial and key stakeholders to make shared decisions on product design, strategy and organisational vision.
Stu @ The Conversation
Zoe is a bit of a gun.
She has a bunch of different modes from designer to UX researcher to project manager and does them all with relentless efficiency. I have never seen someone wrangle a Figma doc as fast. She is an excellent communicator across visual, verbal and written mediums. Leveraging her well honed attention to detail i've seen first hand how well she can deliver technical direction through functional specs for developers, right through to selling design visions and strategies to the board. Skillful across a broad range of disciplines Zoe does it all with empathy and a people first approach, able to lead a team of 1 or a dozen or more. It was great working with Zoe!
Product Design
As a product designer in a skeleton team, my work spanned donations and newsletter user journeys, comment moderation, promos engine, home/section page builder cms, global navigation, article page, email newsletter, accessibility & consistency. I designed a new react component library from scratch while simultaneously improving consistency and accessibility in the legacy codebase.
James @ The Conversation
It was an absolute pleasure working alongside Zoe.
Her commitment to design and her ability to communicate the importance of brand and identity completely redefined The Conversation's ability to deliver on its core mission. Zoe deeply understood both the reader and the organisation, and could effortless translate their combined needs into cohesive designs scalable across the site and other marketing collateral as well. Her tireless efforts have become a generational legacy to The Conversation and to all those who depend it.
Brand management
I’ve built out the design capabilities from scratch and completed an agile brand refresh as well as a design system that’s accessible to staff through self-service design tools (Canva, Campaign Monitor, Google Suite, etc). The brand and design system are scalable, localised, responsive and flexible to achieve an enhanced experience that supports editorial and readers alike. On top of this, I have worked with the Audience team to lead initiatives that move users from casual readers to loyal advocates.
Gita @ The Conversation
I had the pleasure of being managed by Zoe during my years with The Conversation.
As Head of Design, she lead the department with a thorough and motivated work ethic, as well as managing and working alongside myself and other team members with integrity and mindfulness at all times. Her vision and dedication to the values of The Conversation has been integral to its growth! I'd love the to work alongside Zoe again, if given the chance.
Work completed almost entirely in a design team of one without a dedicated PM or marketing team. Special thanks to Gita Zimmermann for additional design support.