The website rescue

OVO's public website, around 380 pages across energy products, EV charging, home services and editorial content, was being redesigned and rebuilt by an external agency, with my team engaged as consultants and QA. Mid-project, the agency collapsed. The inherited reality was worse than the headline: the codebase was far less complete than reported, and the designs covered only a fraction of the estate.

I led the takeover: a Tiger Team of seven engineers plus a creative squad, going from consultants to owners overnight. Three decisions defined the recovery.

Govern the gap instead of designing it page by page

The missing design coverage was completed under the design system governance we'd set at the project's start: a deliberately minimal component library, new components only where genuinely needed, existing ones reused in more inventive ways. Every component we didn't build was schedule reclaimed.

Rebuild lighter

We replaced the inherited approach with a leaner page architecture, which paid out as faster page loads and cleaner code, engineered in rather than tuned in afterwards.

Raise the craft bar mid-crisis

Rescue projects usually survive by stripping quality out. We shipped motion and animation beyond the original scope, because craft is what makes a recovered project credible rather than merely finished.

Outcome

Live a week ahead of the schedule set before the crisis. Page performance and code quality improved measurably, conversion rose after launch, and the work was recognised with an internal award created specifically for it. The quieter lesson: the in-house team delivered what the external spend had promised, and better.