Battle Design
Index
Independent digital product consultantBrisbane, Australia

I like making complicated things easier

If you’re deciding what to build, trying to improve a digital product or getting a team moving again, I can help.

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Battle Design

Creative, technical and ready to rumble

Based
Brisbane, Australia
Working
Locally and globally
Across
Product strategy, design and technology

I’m Michael Battle, an independent digital product consultant in Brisbane, Australia.

I’ve spent 25+ years working across strategy, design, development, marketing, growth and team leadership. You can bring me in to shape a product, lead the work or get into the detail alongside your team.

Get in touch now or scroll to read more about my custom system and process.

Working together

Get everyone moving together

Give people a vision they can get behind. I help the team see what we’re trying to achieve, why it matters and where their contribution fits. I make the case, invite their ideas and build the commitment to carry it through.

Then we turn that shared ambition into work. We sketch ideas, work through challenges and agree who’s taking what forward. I stay alongside the team, helping solve the details that stand between the vision and the finished product.

Design has moved upstream

The Design Advantage

Design was often brought in at the end: the layout, the polish, the pixels. Its role has grown.

Product design helps decide what to make, how it should work and why someone would choose it. That puts design in the business of creating competitive advantage, not just a better-looking interface.

  1. 01Visual appeal
  2. 02Better experiences
  3. 03Competitive advantage
  1. STEP 01

    First, make it
    look good

    01 / Visual appeal

    Digital design started with the page. We brought the habits of print onto screens, working with basic tools and limited insight into what people did next.

    The task was familiar: arrange the information, make it readable, make it look good.

    Early digital design borrowed from print, with basic tools and a brief often focused on making the page look good.

    For example

    A bank’s website presents its accounts with clear layouts, readable rates and a reassuring visual identity. You can see what’s on offer, and it looks trustworthy.

  2. STEP 02

    Then, make it
    work better

    02 / Better experiences

    Then the page became a place people spent time. They came back, picked up unfinished tasks and moved between devices, services and conversations. A good-looking screen was only one part of that experience.

    Design became about guiding people across time, systems and touchpoints. Research helped us understand the whole journey: what happens before, what comes next, and where people lose their way.

    People returned, resumed tasks and moved between systems. Design became about guiding the whole journey, across time and touchpoints.

    For example

    You start opening an account on your phone, finish on your laptop and call with a question. The bank knows where you’re up to, without making you start again.

  3. STEP 03

    Now, be
    their first choice

    03 / Competitive advantage

    Now we’re designing for head and heart. A product has to make sense and work well. But loyalty grows when people trust it, see their values reflected in it and feel it’s on their side.

    This is where I lead. I connect customer insight, business strategy and technology to turn that promise into a product people can believe in, then lead the work to deliver it.

    That’s competitive advantage people carry with them. Reasons to choose you, stay with you and recommend you. Not just satisfaction with a feature, but belief in the business behind it.

    This is where I lead: bringing customer needs, business strategy and technology together to create products people trust, feel connected to and recommend.

    For example

    Your bank helps when money is tight, explains its decisions and acts on values you share. You trust it with your future, and recommend it to people you care about.

Know when to hold ’em

Put the question on the table

The questions change as a product develops: what people need, how to deliver it, and how to grow its use without losing what makes it valuable.

These cards are part of The Battle Design Loop, a system I created and use to guide digital product work from the first decisions through delivery and scale. They offer a glimpse of how I think, and a way to work through those decisions together.

Explore a sample of the cards below. Pick one with your own project in mind. See where it takes the conversation...

  1. A map bounded by walls, gates and one pencilled line.

    Constraints

    What boundaries shape this decision?

Full Battle Design Loop site coming soon

My framework

How the work happens

Great work needs a direction people understand, something useful delivered, and a reason to keep investing.

Below are the outlines of the four phases that I follow in every project. The outcomes of each phase inform the next round of decisions and actions.

What we learn changes the next Align decision
  1. 01

    Define the direction

    Align

    Work out whose situation should improve and why it is worth the business’s time and money. Make the assumptions, competing interests and unresolved disagreements explicit before choosing a direction.

    Aim
    Choose the outcome worth backing together.
    The change
    Customer needs and business ambition → a shared decision
  2. 02

    A finished increment

    Advance

    Choose a complete, useful increment and do the work to finish it. Match the evidence to the uncertainty and the cost of being wrong. A conversation or research may answer a question without a build.

    Aim
    Finish useful work with enough evidence to proceed.
    The change
    An agreed direction → a finished, tested increment
  3. 03

    Scale the value

    Amplify

    Get the finished work to the customers who need it. Look beyond attention to adoption, repeat use and recommendation, and invest where customer value earns a sustainable return.

    Aim
    Grow use that is worth the investment.
    The change
    A finished increment → customer value and business return
  4. 04

    The next decision

    Ascend

    Compare the outcome with what you expected and what the work cost. Decide what to scale, repair or stop, then carry the learning into the next choice of direction.

    Aim
    Decide what deserves the next investment.
    The change
    Results and opportunity cost → a better-informed choice

What we learn changes the next Align decision

Selected experience

From PlayStation to public services & startups

My work spans banking, gaming, public services and education and the startup space. Each brings different expectations of a product, and different consequences when it gets things wrong.

Someone using a public service may have no choice about being there. A player can leave in a second. That difference matters to what we design, how we measure it and what we ask of the people using it.

  1. 01

    Honda / ANZ / Australia Post

    Immersive Digital customer experiences

  2. 02

    PlayStation / Repeat.gg

    Gaming platforms and global growth

  3. 03

    Queensland Government / QUT / Heritage Bank

    Public services, education & transformation

Also along the way

  • Fosters
  • Parmalat
  • QT Mutual Bank
Battle Design

Let's give 'em something to talk about

Tell me what you’re trying to achieve and what’s making it difficult. I’ll give you an honest view of where I could help and what a first piece of work might look like.

A rough outline is enough.