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CV
Sam Tanner Lees —
Senior Product Designer (UX/UI)

​Senior Product Designer with 7+ years’ experience delivering end-to-end UX and UI for global B2C and B2B products across iOS, Android, and web. I lead complex, cross-functional work from discovery to delivery — combining research, prototyping, systems thinking, and strong UI craft. Known for simplifying high-stakes workflows, improving measurable outcomes (activation, engagement, ratings), and levelling up teams through clear collaboration and design-system thinking.

Experience

Ford Motor Company — Ford Pro

Senior Product Designer (acting as Lead across key initiatives)

Jan 2020 – Present

Scope:

iOS/Android/web · Fleet management & telematics · 0→1 prototyping + 1→n scaling · Design systems + enablement

  • Led end-to-end UX/UI across Ford Pro Mobile (iOS/Android), partnering with product and engineering from discovery through launch and iteration.

  • Reimagined the Vehicle Details hub (IA + UI) to scale into a feature-rich experience (health insights, history, mapping, future extensibility) aligned to the Ford Pro Design System.

  • Results: downloads doubled, app ratings improved, weekly active fleets +11x, monthly active users +331%, paid telematics weekly usage 9% → 19%.

  • Led design upgrades for the Upfitter Integration System (UIS) — a canvas-based web tool for configuring vehicle integrations. Reviewed ~20 hours of interviews, built a prioritisation matrix, and shipped high-impact improvements (infinite canvas, modern zoom, clearer tool structure, workflow accelerators).

  • Delivered high-velocity prototypes in Ford’s Rapid Digital Prototyping environment (confidential), turning ambiguous ideas into tangible experiences for senior stakeholder decisions.

  • Improved delivery health through regular retros and tight design/dev alignment, reducing friction and keeping teams shipping under tight timelines.

  • Championed Figma capability: ran 6 advanced sessions for 50+ designers (Variables, Auto Layout, Dev Mode) and created internal “Snippets” to scale best practices; mentored junior designers.

Ford Mobility / FordPass

Product Designer (UX/UI)

Jan 2018 – Jan 2020

  • Led UX work across the redesign and evolution of FordPass and FordPass Pro, collaborating with agencies including VML, Ogilvy, and GTB from discovery through global release and iteration.

  • Designed and tested features grounded in behavioural insight and usability outcomes — including Fuel Report (tested at 9.2/10 user satisfaction) and end-to-end service flows such as Roadside Assistance, bridging phone-first real-world behaviour into digital tracking via SMS “magic links.”

  • Ran global research and remote usability testing to validate navigation, terminology, and multi-vehicle workflows; synthesised findings into personas, journey maps, and prioritised backlogs.

  • Improved onboarding and vehicle activation flows using research + analytics; addressed severe early drop-off in the legacy activation journey and helped nearly double successful activation completion through flow simplification and iteration.

  • Delivered A/B navigation testing (bottom navigation vs side menu), producing strong concept results (average 9/10 usability and 70 NPS) to support clear product decisions.

  • Introduced an incremental rollout approach (“FPP 1.5”) enabling screen-by-screen UI upgrades without a risky architecture rebuild — reducing delivery risk and making improvements easier to ship globally and consistently.

Education

University of Southampton — BSc Physics · 2008–2011
General Assembly — UX Design Immersive (11 weeks, full-time) · 2018

Courses

Designlab — AI for Design · 2025 (5 weeks)
Memorisely — AI · 2025 (10 weeks)
Memorisely — Visual Design (Advanced Figma) · 2023 (10 weeks)
General Assembly — Visual Design · 2021 (8 weeks)

Skills

Product Design: UX strategy, discovery, user research, usability testing, research synthesis, journey mapping, personas, information architecture, user flows, interaction design, wireframing, prototyping, design systems, analytics-informed design, A/B testing, accessibility (WCAG), responsive UI design, UX writing, stakeholder management, facilitation, mentoring, design QA


Tools: Figma, Sketch, Miro, Jira, Adobe Creative Suite, Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Zeplin, InVision, FigJam, Confluence, Notion, Slack, UserTesting, UserZoom, Amplitude, Abstract

Hobbies

Photography, videography (drones), music (saxophone, drums), hiking, cycling, climbing, boxing/fitness, home server management, smart home integration, networking, PC building, coding projects

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