Thunder rolled and clapped across unsettled Serengeti plains, barely illuminated by a strained African sunrise, as the unmistakable deep bass voice of James Earl Jones rattled the speakers of my new personal computer. "There is a place on earth where it is still the morning of life and the great herds run free." Shivering with delight, I scrubbed back to the start and clicked the play button, again.
My first computer had been a non-brand, cobbled-together type affair running Windows 3.1 with enough processing power to run one program, usually Word or Solitaire. But this new Compaq was in a different league: integrated speakers, a larger screen, branded keyboard and mouse, oodles of processing power, a DVD player, and Windows 95. I spent countless hours flicking from new screen to old, comparing the improvements, marveling in awe at the brilliance of the new start menu, and tweaking every setting I could. The upgrade from 3.1 to 95 was my first experience of a software update to improve usability for the end user, and it planted the seed for a lifelong passion for product design.
I have worked as a design professional for over 20 years since the days of 800x600 design comps, table layouts, and limited font choices. I honed my skills with digital agencies for the first 12 years of my journey before moving to in-house product, but from 2000 to 2003 were my formative years as a designer. I transitioned from struggling to find a job out of college to heading the creative department of the southeast's leading web agency within three years.
My journey began with Datapac as part of a nine-month venture where the company was examining the viability of providing out-of-the-box e-commerce solutions to its existing customer base. The brief was to design a library of core templates and design assets for a product called Intershop, help a team of developers implement these layouts for clients, and train the developers to create new designs based on the templates. It was my first time working with an engineering team, and I learned to check my design ego at the door and to include dev in the design process from the get-go.
Later in 2000, I joined Web I.T. as a junior designer, and over the next two years, I refined my design skills under the mentorship of the Creative Director, an ex-architect who had worked in the US with clients such as Nike. His approach was to focus on functionality and delivering clean, simple, and easy-to-use products. It was also my first time being part of a design team, and I worked under the watchful eye of an incredible design lead and NCAD graduate with very high design standards. I became a senior designer in January 2003, and shortly afterward, with the departure of the Creative Director, I assumed design management and creative vision responsibilities for all agency projects, as well as overseeing the hiring and mentorship of designers.
As 2003 neared its end, I was keen to shake things up and bring everything I had learned over the previous three years to the capital, mixing with the movers and shakers. Dublin was the place where agencies like Labyrinth, Webfactory, and Arekibo were building great things. So, in September 2003, I found myself walking across the cobblestones of Bachelors Walk and into the offices of Webmedia for my first interview, aiming for a senior designer role.
Webmedia was a young company with a client list consisting of Dublin's top clubs and venues, ski resorts, and event companies. It was the kind of office where deep house played on a mini-disc player in the background, and indoor smoking was allowed. Over the course of the next three years, the company matured, changed its smoking policy, moved offices, and began to primarily focus on servicing the hotel industry.
By the time September 2006 had come around, I was eager to work on something other than a hotel website. So when the opportunity to work with Lightbox, an agency in the same league as Labyrinth, Webfactory, and Arekibo, presented itself, I jumped at it. I joined the team as Design Lead, where I would stay for six years.
In November 2007, just one year after I joined, Lightbox won "Best Web Design & Development Agency" at the Eircom Spider Awards. Four other projects I had designed also won at the awards. Lightbox was the highlight of my agency career; we enjoyed a string of successes, garnered more awards, expanded the company, and worked with an array of incredible clients. I also had the opportunity to collaborate with Niall Harbison on iFoods.tv, which led to him and Sean Fee appearing on Dragons Den in 2008, as well as a full freelance redesign of Daft.ie, Ireland's largest property website, with Distilled Media.
After six years with Lightbox, I began thinking about a new challenge. Up until this point, there had not been much opportunity to work with in-house product in Ireland but the landscape had changed.
I was accustomed to great leadership at Lightbox, and more of that was ahead at SkillPages. A CEO whose passion was infectious, an incredible C-level team, and a fastidious Head of Product. A few weeks after I started in May 2012, we kicked off a complete overhaul of the entire platform. "SkillPages 2" or "SP2" involved close collaboration with the CEO, Iain Mac Donald, and the Head of Product, Stephen Forbes, to achieve the design vision while balancing business objectives with user needs.
The new SkillPages platform was released in November 2012 and received positive worldwide feedback from members as well as turning heads in Silicon Valley. A dramatic increase in new user acquisition, user engagement and content generation followed which would see the social network grow from five million members to over 26 million. Previously, growth had been at a steady one million per year but following the release that number jumped to over seven million per year. After almost three years as Head of Design at SkillPages it was time again for a new challenge.
I joined Paddy Power in January 2015 as one of two product design managers, working with UX researchers, UX architects, and UI designers across multiple cross-functional teams. The organisation's dedicated research team and UX maturity, along with matching resources, offered a great opportunity to further enhance my research knowledge. It turned out to be a period of exciting change for the organisation, with multiple restructures and a merger with Betfair taking place throughout my time there. While it presented challenges, such as assuming leadership when my team grew to over 20 due to the departure of the Director of Product and my product design manager counterpart, it also provided incredible opportunities. Directly managing the research team allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of their inner workings. I left in July 2016, having successfully led my team through the multi-billion euro merger.
In 2017, I set up my own freelance business, providing services to Easytrip and other SMEs. This afforded me the opportunity to relocate from Dublin to Wicklow, bidding farewell to the rental market after 17 years and embarking on the ambitious endeavour of renovating an 1800s farmhouse to fulfil a mortgage-free dream. I personally undertook all renovation work while utilising a combination of savings and freelance income to fund the project.
With Easytrip, my primary freelance client, I was engaged to tackle a range of challenges and opportunities. As part of a holistic design strategy, three key projects were identified: upgrading the internal CRM to replace a legacy system, implementing a responsive API-enabled customer portal allowing business customers to manage their fleets and accounts, and developing native iOS and Android apps empowering personal customers to manage their vehicles, accounts, tolling, and parking.
The strategy had a significant impact on Easytrip. The new CRM led to an increase in agent productivity and a 90% reduction in customer service calls related to billing issues. Historically, customer service had a 90% call centre and a 10% online split across the business, but that changed to just 20% call centre and 80% online. The customer portal was a resounding success, as small business customers began dealing with the majority of account-related tasks themselves. This consequently led to a significant reduction in customer service requests from this cohort. The mobile apps have also had over 100,000 downloads, demonstrating both their popularity and usability.
Overall, the operational savings achieved, coupled with the increase in customer satisfaction rates, empowered the organisation to resell its unused call centre capacity to other organisations. This, in turn, led to the expansion of the customer service department. Not only were redundant tasks eliminated, but Easytrip were empowered to capitalise on new revenue streams. The success of the design strategy facilitated a profound business transformation and played a pivotal role in Easytrip's sale to DKV Mobility at the end of 2023.
I am actively searching for a full-time position with a team of exceptional individuals dedicated to crafting outstanding digital product and guided by robust and authentic leadership. Ideally, a hybrid work arrangement rather than fully remote or entirely on-site positions. Get in touch on LinkedIn or email tonyodonohoe {at} gmail {dot} com
I am a product designer and product design manager, with over 20 years’ experience, spanning agency, high-growth startup and corporate. Throughout my career I have worked on all aspects of the product life cycle from the initial stages of discovery and user research through to design, user testing, iteration, build, launch, measuring impact and beyond. As both a product designer and manager, I am just as comfortable designing award winning products as I am leading large teams of design professionals.
I thrive collaborating with department leaders effectively implementing design strategies throughout an organisation. As a manager I have an inherently positive attitude and a naturally authentic management style that cultivates trust and empowers people to achieve their best results. I am a people-first leader and I strongly believe in fostering an environment where teams are set up to win and given the trust to make key and impactful decisions.
In addition to my expertise in desktop and mobile design, I have also successfully worked in various other domains, including firmware, print, email marketing, software design, administration interface design, TV, terminals and POS systems.
