Brambles · SCI Mobile · 3 min
Karen Roles-Ndibe Design Strategy & Transformation Leader
I make complex systems understandable and help organisations turn that understanding into better products, services and decisions
Connecting customer needs, technology and organisational capability
From compliance reporting to execution optimisation
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Case studies
Making supply chains visible
Brambles
Nine products across a connected portfolio, from a ten-person design function in five countries
From microbiome analysis to predictive insight
Eagle Genomics
Guided analysis designed around expert knowledge, and a working front end for exploring thousands of microbes
Making Census data work for everyone
Office for National Statistics
A joined-up Census service, with maps recording 30 million interactions after launch
When O2 becomes one
Telefónica UK / O2
My O2 reached 3.6 million active users and helped reduce customer-service calls by 20%
Taking the service to the meter
British Gas
More than 18,000 meter readings submitted through the app in a single month
Finding the signal in the infrastructure
Tideway Systems
An evidence-led service blueprint connecting customer needs, product design and business strategy
When computers became infrastructure
Sun Microsystems
Remote management shipped across server products, with a management model that endured into Oracle
Behind the case studies
Short showreels of artefacts, from opportunity to tested ideas and outcomes
From compliance reporting to execution optimisation
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Brambles · SCI Mobile · 3 min
Eagle Genomics · e[datascientist] · 3 min
From prototype to vision
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ONS · Census 2021 · 3 min
From spreadsheets to a digital public service
The showreel couldn’t load just now. Please try again in a moment.From infrastructure to learning systems
Over thirty years, my work has expanded from making technology manageable to helping organisations understand complexity, make better decisions and learn
Understand the relationships beneath the interface and expose only the complexity people need to make good decisions
What I learnedThe real problem often extends far beyond the product
What I learnedTechnology creates value when it changes what people can do — and a proposition only becomes real when every part of the service supports it coherently
What I learnedImplementation can be scoped, but understanding cannot — complexity does not disappear simply because it sits outside a team’s remit
What I learnedSometimes the thing that needs designing is not only the service, but the way people work together to create it
What I learnedBringing a future to life does more than create belief — it exposes assumptions, capability gaps and uncertainty before commitment becomes expensive
What I learnedSpeed creates value when it shortens the distance between an idea and trustworthy evidence, not simply between an instruction and an output
What I learned
About
People say I ask the question everyone else is circling and make the way forward feel possible. I’m candid without being careless, committed to high standards without taking myself too seriously, and happiest when people leave a conversation seeing more than they did at the start.
Colleagues describe me as calm, generous, formidable and fun to work with. I've been fortunate to collaborate with the same clients and colleagues time and again. I think that’s because the outcome matters, but so does the experience of getting there together
Karen is a unique blend of ‘strategic thinker’ and ‘skilled practitioner’, and is always willing to roll up her sleeves and help the team wherever needed.
Experience
The roles, sectors and experiences behind the work