Mike Brown

Mike Brown — Head of Design at Barclays. Talks and sessions delivered at UXDX.

Mike Brown

Head of Design

Prior to taking over the Head of Design for Barclays, Mike led a multi-disciplinary team of designers and user researchers at Reed.co.uk. Previously he built up design and research organisations at Eurosport, Discovery and BT.
Mike is a champion of user-centred design, empowered teams and cross-business collaboration. He’s passionate about improving design maturity and transforming businesses, and customer experience, through quality product design.

Past talks

5 talks · 4 events

2026

UXDX EMEAMay 2026

The Un-automatable: Why Soft Skills Still Win in a Tech-Heavy World

As teams move faster and organisations grow more complex, the skills that matter most are often the hardest to teach: empathy, negotiation, judgement and human connection. In this discussion, Tasha Melchior and Mike Brown will explore why these qualities remain essential to strong product, design and leadership practice. Together, they will discuss what it takes to build trust across teams, navigate tension, influence decisions and keep work grounded in real human needs. This session will examine why soft skills are not a nice-to-have, but a core part of how modern teams collaborate, lead and make better decisions in high-pressure environments.

Tasha Melchior

Mike Brown

2025

UXDX EMEAMay 2025

AI in Learning & UX Design: Augmenting, Not Replacing

AI is already changing how we work, but too often people assume it’s about full automation. Barclays have been running a major AI across their internal learning teams and exploring how AI tools can genuinely improve efficiency and quality. This talk will go through the structured testing done, the real measurable gains seen, and the unexpected ways AI has fallen short. Mike will also touch on the risks and challenges of integrating AI in a highly regulated environment like banking, where zero risk is the goal, not just moving faster. Key take aways: - AI is great for small process improvements, not full automation - Real, measurable savings exist—but only with human oversight. AI can massively reduce hours spent on certain tasks, but nothing we’ve tested can just be handed over and left to run on its own. - People often think too big, too early. The real benefits come from integrating AI into existing processes, rather than trying to revolutionize everything overnight. - The ‘AI will catch up’ mindset is delaying work. There’s a growing trend of teams deprioritizing tasks because they assume AI will automate them in six months—this can be a dangerous gamble. - Regulated industries have unique challenges. In banking, AI adoption requires absolute certainty, which limits its use cases in ways other industries might not face.

Mike Brown

2023

UXDX EMEAOct 2023

Democratising Research: Does it work?

Having more work than available people is a common problem in all companies. Democratising research is a way of helping product teams to do their own research so that research teams can help improve the overall quantity of research being performed. But it is not a free lunch - there are problems with democratising research as well. This debate will decide how teams should approach this subject going forward. Moderated by Emma Roberts

AJ King

Emma Andrews

Mike Brown

Continuous Research to Enable Product Teams

Mike delves into Reed's ongoing and dynamic research program, which serves as the foundation for all product and design initiatives within the organisation. He shares how they enable continuous deep research by democratising user research in product teams and creating a regular cadence. This then allows the centralised UX research team to take on larger, more complex and strategic research initiatives. In this session you’ll learn how they’re: - Enabling constant research in product teams - Planning for agile processes - Demonstrating research value - Prioritising larger initiatives - Communicating research for highest impact Through these strategies, Mike and his teams have successfully created an environment where innovation, based on deep user knowledge, is at the forefront.

Mike Brown

2022

UXDX EMEAOct 2022

Implementing Change in Ways of Working

Learning about the latest and greatest techniques are great. But what really matters is how you get those changes implemented in your companies. This panel will discuss the main tactics for demonstrating the value of process improvements as well as tips on how to get buy-in at both a senior stakeholder level as well as within the product development teams.