Building design ownership inside a digital bank
I joined a pre-launch digital bank halfway through delivery to lead three designers across 15 epics, improving how Design worked, collaborated and made decisions.
Hello.
I help design teams make sense of complexity and build better digital experiences.
I'm Reem Basim, an Experience Strategy and Product Design Leader with 13+ years across product design, design leadership and digital transformation.
I help organisations make better product decisions and build stronger ways of working across Design, Product and Engineering.
Selected organisations
Leadership work
Stop arguing, start showing
Navigation kept losing the prioritisation argument. I strengthened the design team's research practice and brought Product to the evidence.
How I work
01Start with the problem, not the brief
I rarely take a brief at face value. I want to understand what is actually happening first. That means asking questions, looking at the evidence, understanding the constraints and making sure we are solving the right problem before a team starts designing the answer.
02Use evidence to make better decisions
Research is useful when it changes what we do. I care less about producing research outputs and more about helping teams understand what the evidence means, what it changes and what decision we need to make next.
03Give people real ownership
I do not want every decision to depend on me. I would rather give people clear ownership, enough context and the support they need to make good decisions themselves. The aim is to leave a team stronger, not more dependent on one person.
04Add structure where it helps
I like enough structure to make good work repeatable, but not process for the sake of process. Clear ownership, good reviews and better ways of working can remove a lot of unnecessary friction between Design, Product, Engineering and the wider business.
Product work
Moneyway
An all-in-one money management platform for SMEs. User research to define pain points and shape the next phase.
Molhem
An Arabic online publishing platform. Brand identity and a UX/UI redesign focused on conversion.
Rakuten TV
A Smart TV streaming app. Fixing onboarding and registration to increase conversion.
About
I studied architecture, and took what I learned about designing better environments for people into my work in UX.
- 2025–PresentFractional UX Lead & Product Design ConsultantIndependent / Contract
- 2023–2025Experience Design ManagerDeloitte
- 2022–2023Product Design ManagerPennylane
- 2019–2022Senior / Lead UX DesignerMawdoo3