Ben Tollady

Head of Design

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia16 yrs 2 mos experience

Most Likely To SwitchHighly Stable

Key Highlights

Led teams of 30+ designers at Telstra.
Founded one of Australia's pioneering UX agencies.
Delivered award-winning products in public and private sectors.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a UX design leader with extensive experience in B2C and B2B sectors.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

User Experience DesignLeadership

Other Skills

UXUIUser-centered DesignDesign ThinkingAccessibilityInformation ArchitectureWeb StandardsUsabilityCSSWeb DesignXHTMLFlashUsability EngineeringInteraction DesignFront-end

About

I'm a design leader with almost 30 years’ experience shaping human-centred experiences across enterprise, government, and consumer sectors. My career includes founding one of Australia’s pioneering UX agencies (Thirst Studios), growing strategic design capability at Origin Energy, and leading large-scale, embedded design teams at Telstra. I’ve led teams of 30+ designers, influenced C-level decision-making, and helped deliver award-winning products, including Origin’s top-rated mobile app and recognised work in both public and private sectors. Adept at blending systems thinking with creativity and a strong sense of purpose, I bring a leadership style grounded in people, process, product, and purpose. I focus on creating resilient design cultures, mentoring emerging leaders, and aligning design strategy with measurable business impact. My strengths lie in long-term vision creation, adaptability, and building inclusive, psychologically safe environments where high-performing teams can thrive. I lead with intent - introducing vision-led ways of working, embedding behavioural and customer insight into product development, and helping elevate design as a strategic partner across large organisations.

Experience

16 yrs 2 mos

Total Experience

2 yrs 10 mos

Average Tenure

5 yrs 10 mos

Current Experience

Telstra

2 roles

Head of Digital User Experience (Sales)

Promoted

Jun 2022 – Present · 3 yrs 11 mos · Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Leading an exceptional team of 30 designers that make up the Digital Sales UX Chapter in Telstra Digital.
Our team focuses primarily on supporting the missions within the Acquisition, e-Commerce & Growth Group that create journeys and experiences for prospective and existing Consumer and Small Business customers as they explore and purchase from our range of products and services.
While most of our chapter's focus pertains to journeys across telstra.com.au, there are a number of members of our team that also support a variety of valuable adjacent projects and missions.

UXUIUser Experience DesignUser-centered DesignDesign ThinkingLeadership

Experience Design Lead - Telstra Energy

Aug 2020 – Jun 2022 · 1 yr 10 mos · Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Invision

Design Leadership Forum Member

Jul 2020 – Present · 5 yrs 10 mos

The mission is to advance the practice of design leadership by fostering a community where the world’s best can learn from one another.

Academy xi

Visiting Lecturer

Nov 2019 – Feb 2020 · 3 mos · Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Tutor on the User Experience Design courses.

Origin energy

Experience Design Director

Feb 2018 – Jul 2020 · 2 yrs 5 mos · Melbourne, Australia

Tractor design school

Industry Mentor

Jan 2015 – Dec 2017 · 2 yrs 11 mos · Melbourne, Australia

Tutor on the User Experience Design course.
http://www.tractor.edu.au/faculty

Uxmas

Founder & Curator

Dec 2012 – Feb 2018 · 5 yrs 2 mos

UXmas was a digital advent calendar for user experience designers.
http://uxmas.com/

Melbourne geek night

Founder & curator

Sep 2011 – Jan 2018 · 6 yrs 4 mos · Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne Geek Night was a popular, informal get-together for people who worked in the web industry around Melbourne to catch-up, have a yarn, share ideas and talk about new techniques and technologies.
http://www.melbournegeeks.com/

Thirst studios

Experience Design Director & Co-founder

Feb 2008 – May 2018 · 10 yrs 3 mos · Melbourne, Australia

Thirst Studios is a strategic User Experience (UX) design agency (and certified B-Corp) that focuses on purposeful work across Health, Government and Education.
I co founded the business in 2008 and was responsible for overseeing all aspects of running a UX design consultancy & web development business including sales and marketing, business development, team leadership, financial management, stakeholder engagement and strategic planning.
We worked with an amazing range of clients, from large corporations and government departments to small community service organisations and start-ups, helping them to enable innovation, deliver products & services and transform their organisations through research, strategy and design.
I stepped away from the business in May 2018 in search of new challenges and to explore alternative creative endeavours after 10 successful years at the helm.
Clients included:
The Supreme Court of Victoria
The Alfred Hospital
Beyond Blue
World Vision
The County Court of Victoria
The Australian Bureau of Statistics
The Australian Red Cross
The Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal
Computershare
Film Victoria
Telstra
Medibank
VECCI
Real Estate View
The Department of Transport - Government Victoria
Yarra Trams
Vic Roads

Ingena

Lead Usability Consultant

Sep 2005 – Aug 2007 · 1 yr 11 mos · Melbourne, Australia

Projects included:
Telstra.com online store (UX, Strategy & UI design)
Telstra Business web site (UX) - Created the first Telstra Business site, consolidating 7 existing sites within an impossible deadline.
Telstra Business mobile strategy (UX & Strategy) - The first "mobile" strategy for Telstra Business, back when mobile meant Blackberries.
NAB (UX research & design)
Australia Post (UX design)