Backstage
AI-powered platform and suite of tools built to support strategists, creatives and designers throughout the creative agency workflow.
As Experience Design Director, I led the vision, product design and delivery of Backstage.
Designed and developed from the ground up, Backstage streamlined research, strategy and creative development by combining large language models with bespoke workflows, helping teams produce higher-quality work and reduce the time required to deliver client projects.
Project activities
The project followed an iterative user-centred design process, from research and concept development through to testing and delivery.
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Defined the product vision and roadmap
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Managed UX research, product strategy and interaction design
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Designed end-to-end AI workflows and user experiences
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Worked with developers to ship new features and iterate the platform
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Introduced the platform across the agency and into client projects
Journey led design
Each app was created to fit within the journey a project takes throughout it's time at a creative agency. This way we could improve the quality of outputs, or reduce the time needed for completion.
Informed by real users
Rather than building AI tools in isolation, we worked closely with strategists, creatives and client teams throughout development to ensure every application solved a genuine problem and fit naturally into existing workflows.
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Conducted interviews to identify repetitive tasks and opportunities where AI could add genuine value.
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Tested early concepts and prototypes with users, iterating based on feedback throughout development.
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Used research findings to prioritise new applications and improve clarity, usability and adoption across the platform.
Design system
A scalable design system underpinned the Backstage platform, providing a consistent foundation of components, patterns and interactions that enabled new AI tools to be designed and developed rapidly while maintaining a cohesive user experience.
How the platform works
