About
Dylan Evans
Strategy and design, held together and linked to P&L.
More than twenty-five years connecting companies with the people who buy from them, through brand, product, service, and innovation. That work has run across financial services, utilities, consumer, health-tech, and defence, in start-ups and in large corporates. What held constant is a way of working that treats design as a commercial instrument and holds it to a number.
The method I work by is Differentia. The Cast sets the differentiating choice, the one thing a business will be known for. The Bond holds it together across the organisation. The Course carries it through delivery. The Touchstone shows the distinctive value landed. It lives between board-level intent and shipped product, which is the gap most strategy quietly dies in.
The commercial instinct goes back to the start. At VoxGen I wrote the research proposals that won US Department of Defense funding and built the pricing model that took the company into profit. The same instinct later instigated Philips' Digital Product Passport programme across a €3.9B portfolio, turning an EU regulatory deadline into a business case worth €1.9M in the first year and €8M by the second. I make the commercial case and I do the work, then build the team that carries it after I step back.
How that shows up depends on the company. Scale-up CEOs hire me as Fractional Chief Design Officer. PE and VC portfolios as Strategic Design Advisor, often to run design diligence before a deal. Corporate transformation programmes as Operating Model Lead. The method stays the same. The title is what changes.
UK citizen, based in Amsterdam. Working across Europe and internationally.
Track record
25+yr
Acoustics R&D to AI-native design, across five sectors from finance to defence
€3.9B
Philips Personal Health consumer business, connected across every touchpoint: pack, .com, apps, pre- and post-purchase
+12NPS
Outcome of the Philips.com redesign for the flagship 5000 / 7000 / 9000 shaver ranges
Career arc
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2014 - 2026
Principal Designer, Philips
Twelve years in Philips' consumer business, the last six as Principal Designer, the most senior design IC in Personal Health, partnering directly with VPs and business directors on commercial outcomes. Led the consumer Philips.com redesign (+12 NPS, a €4M/year agency programme). Shipped the brand-to-execution operating model adopted across business units. Instigated the €1.6M Digital Product Passport and Anti-Counterfeit programme across the €3.9B portfolio, design driving regulatory readiness under the EU's Data Act and ESPR, and the P&L behind it. Earlier in the tenure, led design on Philips connected-health services, including FDA Class II medical-device work under ISO 13485 (Heart Health).
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Before Philips
Product and commercial leadership
Chief Product and UX at a venture-backed platform. Before that, commercial and consulting leadership at VoxGen in London. I led its US Navy and Department of Defense research, writing the proposals that won the funding ($400k, $350k, and a $200k ONR programme) and the reports that delivered it. I built the pricing model that turned the company profitable, led the speech component of a £26M national bid, and originated an emergency first-responder product used in California's largest-ever earthquake exercise. Clients across defence, government, utilities, and finance: Lockheed Martin, HMRC, Centrica, Halifax, Cable & Wireless.
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Foundation
Acoustics, psychology, engineering
A research scientist in acoustics at QinetiQ, the UK Ministry of Defence's research agency, designing microphone arrays and speech-intelligibility work. An MSc applying psychology to how people make decisions under pressure, and an engineering degree behind that. It is the grounding for everything since: how people actually decide, as the people who use a product and the people who buy it. Patent holder, EU WO2017032547.
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