Hurtigruten Expeditions
As Design Director at Hurtigruten, I built the design function from scratch – hiring the team, leading major product redesigns, and introducing scalable systems, processes and standards across digital and brand
Built a modern design function that increased digital sales by 50% YoY
From team building to brand elevation - leading digital transformation at the world’s most adventurous travel company
I was hired to lead design across both Hurtigruten and Hurtigruten Expeditions (HX) during a pivotal moment of brand and business transformation. The company was undertaking two simultaneous rebrands: modernising its historic Norwegian coastal service, and creating a distinct identity for HX, its premium expedition cruise offering.
This was part of a wider strategy to become a more global business. HX had recently expanded to London to establish a digital centre of excellence, aiming to build a world-class product and technology hub to reach a broader audience. The digital vision was clear: to build the leading platform for sustainable adventure travel by providing our users with a best-in-class digital experience across all channels.
I joined the new London team alongside the VP of Product, a former colleague from HSBC and Farfetch, to help shape the design function from scratch. At the time, there was no mature design capability. Agile rituals were in place, but product delivery lacked user insight, strategic thinking or brand coherence.
This was a rare opportunity. Not just to deliver product, but to establish a design capability with the structure, standards and leadership needed to consistently drive high-quality outcomes.
Establishing design as a strategic function through measurable impact
Demonstrate the value of product design by delivering immediate, visible outcomes
Build a high-calibre in-house team to replace temporary contractors
Introduce structured, user-centred ways of working across the product lifecycle
Act as a bridge between commercial, product, brand and technology teams
Establish design as a strategic voice within the organisation
Hired and empowered a world-class team
Delivered early wins to build credibility
One of my first moves was directing a premium photoshoot across two ships to replace outdated visuals. This helped reposition HX as a more aspirational brand and showed my ability to lead beyond product design.
I then led an A/B-tested update to the homepage hero, which increased traffic to ‘Find Your Cruise’ by 11% and raised booking entries by 15.5%. Off the back of that success, I partnered with the product manager to embed a test-and-learn mindset. This led to a redesign of the expedition search, driving a further 32.5% increase in booking entries.
We followed with a phase one site-wide rebrand, delivered ahead of schedule with limited resource. It boosted confidence in the design team as a trusted partner in delivery.
Alongside these headline projects, we shipped continuous functional improvements - from booking flow tweaks to better tools for customer support, clearer signposting, and more usable in-page navigation.
Rewrote how design happens
I overhauled the design operating model across people, process and platforms. Key changes included:
Replacing ad hoc workflows with a structured, repeatable model: Insights → UX → UI → Tech Review → Handover → Design Freeze → QA
Creating a design-specific Jira board to improve visibility and flow
Adding peer reviews, design readiness checklists and structured QA
Overhauling our Figma environment and ways of working for greater collaboration and scalability
Making a clear distinction between straightforward tasks and open-ended discovery, allowing teams to allocate time more effectively
Establish design as a strategic voice within the organisation
Championing our internal design system to support consistency, speed, and experimentation
Embedding a culture of test-and-learn alongside the product manager - moving from assumption-led delivery to validated, insight-driven iteration
These changes enabled the team to work with greater clarity and confidence, improved cross-functional alignment, and shifted the wider organisation towards more evidence-based decision-making.
Showed the value of design through commercial delivery
Our goal was to elevate the digital experience to match HX’s premium positioning - delivering a sleek, modern aesthetic and a more sophisticated expression of the brand across all channels. This ambition shaped the phase two rebrand and was executed through the full redesign of five key revenue-driving areas:
New Navigation
Antarctica Destination Page
All Destinations rollout
Loyalty Program Launch
Product Detail Page
The new destination templates increased engagement by 590%, validating the redesign approach and proving the commercial value of design at scale. Each was insight-driven, stakeholder aligned and crafted to elevate customer experience while driving measurable increase in user engagement and conversion. Notably, our Antarctica redesign received C-level praise (“100 times better” - group CEO) and became the blueprint for all future destination templates.
Outcomes - Increased web sales by 50% year on year
Delivered commercial design projects ahead of schedule with limited resources
Elevated the design team’s reputation across the business
Improved design-to-engineering collaboration and delivery accuracy
Increased engagement on redesigned destination templates by 590%
Increased funnel progression, scroll depth and PDP visits
Repositioned design from delivery partner to strategic enabler
Increased web sales by 50% year on year
Growth and learnings
Practised design leadership in a constrained and politically complex environment
Navigated the shift from hands-on design to people and process leadership
Developed resilience and clarity by focusing on principles, not politics
Balanced craft, team dynamics and delivery without compromising integrity
Anchored decisions in evidence rather than opinion - building trust across functions and repositioning design as a strategic partner in commercial delivery
