Role: Head of Design
Team: Leadership
Timeframe: Jan 2024 to March 2025
Stage: Paused — pending realignment
TL;DR
MrQ was scaling fast, but lacked a shared product vision. Teams were shipping in parallel without a single reference for “what good looks like.”
I built the Visiontype, a three-year product prototype that turned abstract strategy into a tangible player experience. It visualised our intended future, anchored in four product pillars: Empowering Trust, Uniquely Personal, Constraint Aligned, and Player-First.
The goal wasn’t delivery. It was direction… a living artefact that unified leadership, clarified priorities, and reframed constraints as design opportunities.
Background
MrQ had matured as a brand, but its product clarity lagged behind. Strategy lived in slides and meetings — not in something teams could point to.
The company needed a north star: one artefact to show how the product should feel when it’s truly working. Not a deck, not a doc — a prototype.
I led the creation of the Visiontype, a speculative, believable, interactive model of MrQ three years out. Designed fast, discussed openly, iterated in the open. Built not for feasibility, but for alignment.
Understanding the context
The Visiontype started as an alignment exercise across leadership, design, and product. It was designed to answer one question:
“If we stripped away every short-term constraint, what would MrQ look like when it’s at its best?”
The work ran ahead of roadmap, and paused when our new CPO joined to reshape strategy. It now acts as a reference foundation — a decision-making lens until a new version is defined.
Reference deck: Visiontype Presentation (Figma)
John’s Story in 2028
We built the vision around John, a fictional player in 2028.
John finishes work, opens MrQ on his phone, and moves fluidly from entry to play. Every step feels intentional, clear, and respectful. He knows where he is, what’s happening, and what comes next.
Each screen in the prototype mapped to a pillar, showing how principle becomes experience.
Product Pillars
Operating principles used to guide every design decision.
Empowering Trust
Players feel in control. They can see what’s happening, why, and what comes next. The product explains itself.
Show full journeys when it matters (zoomed-out signup flow)
Clean layouts and simple hierarchies
Actions and info in the same place
Terms visible at point of decision
One tab for all verticals (Rewards, Promos)
Allow safe key actions from the game UI
Uniquely Personal
The experience adapts to the player. Style and interaction feel personal, not generic.
Chat-inspired interactions
Customisable Home
Interface personalisation for feel, not colour
Affinity onboarding — learn tastes early
Constraint Aligned
We turn limitations into product advantages. Compliance, tech and UX constraints become clear, elegant choices.
Immediate FaceID login where allowed
Clear reward with all bound terms upfront
Maximise game UI within safe bounds
Treat regulatory prompts as designed elements
Player-First
Every decision starts from player outcomes. Performance, clarity, and pace win over ornament.
Prioritised loading
Easy controls
One action per step
Default to confident, low-hesitation paths
These aren’t slogans… they’re review criteria. If a design breaks one, it’s off-course.
Fidelity
We aimed for 1% of the time, 80% of the experience. Built fast, iterated live. Focused on emotional truth, not visual polish.
Collaboration
Shared with Leadership, squads, Brand, and the rest of the organisation. Each round surfaced tension between ambition and constraint… exactly the point. Alignment came through friction, not consensus.
Design Process
We broke the player journey into high-signal moments, each serving one or more pillars.
Mapping the journey
Opening MrQ
Prioritised loading (Player-First).
Straight into product, not marketing (Empowering Trust).Login
FaceID where allowed (Constraint Aligned).Signup
Chat-inspired interaction (Uniquely Personal).
Zoomed-out view (Empowering Trust).
Reward terms upfront (Constraint Aligned).Affinity Onboarding
Early relevance-building (Uniquely Personal).Deposit
One clear action per step (Empowering Trust).Home
One tab for all verticals (Empowering Trust).
Customisable layout (Uniquely Personal).Game View
Maximise usable UI (Constraint Aligned).
Key actions in context (Empowering Trust).
Minimal steps (Player-First).
Outcome
The Visiontype reset how MrQ talks about product.
It gave teams:
A shared picture of the future.
A rubric for design and product reviews.
A language for aligning strategy with experience.
There was no “launch.” The success was clarity. It turned vision from words into something teams could see, feel, and interrogate.
Usage
Decision rubric
Every initiative had to state:
Which pillar it serves
How it advances it
If none, rethink it.
Review prompts
What increases control? (Empowering Trust)
What adapts to this player? (Uniquely Personal)
Which constraint becomes advantage? (Constraint Aligned)
What’s the clearest path? (Player-First)
Acceptance criteria
Add one line per pillar to tickets.
Example (Empowering Trust):
“Player can see progress and consequences before committing.”
Results
Alignment: leadership and squads shared one horizon.
Signal: decisions anchored in principle, not opinion.
Language: pillars became shorthand for product intent.
Adoption: used in reviews, onboarding, and planning.
No KPIs. The metric was clarity.
Visiontype = Strategy you can touch.
A shared signal, built from belief, not backlog.
