leapST O NE

Introducing leapSTONE

We specialise in design thinking, working internationally with organisations from the commercial, public and charity sectors.

We use design tools and techniques to help you scrutinise and solve problems, creating sustainable change and value through an impartial tailored approach.

Neal Stone

Neal is the former Head of Design for British Airways. He led the design of the world’s first flat beds in business class. Neal founded leapSTONE in 2009. He has taught service design and innovation at the Royal College of Art and at some of the world’s most prestigious business schools.

Read more

Clients and work

leapSTONE has worked with commercial, public and NGO organisations of all shapes and sizes from pre-revenue start ups to major corporates. Projects range from hospitality to healthcare and from strategic direction-setting to practical, hands-on delivery.

Read more

“We have made fantastic progress since we started our project work and Neal has been great to work with. Neal has been instrumental in making this happen, and we would hope to work with him and his team again in the future.”

Read full quote

Design leadership & strategy

We explore and set the tone, direction and strategy for the type of design to be used, whether for a one-off project, sitting alongside your C-suite, or advising on a new global design & innovation function set up.

Co-creating improved and new experiences

We use service design methods to co-create improvements to current services or ideate desirable new user experiences with your customers and internal teams.

Read more

Design & creative management

Hands on, detailed, day-to-day management of creative teams and processes including design research, project scoping, brief writing, finding a design agency and creative stewardship.

Read more

“leapSTONE has supported our Global Innovation & Design team for a number of years. leapSTONE has helped craft focused design briefs from complex project needs; assisted in identifying design teams to partner with; and provided design management support on a wide range of projects.”

Read full quote

Explore

We explore problems outside and inside the organisation.

Identify

We identify opportunity areas and what we can do.

Create

We create a plan and align the best team to deliver that plan.

Deliver

We help clients deliver by working together from research to rollout. We shape the right team.

Change

We understand the desired user experience and seed the organisational changes to realise it.

“Neal’s experience has been invaluable, taking time to understand what we do and what we want to achieve. Without Neal’s help I think we would have spent a lot more time and money with less results.”

Read full quote

Asking the right questions

Best practice design helps reduce the chance of finding a really good answer to the wrong question.

Design. The unfair advantage.

Organisations that are design-led have been shown to outperform their peers by 211%.

Read more

Same thinking = Same answers

Many projects fail since they employ business-as-usual techniques that are simply reacting to symptoms. Properly exploring causes leads to better potential solutions and reduces the risk of failed knee-jerk projects.

Top table

leapSTONE believes in the power of good design but it is often poorly understood or not considered by senior leaders. We work with the C-suite to listen and understand where and how design might best add value.

“Really good design is about exploring problems thoroughly. It reduces the chance of getting a great answer to the wrong question.” 

Read full quote