Oliver Latouf | Experience Design Consultant

Most designers with twenty-five years behind them have stopped opening the file.

The career path in design pushes experienced people into management. You get good, so you get made responsible for other people being good, and the work itself quietly slips out of your hands.

I've done that job. I built and ran the UX function at a digital-first bank: principles, governance, design review, hiring, agency relationships, the lot. I know what it's worth.

But the work I take on now is the work itself. Flows. Design systems. Onboarding. The screens where Compliance and clarity are pulling in opposite directions and someone has to solve for both.

You get judgement that took twenty-five years to build, applied directly to your product. Not delegated to someone more junior while I review it.

ux design

The ways I can work with you

Embedded product design

I join your team as a senior designer - in your Slack, your standups, your Figma file. Not a consultant producing recommendations.
A designer producing work.
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Feature design, complex flows, onboarding, dashboards
Design systems: tokens, components, documentation
Prototypes your engineers can build from
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Month to month. No long contract.

Check availability

Product sprint

One defined problem, solved end to end. The onboarding flow that's leaking users. The dashboard nobody understands. The design system that got 60% built and stalled.
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Discovery, framing and stakeholder alignment
Flows, wireframes, interface designInteractive prototype and documented handoff.
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Fixed price, fixed timeline

Scope a sprint

Product UX review

Twenty-five years pointed at your product for a week. A structured review of the surfaces that matter, ranked by what each issue is costing you, with specific fixes rather than general principles.

Prioritised findings document
Annotated screens.
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45-minute walkthrough.
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Credited in full against a sprint or embedded engagement

Book a review

fractional Leadership

Design leadership for a defined initiative

Sometimes the problem isn't capacity, it's direction.
A programme with three squads and no coherent design thread. A platform rebuild where nobody owns the whole. A team that's good but pulling in different directions.

I lead the design workstream for a defined piece of work, with a defined end - setting direction, running the critique, making the calls, and designing alongside the team rather than reviewing from above.

Design direction and decision-making across the initiative
Critique, quality bar, and design review
Hands-on design on the hardest surfaces
Stakeholder alignment across Product, Engineering, Risk and Compliance
Fixed scope, fixed end date.
Excludes hiring and performance management.

Discuss an engagement →

why me?

What twenty-five years actually buys you.

Financial services is the spine of my career, not a sector I've dabbled in

Momentum, Nedbank, RMB, OM Bank. Retirement and investment platforms, foreign exchange journeys, back-end banking systems, a digital-first bank built from zero. I don't need the domain explained.

I've designed inside Risk and Compliance review cycles

I know what happens when Legal needs a disclosure on the screen you just simplified, and how to solve for both instead of surrendering to one. Most designers meet that problem for the first time on your project.

I use AI where it earns its place

Figma Make, Claude, Windsurf, Vercel. In practice you see working, clickable prototypes in days rather than static mockups in weeks — and decisions get made against something real. It's a speed advantage, not a headline.

I've built the function, so I understand the org

I know why design gets ignored, what makes engineering trust a handoff, and how to get an actual decision out of a stakeholder group. Useful in ways that don't show up in a portfolio.

Social proof

"Working with Oliver was an absolute pleasure. As a lead designer, he had a unique ability to adapt to any challenge, always with a positive and can-do outlook. He consistently and seamlessly navigated complex problems (and occasionally political situations) with grace and ease, turning them into brilliant design solutions and team outcomes.
Oliver is a great storyteller - ensuring that not only did every project meet user needs, but that the whole team went on the journey with him, fully understanding the value and purpose of their work. He also had a remarkable talent for facilitating workshops that energised teams, bringing fun and candour to sometimes stuffy situations. Oli had the ability to read a room and pivot when necessary, which is an invaluable skill for a design leader."

Greta Chambers

Head of Design Ops, Dentsu

"Oliver built OM Bank’s design function from the ground up: the team structure, our ways of working, the design language, and the principles that guide every decision. Without his vision and execution, there’s no way we’d have reached 200k users in such a short timeframe.What makes Oliver exceptional is that he’s equally brilliant as a strategist and as an individual contributor. He doesn’t just direct, he rolls up his sleeves and delivers world class work himself. He’s the biggest wealth of design knowledge I’ve ever worked with, and he uses it to get the absolute best out of every person on his team."

Josh Vilensky

Head of UX, Cohesion

"Oliver is someone I truly admire and would highly recommend, I had the pleasure of working with him directly. Oliver is an inspiring and supportive leader who truly cares for his team. His open-minded approach to leadership helps cultivate an environment where creativity thrives and team members feel valued.Even under tremendous pressure, he consistently created a calm atmosphere, helping us navigate challenges with confidence. His unwavering trust and belief in our abilities motivated us to perform at our best."

Diane Devar

UX Researcher, IQ Business

questions

Before you book...

Which of these do I need?

If you need senior capacity and craft on an ongoing basis, that's embedded. If you have one contained problem with a clear finish line, a sprint. If you want an experienced read before committing to anything, the review. And if the problem is direction rather than capacity — several squads, no coherent thread running through them — that's leadership. If you're not sure, tell me what's stuck on a call and I'll tell you which fits, including if the answer is none of them.

Are you a design leader or a designer?

Both, and you can buy either. Most of my work is hands-on design, and that's what I want to be doing. But I built and ran the UX function at a digital-first bank, and when the problem is direction rather than capacity, that's what a leadership engagement is for. Even then I'm designing alongside the team, not reviewing from above.

Will you manage or hire our designers?

No — deliberately. I lead work, not careers. On a leadership engagement I set direction, run critique, and make the calls on the design itself. Performance conversations, hiring and progression stay with you. It keeps the engagement clean, and it's why it can stay fixed-term.

Can you work alongside our in-house team?

That's the usual arrangement. I'm senior support, not a replacement, and I'm comfortable being the most experienced person in the room without needing to run it.

Why not just hire someone full-time?

Often you should. This makes sense when the need is real but not forty hours a week, when you need senior judgement now rather than after a three-month hiring process, or when you want the design direction settled before you commit to a permanent hire.

Do you work remotely?

Yes. I'm in Lisbon and work with teams across Europe, the UK and South Africa. In person in Lisbon when it genuinely helps.

What's your availability?

Currently taking new engagements from November 2026.

Book a quick call →

Senior product design for products that can't afford to be confusing.