Core Competency Questions:

Tell Me About Yourself

• Sure! I’m Szymon, a Service and UX Designer with a strong interest in digital product design. I started in business and marketing and I think that shaped my approach to design, giving me a user-centered focus while understanding the needs of businesses.
• I’ve always been fascinated by customer behaviour, which led me from studying business to exploring UX and service design as a way to solve real-world problems by focusing on user needs.
• This interest led me to transition fully into UX design. I wanted to move beyond strategy and actively create experiences that impact people in a meaningful way.
• I recently completed my MA in User Experience and Service Design, which gave me hands-on experience with industry projects, focusing deeply on user research, prototyping, and designing intuitive services.
• One of the things I’m most passionate about in UX is the iterative process—continuously improving designs based on feedback and testing.
• What excites me about this role is the chance to apply my skills in a fast-evolving company like RM, where I can use service design to support education technology. I’m eager to bring together my design skills and business insights to create solutions that enrich lives while driving value for both users and the company.

Walk Me Through Your Experience

• I started in marketing, which gave me a strong grasp of user engagement and strategic thinking that I now bring to my service design work.
• As the Marketing Lead for Enactus at De Montfort University, I led Project Smile to promote children’s oral hygiene.
• In my Digital Marketing role at ApnaKey (a small Leicester startup), I boosted social media engagement and led partnership proposals, which supported a smooth service launch. This role taught me the importance of aligning design, branding, and strategy.
• As a Digital Marketing Intern at De Montfort University’s Arts & Festivals Management, I developed a branding strategy and promoted major Art events, growing my skills in audience engagement—skills I now apply regularly in UX.
• Transitioned more fully into UX with my MA in UX and Service Design, where I worked on multiple collaborative projects that deepened my skills.
• Recently, I co-led the design of an e-bike sharing service in Loughborough for industry client Sparck. We used Agile develop a scalable service solution. My responsibilities included service blueprinting and designing user journeys, key skills that I’m excited to apply in this role at RM.
• During the Ford Smart Mobility Challenge, I led a team to create Hibe - a circular economy service for repurposing electronics in hibernation using Lean UX methodologies, we secured £5,000 in funding and tested the service at Loughborough Market, setting up a market stall for real life user journey testing. I was responsible for stakeholder communication - we collaborated with council and the Air Ambulance Service.
• For my major project, Unblock, I designed a digital service to help young professionals overcome procrastination, using personalized exercises and an accountability partnership system.
• Overall, my experience combines strategic thinking with engaging, user-centered design—skills I’m excited to bring to this role to create impactful, user-driven solutions.

Why Did You Apply

• This role is a natural progression for me, allowing me to combine my passion for creating user-centered experiences with the chance to impact learners worldwide.