31% Conversion increase - How Design Leadership transformed CarFinance247’s digital products.

It's rarely in a career you get to run anything as you'd want to one hundred percent, but if you're lucky you get that chance. The chance to take all you have learned and apply it the way you want to and for that to be successful - as if you'd written a book on how it would go.

Right time, right place. I joined CarFinance247, the UK’s largest online car finance broker the CEO and CPO gave me their trust and support to tackle their digital products.

I saw an opportunity to apply everything I’d learned about Lean UX and Outcomes over Output from my previous role at AutoTrader - who invest heavily in the development of their product org. We were fortunate enough to have Marty Cagan come in to the business and educate us on Outcome Driven Innovation and Design, followed approximately twelve months later by Jeff Gothelf , Joshua Seiden and Giff Constable from Neo, at the time. These gentlemen introduced us to Lean UX, emphasising rapid experimentation, cross-functional collaboration, and real-time user feedback. These experiences became cornerstones of my leadership approach, and I was excited to bring them to CarFinance247.

The Challenge: Increasing conversions in a fast-growing market

CarFinance247 was enjoying rapid growth, but its digital suite of products needed refining to meet rising user expectations and ultimately to deliver higher conversions. Our mission was clear: a mobile-first overhaul to deliver a seamless, intuitive experience across these key areas:

• High-traffic PPC landing pages
• Mobile-responsive website
• Mobile app
• Enhanced CMS and sales team experience

Strategy: Lean UX and Data-driven decision-making

To create an experience that truly resonated with users, we needed to understand their needs from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective. We harnessed Google Analytics and BI data from Looker to track user flows and drop-off points. But metrics alone weren’t enough. I introduced CarFinance247’s first-ever UX testing session, all immediate stakeholders attended (more on that here) live-streaming it back to the office so our engineering and product teams could experience real user interactions firsthand. This initiative not only revealed critical usability blockers but also introduced the team to a new, user-centered approach to problem-solving.

Building the team for success

In addition to a strategic product vision, we needed cross-functional teams to bring it to life. Along with the awesome team already in place we added Design, UX-writing and Front end dev expertise.

Design and front-end partnership: We brought in top design talent and paired them with a focused front-end team to optimise page speed and ensure every pixel was crafted for conversion. With Google’s support, we undertook a deep technical review of site performance, setting the stage for a rebuild that prioritised speed and responsiveness.

UX Copywriting for precision: Knowing the difference words can make, we hired a UX-writer to ensure content guided users seamlessly. This approach paid off massively, particularly on our application form which saw minimal drop out on each section.

Redesigning for Mobile-first and rolling out incrementally

With 80% of traffic coming from mobile, we committed to a mobile-first redesign (Google's Think with Google case study here) integrating designers directly into cross-functional teams to maintain alignment and agility. We adopted SCRUM with two-week sprints, designers working about 2-3 sprints ahead. This gave designers a runway to iterate on user needs and UI before development started, while still staying aligned with the overall sprint rhythm.

To make this integration seamless, designers joined Sprint Planning and had their own design lane for story-pointing (This worked fantastically well but deserves another post). This setup allowed for precise planning and alignment between design and development, minimising miscommunication and last-minute adjustments. Having designers actively contribute in planning improved the team’s shared understanding of design tasks, creating a stronger, cohesive unit and enhancing delivery accuracy. While this approach, where designers directly estimated story points, might have been unconventional - it ensured everyone was on the same page, solidifying the team’s ability to deliver on our mobile-first goals effectively.

Embedding OKRs for sustained impact

As our CEO’s focus broadened, we introduced OKRs to empower our product and engineering teams. By setting clear objectives and key results, we aligned on outcomes while allowing teams the autonomy to innovate on solutions. This shift not only maintained executive alignment but also ensured that every team member felt empowered and had a say in how we solved for customer-centric outcomes.

Conclusion: The enduring value of Design Leadership

I feel, this truly enjoyable time, shows how strategic design leadership, Lean UX, and OKR-driven focus can yield impactful results. By grounding our approach in real user insights, aligning teams, and refining through testing, we drove a 31% increase in conversions -smashing expectations.

More importantly, this transformation established a user-centered mindset at CarFinance247, building a framework for ongoing innovation. The experience underscored how design and product leadership, bridges business goals with customer needs, delivering sustainable, long-term value.

This project reinforced the impact of data-driven design and cross-team collaboration, showing that meaningful improvements come when teams are empowered with clear objectives, empathy, and the right insights. These lessons continue to shape my approach to leadership, helping create functional, engaging, and high-impact experiences.

There were further percentage increases from the back of this which I'll delve into on another post.