Accelerating urban & climate-tech from zero-to-one — at program scale
Urban-X was created by BMW & MINI to help mobility, infrastructure, and climate-tech startups overcome one of the biggest challenges in their journey: the “startup valley of death.” Many of these companies fail before reaching market because they face slow government procurement cycles, strict regulations, and the high cost of building complex products.
Problem
75% of global emissions come from cities, but most startups building technologies for the future of cities run out of money before they reach market.
Urban innovation lags behind because it is uniquely challenging to drive adoption before running out of money in heavily regulated industries with slow procurement cycles. Startups working on mobility and clean energy technologies often run out of money before they find product–market fit.
Opportunity
URBAN-X was designed to close that gap with a hybrid product development and investment platform.
Urban-X assembled a senior cross-functional product team—including experts in digital product design, hardware design, and manufacturing—to accelerate development and de-risk early-stage innovation.
How I Helped
As the lead for UI/UX, I guided founders through user research, customer discovery, and applied design thinking—helping them understand how design systems, prototyping, and testing drive learning, iteration, and speed to market.
Research & Discovery
User research, jobs to be done, define testable assumptions + success signals.
UX & Architecture
Service mapping, simplify complex workflows, architect user interfaces.
System Design
Guidance on approach and scope; decide when to adopt or create a pattern library.
Outcomes
0→1 in 16 weeks
Gentian uses satellite imagery and AI for precise habitat mapping. Shaped product scope, mapped user needs to regulation, and delivered a full MVP in 16 weeks.
A biodiversity market is emerging with new legislation in the UK increasing demand for biodiversity reporting for large landowners and property investors. Traditional ecological surveys, often time-consuming and potentially inaccurate, require experts to visit sites to collect data.
End-to-end process
Architected a real-time Traffic Management platform leveraging adaptive signals.
By connecting city intersections to the latest sensor technology, Xtelligent is powering tomorrow’s adaptive traffic signals. I facilitated research with LADOT, architected an operational dashboard, helped engineers visualize AI-driven optimization, and supported launch of the first city pilot.
Impact
System for Startup Acceleration
Built a repeatable design framework linking research → concept → prototype → pilot, enabling faster learning loops and cross-team consistency across 90+ startups.
Elevated Design as Strategy
Positioned design as a core driver of product and business value. Visual systems and frameworks helped founders communicate clearly with investors, partners, and policymakers.
Program Learnings
URBAN-X taught me how to lead teams through ambiguity at a systems level. Structured within BMW’s Innovation Management group, our team built repeatable processes to accelerate product development from idea to pilot. I’m grateful to have used these methods to help founders transform industries and tackle the biggest challenges facing our infrastructure and planet.