Consulting

UX and product engagements, design audits, and organisational design work — from someone who spent twenty years leading the teams that ship successful products and businesses.

bring in someone who can architect what you want to build.

Tell me about the problem you are trying to solve. If I’m not the right fit, I’ll know who is.

what I take on

The big problem spaces where you need to shape the work, size the prize, and translate across disciplines. I can help you define your strategy, craft experiences that delight, and actually get them executed across your teams.

UX audit & recommendations

A clear-eyed read on an existing experience, with prioritised recommendations — often used to build the internal business case for a larger investment.

Targeted design & UX work

Conversion-focused flows, specifications and interface work where a team needs senior craft on a specific surface rather than a full engagement.

Organisational & team design

Structure, roles, prioritisation and operating rhythms for design, product and creative teams. Culture can be purposefully created and nurtured, and this is the work I did at Director and VP level for the last decade of my corporate career.

Change management

The part most transformations skip: what it actually takes to get people through a reorg, a new operating model or a system nobody asked for. I keynoted DesignX on redesigning HR and change management, and I rebuilt Shutterfly’s in-house Creative group through the pandemic while it kept shipping.

Facilitation

I am a trained and experienced facilitator, ready to help you focus on effectiveness in your retreats and meetings. Neutral, which matters when the room has history.

Fractional creative & design leadership

For companies ready to scale their creative and design operations — standing in as the senior voice for teams that need one before they can hire one, across in-house creative services and product design.

recent engagements

A sample of current and recent work. I work solo, and I partner with other studios and consultancies when a project needs more hands than mine.

Airport parking conversion 2026

Design, UX and UI specifications for a website enhancement and conversion project. Delivered in partnership with Innovate Forward.

UX engagement, agency subcontract 2026

Engagement lead and strategy on a UX programme, including handoff from the incumbent agency.

UX audit toward a 2027 redesign 2026

Audit with recommendations plus targeted design work, scoped to build the business case for a full redesign.

the background this rests on

20years in design, product and creative, most recently at VP level
2–250the range of org sizes I have designed and led
3Fortune-scale companies: Target, Thomson Reuters, Shutterfly
  • Roots in information architecture, graphic design and general sense-making, then UX, then product design.
  • Rebuilt Shutterfly’s internal Creative group through the pandemic, keeping product photography running for the best Q4 in company history.

The full history is on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)

Engagements where the answer isn’t obvious, and the politics are part of the puzzle.
Alison Gretz, ACC
Alison Gretz in a green dress at a riverside railing, the city skyline behind her

how engagements work

A conversation first

Before any proposal. I would rather tell you early that I am not the right fit than discover it at week three.

Scoped in writing

What I will do, what you get, what it costs, when it ends.

Contracted through Design by Design, LLC

Which is what your procurement team will want to hear.

what are you trying to solve?

The problem, the timeline, the budget you’re working with. Tell me the messy version. If I’m not the right fit, I’ll know who is.

Form not loading? Email alison@designbydesign.co and we’ll pick it up there.