About

I'm Joe, a design systens leader based in London, UK.

I'm a design systems leader based in London with a decade in product design. For the last six years I've founded, scaled and run multi-brand design systems inside large organisations: BT Group, Toyota Connected and now IAG Loyalty, where I lead the Alto team.

I build the function as well as the system: strategy, hiring, budget, governance and the executive case for investment, along with the community and cultural change that make a system stick. That rests on deep practitioner knowledge of component design, documentation and token architecture, which lets me set the standard, hire well and hold the team to it.

My work spans travel and loyalty, telecoms, automotive and consumer, and the systems I've led are used by hundreds of designers and developers on products reaching tens of millions of people.

Testimonials

Joe was my first hire into a newly formed Design System team at Avios, and remains one of the best hires I've made throughout my career. From day one, he demonstrated a level of expertise, diligence and strategic thinking that played a significant role in setting the team up for long term success.

Joe consistently operated beyond the expectations of his role and was instrumental in driving growth across a number of key areas. He introduced and embedded processes and tools that not only improved the way we worked as a team, but were ultimately adopted more broadly across the department.

Beyond his professional capabilities, Joe is simply a great person to work with and I'd have no hesitation in recommending him to any team or organisation.

Nathan Emmett

Head of Design Operations
IAG Loyalty

Joe was instrumental in getting our design system off the ground at Toyota for our global apps.
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He provided the strategy and approach as we were growing the team and stepped into the lead role temporarily whilst recruitment was happening.
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Joe is one of those unique people who can easily switch between strategic and tactical and is equally competent at leading and being hands on.
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Needless to say, it would be a pleasure to work with Joe again. Thanks Joe!

Aimée Le Couteur

Global App Design Manager
Toyota Connected

I'm grateful to have worked alongside Joe on a highly demanding project. He brings clarity and hit the ground running with a great plan.

Highly knowledgeable and efficient, he created solid foundations for our brand-new design system and collaborated with the designers to improve them.

He's easy to work with and will be an asset to any team. I only hope that we can work together again in the future.

Moses Gunarman

Senior Art Director
Toyota Connected

Joe was instrumental in helping to grow and scale the BT Design System.

Joe joined the Design System team and immediately established himself as a valued member of the team by being a team player and a highly skilled design practitioner.

Joe is fantastic at building relationships with those around him, and working collaboratively with teams to achieve the goals of the Design System.

It was an absolute pleasure working with Joe. His Design System knowledge, experience and skills make him someone that would enhance and benefit any team.

Matt Gottschalk

Head of Design Operations
BT Group

Joe is a true collaborative partner. He makes sure that every aspect of Accessibility is considered when working on components.

He welcomes the collaboration from the Accessibility Team, listen to our inputs and is focused on finding the best solutions.

Joe truly knows his craft. We are lucky to have him as a colleague.

Ronise Nepomuceno

Digital Accessibility Manager
BT Group

I worked side by side with Joe while at BT Group and I couldn't have hoped for a better team mate.

Joe's attention to detail, willingness to get involved, drive to make the right things, truly user centred and inclusive approach, and not to mention technical ability is a rare combination to find in one person.

I learned things from Joe that I will take with me into the rest of my design career. I hope we get to work together again one day!

Dave House

Lead Product Designer, Design Systems
BT Group

I had the pleasure of working with Joe Mallory Skinner on our high profile B2B app project. Joe was hired as a User Experience Designer and was briefed to design an intuitive app that would transform the way our field sales teams operate and consequentially lead to increased cost savings for the business.

Joe’s user centred approach and attention to detail was immediately noticed and admired. Working closely with users, Joe produced excellent and detailed designs that delighted users and stakeholders; ultimately providing a faultless model for the development team to work from.

Joe’s commitment to the project has continued throughout the app’s development, ensuring it adhered to our strong brand guidelines, whilst supporting our technical team with problem solving.

His dedication and talent has won him respect throughout the business here at Dyson and I would have no hesitation in recommending him for future projects.

Shaun McManus

Digital Product Manager
Dyson

I had the pleasure of working with Joe at Three as the UX/UI Designer in our scrum team.In short, Joe is a fantastic person to have in any team.

He is adept at listening and understanding any given customer problem, focusing on their need and not their want.

Joe has the ability to collaborate well across teams, running both remote research and also in person workshops with large groups. I would not hesitate to recommend Joe for any UX or Product role.

Dan Reed

Digital Development Manager
Three

Skills

Design Systems

  • Multi-brand systems architecture
  • Design tokens
  • Component design & documentation
  • Contribution models
  • Analytics and reporting
  • DesignOps

Leadership

  • Team building & hiring
  • Community building
  • Stakeholder management
  • Budget management & ROI reporting
  • Workshop facilitation
  • Public speaking
  • Mentoring & coaching
  • Agile / Scrum

Design Practice

  • Product design
  • User research
  • Information architecture
  • Inclusive design & WCAG
  • Service design

Platforms and Tools

  • React, React Native, Flutter, iOS, Android, Responsive web
  • Figma, Tokens Studio, Storybook, Zeroheight, Omlet Analytics, Framer, Adobe Creative Suite, GitHub, VS Code, Jira/Confluence