SAUDI TELECOM COMPANY
Enterprise Digital Ecosystem Transformation
From fragmentation to foundation at scale
Client: STC Group, Saudi Arabia
Sectors: Telecom, Fintech, Digital Media, Technology, B2B
Role: Director of Experience Design (Interbrand Global/Madrid/Milan/London)
30%
Delivery speed improved
100+ platforms
unified into one model
13 subsidiaries
aligned with shared governance
Situation
A bold verbal and visual rebrand with no support systems to make it work.
Saudi Telecom Company (STC) had just completed a major rebrand and was expanding fast. Fintech, digital media, TV, and B2B services all launched in quick succession across 13 subsidiaries. The ambition was right. The infrastructure was not.
More than 100 platforms were live, each built independently. Journeys overlapped or contradicted each other. Interfaces used different design logic. There was no governance model to manage any of it, and no shared language between design, product, and engineering teams. The brand looked bold on the surface. Underneath, it was fragmenting at every touchpoint.
Executives had visibility of individual platforms but no view of the ecosystem as a whole. Customers felt the incoherence even if they couldn't name it.
Some examples of inconsistent communications
Approach
Make the whole problem visible before fixing any part of it.
The starting point was a full ecosystem map. Before anything could be unified, the scope of the problem had to be made visible: every platform, every ownership gap, every broken flow across B2C and B2B.
On the brand experience side, the refreshed identity needed to become executable. Not a style guide. Interface rules that teams could apply without returning for a decision every time. Sub-brands like STC Play and STC TV needed to be distinct enough to stand on their own and coherent enough to belong to the same family.
Customer experience work exposed where journeys overlapped, contradicted each other, or simply broke. Flows were redefined to work consistently across both B2C and B2B, something the original build had never accounted for.
Jobs-to-be-done workshops brought IT, design, and marketing into the same room to tackle the service design challenge. The point was not alignment for its own sake. It was to surface where delivery was breaking down and why, so the fix could be structural rather than cosmetic. Governance sessions with senior leadership ran in parallel, focused on embedding design maturity rather than managing a project from inside a design team.
STC Digital Ecosystem Map
STC Brand Architecture
System
A design system that became an operating model.
The output was DLS 2.0, a modular design language system built for scale and governance from the outset. Over 1,000 inconsistent UI patterns were rebuilt into reusable, documented components. Shared standards were set for layout, accessibility, and responsiveness. Developer-ready playbooks were written so adoption did not depend on interpretation.
Adoption was never going to happen through documentation alone. Onboarding rituals, cross-team workshops, and embedded ceremonies were part of the system's design. The goal was to change how teams made decisions, not just what they were permitted to build.
What started as a design system became STC's operating model. The ecosystem map gave executives a live view of performance across the portfolio. Every new platform launch builds on the existing system rather than starting from scratch.
Digital Ecosystem Diagram
Adoption rituals embedded the system into daily practice through onboarding and workshops
UI Audit
Some DLS 2.0 Foundations and Components
Playbook and Guidelines
Before: STC, STC Play, STC TV, fragmented landing pages
After: STC, STC Play, STC TV, consistent landing pages
“We had great talent, strong platforms, and a bold brand, but no way to connect them. Every team spoke a different language. We weren’t designing an experience. We were just shipping fragments."
Internal Product Lead,
STC Group
Outcomes
30% faster. 100+ platforms. One model.
Experience Systems turned a fragmented digital estate into a governed, scalable operating model. Brand experience gave STC's expansion a coherent identity, customer experience eliminated the broken flows that were eroding trust, and service design built the delivery infrastructure that made consistency repeatable across 13 subsidiaries.
- Design and delivery cycles reduced by 30%
- 100+ platforms brought under a single model, cutting duplication and rework
- All 13 subsidiaries aligned to shared governance and executive oversight
- Every subsequent launch built on the system rather than around it
“This gave us a way to move faster without starting from scratch every time.”
Internal Product Owner,
STC Group
Curious how this approach might apply in your context?
Ale
Strategic Design Leader
Building experiences for new categories.
Fixing broken CX that slows growth.
Based in London, open to UK and EU mandates in:
Customer Experience, CX Transformation, Service and Product Strategy, Experience Design.
Director, Head, or C-suite level. Fractional, interim, or permanent.