Hannah Tempest

Best technology starts with messy humans.

I help organisations understand what customers need, decide what to offer them, and make digital products and selling journeys work better.

Fifteen years-plus in digital design, UX, product and strategy - most recently directing multi-year transformation programmes and leading multidisciplinary teams of 40+ across private sector, public sector, ecommerce, financial services and complex digital products.

I don't only design products and services. I design the conditions, teams and systems that let good products keep being made.

See selected workBring me a messy problem

Track record

What I help organisations do

Define a valuable proposition

Clarify who an offer is for, what people genuinely need from it, why it is valuable, and how the organisation can deliver it credibly.

Improve digital selling journeys

Understand behaviour across complex customer journeys, remove barriers, and connect better customer experiences to commercial performance.

Build the capability to keep going

Teams, operating models, design practice and ways of working - so improvement continues after the programme ends and the consultants leave.

When a business has outgrown the way it currently works, I help its leaders uncover what comes next: what to offer, how to organise around it, and which technology will genuinely enable growth.

Selected impact

Checkout conversion
+6%
Checkout conversion

Tredz / Halfords - improvement versus baseline in the first test.

Estimated annualised impact
£29m
Estimated annualised impact

An estimate annualised from that observed conversion improvement, not directly measured additional revenue.

People led
40+
People led

Multidisciplinary research, design, product and delivery teams.

As Project Director, Met Office
5 years
As Project Director, Met Office

A continuous programme of digital transformation across web, app and product.

Selected work

See all work
Met Office weather and climate data visualisation
Met Office

Designing a national digital weather service

The challenge
A national service used by millions had to become clearer, more accessible and continuously improvable - not redesigned once and left.
My contribution
Directed a multidisciplinary programme across research, UX, design, accessibility, product, technology and data, and established the ways of working that outlived it.
What changed
+41.48% new users, +33.66% website sessions, +26.71% page views, and squads able to keep improving the service after launch.
SystemsHuman behaviour
Tredz cycling e-commerce product imagery
Tredz / Halfords

Turning customer friction into commercial growth

The challenge
High-intent customers were dropping out of key journeys, and the commercial cost of that friction was invisible in day-to-day reporting.
My contribution
Reframed the problem from 'fix the form' to 'understand the moment of commitment', and connected design decisions to a commercial model leadership could act on.
What changed
A 6% improvement versus baseline checkout conversion in the first test, and the foundations for continuous optimisation.
Human behaviourSystems
David Lloyd Clubs spa retreat with hydrotherapy pool
David Lloyd Clubs

Connecting the digital and real-world member experience

The challenge
Web, app and physical club touchpoints were being treated as separate things, while members experience them as one membership.
My contribution
Held the strategic thread across individual initiatives, connecting member needs, commercial priorities, digital products and the real-world club experience.
What changed
Delivery created evidence and trust; that trust created permission to work on longer-term product and experience strategy.Figures not yet verified - deliberately unpublished.
Human behaviourSystems
Hargreaves Lansdown headquarters in Bristol at night
Hargreaves Lansdown

Making complex financial decisions understandable

The challenge
People face consequential financial choices without regulated advice, and generic information rarely helps them decide.
My contribution
Framed who the support is for and what they need from it, and used prototypes to make abstract options concrete enough to test.
What changed
A defined, prototyped proposition, tested for comprehension and confidence rather than task completion alone.Figures not yet verified - deliberately unpublished.
Human behaviourSystems

Field Notes

Read Field Notes
Series - Anti-Atrophy

If we're going to outsource more cognition to machines, which human capabilities are worth deliberately exercising?

Very short exercises. Analogue on purpose, usually done with a pen. Not a productivity system and not a defence of doing things the hard way.

Experiments

Explore experiments

Small pieces of working design and prototyping, made to investigate a question rather than to ship. Unfinished on purpose.

01AI + interaction design

What if AI didn't replace the interface?

Exploring how conversational AI and familiar search patterns can work together.

Experimental tech
Screenshot of the luxury travel search prototype: a conversational search field alongside conventional destination, date and guest controls

Thinking out loud

Watch talks

Talks, workshops and occasional public rambling. The same thread runs through them: products improve through variation, the people using them have limits, and good design shows up in the numbers.

Webinar title card for From UX to ROI: Transforming E-Commerce with User-Centered Design

From UX to ROI: Transforming E-Commerce with User-Centered Design

How human insight, behavioural understanding and user-centred design translate into measurable ecommerce performance.

Systems
Title card for the Collaborate Virtual talk Designing for Burnout

Designing for Burnout

How the products, systems and workplaces we create can contribute to burnout, and what happens when we design around actual human needs rather than idealised behaviour.

Human behaviour
Title card for the Interact talk The Struggle for Existence

The Struggle for Existence

What evolution can teach us about digital products: experimentation, adaptation, useful variation and why adding more isn't necessarily the same as making something better.

Systems
Book Hannah to speak

Ways to work together

Design and experience leadership

Head of Design, Experience Director or Digital Product leadership: leading teams and practices, setting direction, and building the capability that keeps products improving.

Strategic project or programme

An outcome-led piece of work to clarify a proposition, reframe a product or service, direct a transformation programme, or resolve a complex strategic decision.

Speaking, facilitation and development

Keynotes, workshops, senior decision-making sessions, mentoring and capability development.

Hannah Tempest

Hannah Tempest. Bristol-based. Replies personally.

Bring me your messy problem.

A paragraph is plenty. Don't tidy it first.