Benjamin Strak Email & Phone Number

London, England, Gb

London, England, Gb

In January 2021 I joined the Design team at Monzo Bank to lead the product design effort for their paid accounts, Monzo Plus and Premium. Since joining, among other things, I have overseen the launch of Trends, a space for customers to get powerful insights into their spending patterns and a cornerstone of Monzo's ambition to 'make money work for everyone'.The significant paid subscriber growth we've seen thanks to improvements we made to the value proposition was a big factor in Monzo's record $500m raise at the beginning of 2022, and we've continued to level up Plus and Premium since then.In March 2023 I joined the Monzo USA team to help them find product-market fit in America. I'll be based in New York City from July 2023.

London, London, Gb

Following a successful multi-million pound round of funding in 2018, nez has continued its London expansion across 2019 & 2020. I have lead the UX practice over the last 2 years whilst we have gone from from 5k to 200k users, and added several new products to the core nez business. These have included nez insights - which allows food & drink partners to track their performance and nez perks - which allows companies to reward their employees with food & drink perks.I am currently working with the rest of the product team on exciting updates to the nez experience as we continue to grow this year.

London, London, Gb

Nez is a startup with a real-time food offers app that makes innovative use of bluetooth beacons across a network of Central London food retailers. I worked them with their initial user research, wireframing, and prototyping prior to their original build and funding round. I have also been involved in ongoing research, prototyping and user testing to improve the product as they grow.

San Francisco, Ca, Us

At AKQA I worked on a range of digital products and services for clients including Coutts, AirBnB, Volvo and more. Many of the projects were confidential so please contact me if you would like to know the full list.New Car Locator - responsive mobile website• Working in a team of four, I researched, designed and tested a new car buying experience for a major European car manufacturer. The app simplified the complexity of the car production and delivery process, to make it effortless for a user to find a new car that matched their requirements.DreamTeams - iOS app• Working in a team of three I researched, prototyped and pitched a new pre-trip experience for groups of flyers. Our app addressed the painpoints we uncovered during user research for groups as they planned, saved for and booked trips. Explore - Amazon Fire TV app• Researching how families use TVs and designed an itinerary planning and curated shopping experience for the big screen based on these insights. Snicket - iOS app• As part of an open brief on the future of the High Street, our team investigated the problems faced by craftspeople and makers. We discovered that attracting traffic when they open temporary pop-up stores is difficult. We developed a location-based search and discovery tool that leveraged the content on their existing social media accounts to put them and their products on the map—thereby tempting more people to come visit.

London, England, Gb

• ClearScore is a fast-growing FinTech startup that helps users understand their credit score and matches them to financial products personalised to their needs.• My main role was to set up a formal user research and testing program for the Design Team. I organised a group of 800 existing users to come in for testing sessions to inform the development of new and proposed features.• I also helped with wireframing and the design of user flows.• In addition I carried out research into current user behaviour on the ClearScore website and app using heatmap and session recording software. This helped uncover parts of the interface where users were struggling and focus design attention on where it was really needed.

New York, Ny, Us

• I undertook the 10-week Immersive Course at GA which covers the full range of UX skills and processes.• Four web or mobile projects were run as two-week agile design sprints, culminating with a live project for a real client. Two of these are summarised below – comprehensive case studies can be found on my website.//Hudson Recruitment - live client project• Working in a team of four I helped to redesign the job search and application process on Hudson’s responsive mobile site, which was suffering from a high bounce rate, and short visit length.• User research gave us insights about how users actually wanted to search for jobs that led to our proposals for a lightweight account and an email-like triage system that gave users more control over how sift through and take action on the jobs available.//BBC My Politics - concept project• Working in a team of three I helped design a new BBC political news app. User research showed that length and jargon were painpoints in current news content for many people so we proposed a shorter news digest including a political dictionary.• Interactive features including a political quiz and compass encouraged users to form their own opinion, and feel more personally engaged with news stories.

In this role I have commissioned and edited new pieces of writing on design, art and architecture for online publication. I have also coordinated the printing and marketing of our annual print edition, and negotiated distribution with bookshops including Foyles and Tate Modern. Additionally I have participated in live speaking engagements at festivals including Port Eliot and the Cambridge Festival of Ideas.

In this role I have helped prepare competition submissions for education, cultural and residential buildings for clients including Queen's College Oxford and the Guggenheim Foundation.I have also assisted with planning and pre-tender stages for residential and cultural buildings in central London and have site experience on Kings Gate and the Zig-Zag Building, award-winning office and residential developments in Victoria for developer Land Securities.

User Experience Design Immersive, Web Page, Digital/Multimedia And Information Resources Design

Diploma (Riba Part 2), Architecture

Ba, Architecture

Education record