Joanna Hepburn
Edinburgh
Summary
Versatile professional with expertise in product management, user experience design, and digital consultancy, specialising in financial services and customer experience. Demonstrates strategic thinking to drive impactful solutions and optimise business outcomes. Committed to leveraging core competencies to deliver innovative strategies that enhance organisational success.
Overview
5
5
years of professional experience
2027
2027
years of post-secondary education
Work history
Product Owner
Lloyds Banking Group
Edinburgh
11.2024 - 03.2026
- Part of a cross-functional Product Lab focused on long-term value creation for a closed legacy portfolio within Insurance, Pensions and Investments of ~3.2M customers, working with engineering, operations, and design to modernise high-impact journeys.
- Own the digital journey strategy, turning customer, commercial, and regulatory needs into clear product priorities. Use behavioural and performance data to increase digital usage, improve app registration, increase profitability and reduce avoidable service contact.
- Delivered a redesigned Digital Front Door that unlocked efficiency gains of ~2FTE per month and improved transparency, prioritisation, and alignment across delivery teams.
- Led a strategic shift away from paper-based servicing by identifying friction points and operational waste. Introduced a digital-first principle that embedded paper reduction into every release, cutting manual workload, improving document access, and aligning with future architecture for secure storage and self-service.
- Directed the delivery of UK regulatory changes replacing the Lifetime Allowance (LTA) with Lump Sum Allowance (LSA) and Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance (LSDBA). Coordinated product, engineering, operations, compliance, and comms to update systems, redesign processes, and deliver clear messaging under tight regulatory deadlines, ensuring safe implementation and minimal customer disruption.
- Leading delivery of Single Sign On (SSO) between the mobile app and a third-party portal to remove authentication friction driving ~50% journey drop-off, improving engagement and completion rates.
- Driving in-app change-of-address and personal-details journeys to digitise high-volume servicing tasks. Reduces reliance on third-party processing (currently ~70% of service traffic), improving customer experience and unlocking meaningful operational efficiencies.
Lead Product Ambassador – Product Community of Practice
Lloyds Banking Group
Edinburgh
11.2024 - 03.2026
- Promote product thinking across the regional product and engineering community alongside day-to-day responsibilities.
- Increase engagement through face-to-face product events – including collaboration with external product communities such as Product Tank – and active management of internal Viva Engage community channels.
- Use attendance and engagement analytics to refine topics and formats, improving participation and strengthening cross-team collaboration.
- Support teams transitioning from project delivery to outcome-focused product operating models.
Product Owner
abrdn
Edinburgh
10.2022 - 01.2024
- Stepped into management of a previously decommissioned hybrid robo-advice product amid challenges from a significant organisational split and substantial customer base loss.
- Led a strategic audit and market re-assessment to diagnose critical failures and uncover new opportunities for product viability and growth.
- This included conducting an in depth gap analysis of the existing product, conducting user interviews and leading an assessment of other alternative financial advice products.
- Spearheaded the redesign of the Adviser User Interface (AUI), collaborating with designers and actuaries to streamline functionality and enhance integration with other financial products.
- This included mapping out and reviewing our existing user journeys, leading a heuristic review in collaboration with designers, and directing the redesign of the product.
- This achieved a comprehensive product turnaround, and brought the product back to market resulting in:
- Reopening of client acquisition channels and exploration of new market segments.
- A 20% increase in AUI usability, markedly simplifying advisor interactions and reducing the average time for delivering financial advice by 15% at annual review.
Product Analyst
AND Digital
Edinburgh
09.2021 - 10.2022
- LBG partnership with AND Digital – one year secondment to the Digital Consultancy leading two client deliveries.
- Client 1 – Product Manager for a large multi-media company
- Led the technical evaluation of multiple custom built E-commerce platforms.
- Data and insight gathered from the findings led to the outcome of decommissioning a costly internal product in favour of an 'off the shelf' solution – generating operational efficiency and 30% long term cost saving.
- Championed and launched the company’s Product Community of Practice – driving product strategy, promoting best practice and supporting new Product Managers in shifting from a project to product mindset.
- Led the delivery of Agile training to ten existing Product Managers as they underwent role changes and a company wide digital transformation – supporting growth and the development of long term capability.
- Client 2 – Product Manager for a local homeless charity
- Led the product development for a local homeless charity, focusing on enhancing their digital services.
- The primary goal was to identify and rectify accessibility issues on their website to ensure compliance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standard and improve user experience for at-risk individuals seeking help.
- I conducted an independent accessibility audit to identify key issues. Based on the findings, I led the development team in implementing necessary changes. Additionally, I provided accessibility training to the charity’s staff to maintain long-term compliance.
- The changes improved the website’s usability by 20%, reducing the time it took for users to find critical information.
Education
Product Management Certification - ICP-PDM
IC Agile
Agile Product Ownership - ICP-APO
IC Agile
Professional Diploma - User Experience Design
UX Design Institute
Professional Scrum Product Owner - PSPO1
Scrum.Org
Level 7 Strategic Management and Leadership Practice - undefined
Chartered Management Institute
Professional Scrum Master - PSM2
Scrum.Org
Kanban System Design - KMP1
Kanban University
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt - undefined
Cardiff University
Professionalism, Ethics and Regulation - undefined
Chartered Banker Institute
Modern Apprenticeship in Providing Financial Services - Level 3
Scottish Qualifications Authority
2:1 Psychology (MA) Hons - undefined
The University of Edinburgh
Skills
- Product Management / Ownership
- User Experience Design
- Digital Consultancy
- Financial Services
- Customer Experience
- Strategic Thinking
Awards
AND DIGITAL ‘Valued Award’ for pro-bono work, MAR 2022, LBG ‘Transformer’ award ‘Colleague Advocate of the Year’ for contribution to Scrum Master community, DEC 2020, LBG ‘Changing Futures’ award for contribution to childrens charity ‘Over the Wall’, 2018
Links
LinkedIn
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Product Owner
Lloyds Banking Group
11.2024 - 03.2026
Lead Product Ambassador – Product Community of Practice
Lloyds Banking Group
11.2024 - 03.2026
Product Owner
abrdn
10.2022 - 01.2024
Product Analyst
AND Digital
09.2021 - 10.2022
Agile Product Ownership - ICP-APO
IC Agile
Professional Diploma - User Experience Design
UX Design Institute
Professional Scrum Product Owner - PSPO1
Scrum.Org
Level 7 Strategic Management and Leadership Practice - undefined
Chartered Management Institute
Professional Scrum Master - PSM2
Scrum.Org
Kanban System Design - KMP1
Kanban University
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt - undefined
Cardiff University
Professionalism, Ethics and Regulation - undefined
Chartered Banker Institute
Modern Apprenticeship in Providing Financial Services - Level 3
Scottish Qualifications Authority
2:1 Psychology (MA) Hons - undefined
The University of Edinburgh
Product Management Certification - ICP-PDM
IC Agile