About

Design is a decision-shaping system. I build it to work like one.

Point of view

Design capability doesn't fail because of designers — it fails because leadership treats design as a downstream delivery function, not a system that shapes decisions, so it never gets embedded into how work is prioritised, funded, and measured.

Until design is tied to business outcomes with clear ownership, operating models, and incentives, it stays fragmented, gets overridden by product and technology pressure, and never scales beyond pockets of excellence.

That's the problem I solve.

Benson Low
Currently

Head of Design Capabilities, Bupa Australia

Accountable for enterprise Design System leadership, DesignOps, ResearchOps, and ContentOps across digital products and services. Partnering directly with product and technology leaders to align design capability with delivery needs and lift design maturity at scale.

Board member, global ResearchOps Community — advocating for research capability as a strategic capital investment, not an operational cost.

Background

For over 20 years I've built design capability inside some of Australia's most complex enterprises — NAB, Australia Post, REA Group, Atlassian, and Bupa.

Not just design teams. The operational infrastructure, governance models, research foundations, and system architecture that determine whether design actually influences how an organisation makes decisions — or just executes them.

What I've seen consistently across financial services, logistics, proptech, enterprise software, and health insurance is the same pattern: design is treated as a delivery function. So it never gets the ownership, operating model, or incentives it needs to scale.

I change that by building design capability as a decision-shaping system — connected to how work is prioritised, funded, and measured across the product and engineering triad.

What I bring to large enterprises
Career Spine

Twenty years building design capability inside Australia's most complex enterprises.

  1. 2024 – Present
    Bupa Australia

    Head of Design Capabilities

    Joined as Head of Research and Insights — doubled the research team from 8 to 16 based on demonstrated impact, consolidated tooling saving $300k annually, and built the research infrastructure from the ground up. Promoted to Head of Design Capabilities to lead all four domains across the enterprise.

  2. 2019 – 2023
    REA Group

    Head of Design Capability

    Four years building design capability at Australia's leading property platform — progressing from UX Research Manager through Senior Manager roles across Product Design, UX Research, and DesignOps, to Head of Design Capability. Built REA's enterprise design system that saved 400,000 hours of product and development time across four years — tracked through code asset reuse per release. Scaled the design community to 70+ FTEs with a 94 Culture Amp engagement score and 50/50 gender balance.

  3. 2015 – 2019
    Australia Post

    Founded UX Research Capability

    Started as UX Design Manager, identified the gap in research capability, and made the case to found Australia Post's first dedicated UX Research team — growing it to 13 people and embedding evidence-based decisioning across critical digital products and services.

  4. 2011 – 2015
    National Australia Bank

    Enterprise UX Lead

    Built enterprise customer and user experience frameworks, journey mapping practice, and embedded UX methodology across one of Australia's largest financial institutions.

Ready to build design capability that actually scales?

Let's talk Work with me