Fritz von Runte
Design Leader · Head of Design
British National · Manchester, UK · 07533 583 387 · cv@vonrunte.com · servicedesigns.co.uk
Experienced Design leader. Twenty years designing services for the UK & Scottish Governments, NHS, NICE, MHRA, Home Office, HSE, DfE and high-growth scale-ups. Data driven design focused on the user and the business. I can build design teams that move real metrics, including preparing them for acquisition or new rounds of investment. Quick and experienced on anything Design.
CLIENTS & EMPLOYERS UK Gov · Scottish Gov · Welsh Revenue Authority · NHS Blood and Transplant · NHS Digital · NHS England · NICE · MHRA · Home Office · Health & Safety Executive · Department for Education · Charity Commission · Citizens Advice · Redress Scotland · Public Health England · Zuto · On the Beach · BridgeU · Hussle
Notable Results
Readied BridgeU's design function for acquisition. As Interim Head of Design (18 months, 5 reports, reporting to VP Product), I rebuilt the design practice, tripled delivery pace, and helped position the company for its successful acquisition by Cialfo.
Led design on ScotAccount ; the Scottish Government's Digital Identity Service. Led 3 designers and 2 researchers; shipped three reusable service components from discovery to beta; passed all Scottish Government digital assessments. Components designed to be reused across Scottish Government services.
Scaled the UK's COVID-19 antibody service 40x ; from 2,000 to 80,000 weekly donations ; as Lead Service Designer at NHS Blood and Transplant.
+55% conversion at Zuto as Head of Design & UX. Embedded user-centred design across the customer journey; led 3 designers with budget authority for upskilling and external user research.
Recent Engagements
Service Design Consultant ; Charity Commission · 2026 Mapping the Commission's service landscape and prototyping future-state journeys to shape digital direction.
Lead Service Designer ; Kainos (Welsh Revenue Authority) · 2025 Designed new tax services end-to-end against the GDS Service Standard. Led strategic service design across the wider programme.
Lead Service Designer ; Mastek (NHS, MHRA) · 2024–2025 Led service transformation across two regulated environments. Built and ran Mastek's service design community of practice, raising capability across the consultancy.
Senior Independent Practice ; Head of Design & Principal Designer · 2021–2024 A portfolio of senior engagements across public-sector transformation and product leadership.
- BridgeU ; Interim Head of Design. 5 direct reports; reported to VP Product. Rebuilt the product design practice, tripled delivery pace, and helped ready the business for its successful acquisition by Cialfo.
- Scottish Government, ScotAccount ; Lead Service Designer. Led 3 designers and 2 researchers. Shipped 3 reusable service components, discovery → beta. Passed all Scottish Gov assessments.
- Heart of Manchester BID (Trambient) ; Principal Designer & Project Lead. Led a multidisciplinary UX/UI/service team to ship a native app for Manchester's Metrolink network.
- Redress Scotland ; Principal Service Designer. Defined the foundational service model for a politically sensitive national redress programme.
Lead Service Designer ; Made Tech · 2021
- NHS Blood and Transplant ; Scaled national COVID-19 antibody collection 40x (2k → 80k weekly donations).
- Citizens Advice ; Led Victim Support discovery; reframed the problem with sensitive stakeholder groups.
- Home Office ; Discovery and early-stage design for confidential internal services.
Service Designer ; Sigma / Nexer (Department for Education) · 2020 Led service design through discovery, alpha, and beta. Contributed to GDS assessments and user-research leadership.
My style
Design leadership. Build functions, hire to a bar, trust the team, coach to seniority, protect craft from delivery pressure.
Service strategy. Map the whole service, find the pain points and opportunities, focus on value, and rapid prototyping the riskiest assumption first.
Stakeholder management. Fluent from ministers and permanent secretaries to engineers and end users.
Delivery. GDS Service Standard, NHSx, Digital Scotland. Lean, agile, accessibility-first, assessment-ready.
Head of Design Tenures
Role | Organisation | Years | Scope | Outcome |
Interim Head of Design | BridgeU | 2022–2024 | 5 reports → VP Product | Readied the design function for acquisition by Cialfo; ~3x delivery pace |
Head of Design & UX | Zuto | 2015–2016 | 3 designers; budget for upskilling & external research | +55% conversion via UCD across the customer journey |
Head of Design & UX | NICE | 2014–2015 | 4 designers; direct access to senior leadership | Aligned NICE with then-new GDS design standards |
Head of Design & UX | On the Beach | 2012–2014 | 1 designer + built 3-person front-end team | Implemented the UX discipline and front-end capability. reached goals for 2 rounds of investment |
Earlier Roles
Principal Designer, Hussle.com (2019–2020) · UX & Interaction Designer, NICE / NHS England (2018) · Service Designer, NHS Digital (2018) · Principal Designer, Health & Safety Executive (2017) · Service Designer, Your Housing Group (2016–2017)