Strategic design solutions exactly when you need them

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xperience debt may be a new term, but it is far from a new problem: whether through acquisition or ad-hoc decision-making, organisations find past choices, which may well have been right at the time, come back to haunt them.

Brian Herron, director at agency Each&Other, said that this kind of experience debt is something that plagues customer experience, particularly for fast-growing companies.

“We know about technical debt, and what happens there is you continue to build on software because the pressure is on to do something fast, but the underpinnings are not fit for purpose so you’re stuck. Then you’re left with an anchor behind you as you try to move on, so do you keep going or start again,” he said.

“I think that experience debt is similar, and something we should be talking about. A company scales and the complexity of its software scales, but at some point the CX [customer experience] is held back by previous design choices,” he said.

Indeed, it is no surprise that scaling companies make choices at certain points to do certain things, often driven by speed and customer feedback. Everything is tactical, it may even be tacked on, and over time things can become inconsistent and not fully integrated.

“We see it expressed in different ways. It sometimes might be increased churn, lower renewal rates, stalling revenue, reduced upselling and cross-selling,” Herron said.

The answer is simple, but not easy: organisations need design leadership. The problem, however, is that it is expensive.

The demands of modern business require not just creativity but also a deep understanding of customer behaviour, technology, and strategy. However, balancing these needs with budget constraints and evolving priorities often leaves design under-used or misaligned with broader business goals.

For companies without the resources for a dedicated in-house design team, or where the workload fluctuates, finding the right solution becomes even more critical. The question is: how do you access top-tier CX design expertise exactly when you need it, without committing to the cost of a full-time hire?

It’s an important question, because many organisations neither have the resources to have a full-time design department nor the work to justify one. Of course, the typical response to this has been to turn to an outside agency on a consultancy basis. This works well on a project basis, but what if what is really needed is deeper and ongoing strategic work?

Each&Other, as an agency that specialises in customer insight, user experience (UX) and digital product design, thinks it has the answer: embedding design skills deeply inside organisations.

“It might be time to consider a fractional head of design. You hear about fractional CIOs [chief information officers], but we’re applying the same principle to design,” said Herron.

This is where the concept of a fractional head of design has the potential to be transformative: by embedding an experienced design leader into the organisation on a part-time basis, companies gain access to strategic design guidance without the overhead of a full-time hire.

It’s a model that allows organisations to address both immediate tactical needs and long-term strategic goals, Herron said, and enables organisations to course-correct while scaling, as a fractional head of design brings the expertise to assess what’s working, identify where experience debt is accumulating, and create a roadmap to evolve the customer experience in a sustainable way.

By addressing experience debt proactively, businesses can avoid the pitfalls of disjointed customer journeys.

The model is particularly appealing to businesses navigating rapid growth or digital transformation as it brings on board someone who can work across teams, break down silos, and champion the customer perspective consistently.

The solution isn’t necessarily that there is a genius UX thing to be done. The real gap is around leadership, and around shaping teams

For organisations struggling with fragmented experiences or grappling with scaling challenges, the solution may not be to redesign the entire ship but to steer it with precision – and certainly not to keep adding more systems, processes or code.

“Everything is built at a certain time and, in most cases, that decision makes sense. Right up until it doesn’t. At that point, what you do not want to be doing is bolting on ad-hoc choices with no guiding system beneath steering how they can fit together,” he said.

Having a fractional head of design also empowers organisations to make informed decisions about their design investments. By providing strategic guidance and expertise, a fractional head of design can help organisations prioritise projects, allocate resources effectively, and measure the impact of their design efforts, for precisely as long as is needed – and no longer.

“You may need someone only for 12 to 18 months. Are you ready to make a hire for that? Someone with relevant industry experience, who can command a salary of, minimum, €140,000 a year?”

The solution is the same as it ever was with CX and UX delivery, Herron said, which is to say: understand what you need to do, what the market is doing, and then design to scale. The point, however, is that a fractional head of design can be the motivator needed to ensure this actually happens.

“The map or route to getting a better solution is set out, but the internal teams are set up to deliver business as usual. The teams are set up to take instruction, nip around the edges, and deliver the next feature, and they may lack experience in delivering big things. Also, because they are internal and because they are seen as execution, they may not be able to have the voice to bring a new idea.

“The solution isn’t necessarily that there is a genius UX thing to be done. The real gap is around leadership, around organisation, and around shaping teams,” he said.