Currently a design leader at Pushpay

James Rutherford

Outcome-driven design leader.

Senior UX Manager building the operating model, frameworks, and team craft behind Pushpay's modernization, from product trios and AI-native workflows to a measurable design impact framework.

At a glance

  • 20+ years

    practising UX since usability testing at Aquinas in 2003, with 15+ years leading design teams across enterprise SaaS, fintech, and global services.

  • 1 → 8

    grew the Pushpay UX function from a single contractor to seven designers and a researcher.

  • 9 trios

    designed and launched the Product Trio program at Pushpay. Currently the design representative at the Group Leadership Trio level for five of them.

  • 6 workstreams

    concurrent UX delivery across the Staq platform modernization programme.

  • 1 in 4 years

    voluntary departure across a peak team of eight direct reports, retained through a post-layoff period.

  • AWS AI Practitioner

    completed the 8-hour AWS AI Practitioner learning plan to support AI product conversations with engineering.

Selected work

Three pieces of evidence for the operating model, the delivery, and the strategy work it enabled.

  • Org design FY26

    Product Trios

    Designing and launching the cross-functional operating model that runs Pushpay modernization across nine trios spanning UX, Product, and Engineering.

    Role: Architect and launch lead

  • Programme leadership FY26

    Staq platform modernization

    Initiating the click study audit, designing the process pipeline, and acting as the AI-assisted prototyping lead across multiple modernization workstreams.

    Role: Concept designer and UXPM

  • Strategy FY25 to FY26

    AI transformation

    Two parallel tracks: shifting how design gets done through Inflect and Design Forge, and shaping AI product strategy from Sidekick to NaLa.

    Role: Track lead

Frameworks

Reusable thinking I've built and applied. Each one is an artifact other teams now use.

  • Product trios model

    The operating-model pattern for cross-functional UX, Product, and Engineering trios that elevate design to an equal partner in product decisions.

    Architected for Staq modernization, FY26

  • Jobs to be Done

    The research, design, and prioritisation framework that became the standing vocabulary for product design at Pushpay, backed by a database of more than seven hundred catalogued jobs.

    Researched, launched, and trained from FY22; in active use

  • INFLECT

    A workshop framework for navigating AI inflection points, including Ladders of Value mapping the uniquely human work to invest in.

    Pushpay AI transformation, June 2025

How I lead

I lead design as an outcome function, not a service function. The work I'm proudest of isn't a screen, it's an operating model: the cross-functional trios that now run modernization, the prioritisation framework leadership plans against, the workshop frameworks the team still uses months later.

I stay hands-on. In FY26 I shipped vision prototypes that secured programme funding, ran an eleven-participant usability study end-to-end, and established AI-assisted near-front-end development as the team's next operating mode. Player-coach is the only mode I know how to lead in.

And I treat accessibility, retention, and craft as the same discipline. If the system isn't usable, the team isn't stable, or the artifacts aren't honest, the strategy isn't real.