Great People: Introducing Andy Ingle

Meet Andy Ingle! Head of UX and all round Big Thinker.

He's a people kind of person, which makes sense considering UX is all about designing the best experiences for the end user. When he was a kid his life plan was to be a rock star, which is fair enough, but we're chuffed that he landed at Great State instead.

Hello, Andy!

Who are you and what do you do?

Hello! I’m Andy and I run the UX team at Great State.

How did you get to be here?

It’s been a long journey…

I always thought I was going to be a rock star but I credit my Dad with his best piece of parenting advice: “Of course you’re going to be a rock star! But what would you do if it didn’t work out?”. I loved design, so I went to uni to study Industrial Design and during my time there, the internet exploded, so I taught myself HTML and then at the time, I had a side hustle building websites.

After I left uni I ran a digital agency with some friends – it was a small start-up but we sold over 2 million units of the software we’d created. I worked in brand, front-end and also in product which I found really interesting. I learned all about the importance of data, measuring performance and data-driven decision making – things I still value today.

I then joined a specialist UX agency called Webcredible, did some amazing work, won a lot of awards, became part of the leadership team and lead the team through an acquisition and integration with Inviqa before making a family move to the beautiful city of Bristol.

After I arrived here I joined Nomensa as Head of UX (a week before Covid!) and I lead the UX team through a particularly challenging period. Then I decided on another side hustle – this time teaching people skills to agencies – before settling into the role I’m in now as Head of UX at Great State.

What are you working on right now?

Everything! As a head of the department, I need to have eyes on everything that is coming in and everything that’s going out. I really like this variety of work.

How do you know when you’ve produced something great?

I’m lucky enough to be part of a team that conducts a lot of research. So, for me, I get to literally see the reactions of people using what we’ve produced. You can see when you’ve produced something great and when you haven’t… you usually find out why and then correct it! 

The other side of my job involves data and ROI – so you can accurately measure success. It’s a great feeling to see real results for the hard work you put in to projects.

What excites you about your work?

There’s a lot I enjoy:

• I love working with people. My team are awesome, and it’s great to be building regular customer research into what we’re doing
• I love problem solving. I think one of my superpowers would be the ability to come up with simple solutions that solve big picture problems. Those are my favourite projects.
• I love design. Working in an end-to-end agency means you get to see your UX work brought to life by a very talented team of designers, content creators and engineers.

What excites you in life?

I like making things. Music, DIY, Lego with my daughter… whatever really. I’m lucky enough to have a job that lets me do that at work, as well as at home.

What is the future of tech looking like to you?

It's looking very interesting. It would be remiss not to mention AI at this point. It's something I’m glad to share initials with (AI will change the world!), but I think it's going to change everything in ways we can’t yet imagine. Certainly for us, we’re looking at how we use AI to streamline workflow and deliver better work in a more efficient way.

I have no idea how that will develop – I don’t really think anyone does – but I have no doubt we’ll need to change a huge amount if we are to make best use of its colossal potential.

Ask a question back. What do you want to know?

I’m a UX person. So, the question shared by my profession, 5YO children and the Backstreet Boys is: Tell me why?

Interested in what else Andy has to say? Get in touch.