Fred Nyarko

Strategy & Innovation Designer

I help organisations turn complex challenges into clear products, services and solutions that people actually use.From early discovery and framing to testing in the real world, I connect strategy, design and stakeholders.My focus is on turning ideas into concrete, actionable work that teams can move forward with.

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© 2026 Fred Nyarko. All rights reserved.

“Managing outcomes”

A lot of my work happens where different disciplines and perspectives meet. By listening carefully, mapping what’s really going on and visualising options, I help teams align on the problem and the direction of the solution. My role often sits between business, tech and design: connecting people, structuring the work and making sure outcomes match the goals that were agreed on.

Data Wallet Go-to-Market (Multi-Bank Ecosystem | 2021Positioning a privacy-first data wallet and built a commercialization roadmap, trust cues, and pilot-ready journeys to drive adoption

Turning Climate Policy into Local Action | 2025Designing a practical neighborhood intervention and stakeholder alignment toolkit that translates ambition into repeatable, low-barrier participation

Compliant-by-Design: Innovation in Banking & Supervision | 2022Bridging risk, legal, and product teams using service blueprints and decision logs to move ideas to regulated pilot plans faster

From Brand Strategy to Customer Experience | PresentTranslating brand principles into consistent journeys and high-fidelity touchpoints, making execution easier across channels

Compliant-by-Design: Innovation in Banking & Supervision

Sector: Corporate Strategy & SupervisionIn regulated environments, innovation is always a balancing act: move fast, but don’t create risk you can’t explain later.Challenge
Teams often lose time when risk and compliance are involved too late. The goal was to make constraints visible early and turn them into design inputs rather than blockers.My role
I acted as a bridge between risk/compliance and innovation teams, helping ideas become decision-ready and pilot-ready under regulatory conditions.Approach
I used service blueprints to map where regulation, data governance, and approvals would likely create bottlenecks, and facilitated sessions to clarify trade-offs and ownership. For exploratory directions (including AI/NLP angles), I framed pilots around hypotheses and feasibility checkpoints so stakeholders could evaluate risk and value in the same conversation.Outcomes
The result was smoother alignment, faster decision-making, and clearer pilot framing, because teams could see constraints early and design around them.Key artifacts
Risk-ready service blueprints, workshop outputs & decision logs, pilot hypothesis framing.Tags: Corporate Innovation · Service Design · Banking & Supervision · Risk translation

Turning Climate Policy into Local Action

Sector: Public Sector & Climate ResilienceThis project sat at the intersection of policy ambition and everyday reality: how do you make climate adaptation feel doable, relevant, and fair at neighborhood level?
I developed a systemic framework to bridge the gap between abstract municipal climate mandates and neighborhood-level execution in Rotterdam’s Oude Noorden. By prioritizing "Recognition Justice," I translated complex environmental policy into a tangible, ritual-based tool for urban resilience.Challenge
Broad goals exist, but adoption is uneven. Participation barriers and lack of clear ownership often mean the people most impacted are least able to engage.My role
I designed the intervention and the system framing behind it, turning research into something that stakeholders and residents could actually use.Approach
I created De KlimaatKalender, an analog, ritual-based tool that turns climate action into weekly prompts and small steps that can be done individually or socially. Alongside that, I mapped stakeholder roles and influence to surface where responsibility and capacity don’t match. A justice lens helped stress-test the intervention so it didn’t just “inform,” but actively lowered barriers and supported recognition and participation.Outcomes
The work produced a practical intervention concept, a shared framing for coordination, and clear leverage points for improving adoption without shifting burden onto residents.Key artifacts
De KlimaatKalender concept, stakeholder power map, justice leverage points, facilitation materials, event day.Tags: Systemic design · Facilitation· Stakeholder alignment · Service design · Research synthesis

From Brand Strategy to Customer Experience

Sector: Brands, Experiences & VisualsI elevated the strategic presence of heritage and modern brands (Nolet, NAÏF, NS) by translating abstract brand values into concrete, high-fidelity visual narratives. My focus was on identifying "Moments of Delight" to ensure that every touchpoint reinforced the organization's core strategic pillars.Brand only becomes real when it shows up consistently across journeys and touchpoints.Challenge
Teams can agree on brand values, but still struggle to execute them in day-to-day design decisions across channels.My role
I translated brand direction into tangible customer experience work: journeys, touchpoints, and high-fidelity visuals that made the strategy executable.Approach
I started by turning brand principles into usable rules and patterns, then mapped journeys to identify where the experience should reduce friction or create a moment of delight. From there, I produced high-fidelity outputs and narratives that helped stakeholders align quickly and enabled teams to ship consistent touchpoints rather than one-off designs.Outcomes
The work improved consistency and clarity across touchpoints, and made brand direction easier to apply in real execution contexts.Key artifacts
Visual system/guidelines, journey maps, high-fidelity touchpoints, stakeholder narratives.Tags: CX strategy · Visual strategy · Art direction · Storytelling Experience, Brand identity

Data Wallet Go-to-Market (Multi-Bank Ecosystem)

Sector: FinTech & Data SovereigntyMakkie explored a privacy-first data wallet concept with a multi-bank ecosystem in mind.
I led the strategic positioning and commercialization roadmap for "Makkie," a sovereign data wallet initiated for Rabobank. I aligned the competing interests of major Dutch financial institutions to create a unified brand that balances institutional security with frictionless user experience.Challenge
The hard part wasn’t the idea. It was making people trust it, while getting multiple institutional stakeholders aligned on what to build first and how to bring it to market.My role
I shaped the positioning and commercialization direction, and translated that into concrete artifacts teams could use to scope pilots and make decisions.Approach
I framed the go-to-market around the moments where trust is won or lost, then designed a narrative and set of principles that balanced bank-grade credibility with usability. From there, I mapped the value exchange and key journeys, and turned the strategy into a phased rollout and pilot framing that reduced ambiguity for stakeholders.Outcomes
The result was a clear commercialization roadmap, a shared story across parties, and execution-ready artifacts that helped move the concept from “interesting” to “pilotable.”Key artifacts
Market landscape, positioning & trust cues, customer journey, rollout phases, concept wireframes.Tags: Product Strategy · Go-to-Market · Ecosystem Alignment · Journey Mapping · Prototyping

About

I’m Fred, a strategy & innovation designer based in the Netherlands. I’m at my best when things are still unclear and teams need someone to create structure, ask the right questions, and turn scattered input into a direction people can commit to. I enjoy working with different perspectives in the room and translating them into journeys, concepts and next steps that teams can actually execute.I studied Management of Innovation at RSM Erasmus and Strategic Product Design at TU Delft. Across financial services, software and brand-driven projects, I’ve learned to move comfortably between big-picture thinking and hands-on delivery, from interviews and analysis to workshops, mapping and concrete recommendations.Beyond client work, I contributed to the global innovation discourse most recently as a panelist at the 2025 UNIC Conference in Malmö, where I presented strategic design research on Urban Transitions.What people typically get from me is calm focus and momentum: connecting the dots, aligning stakeholders, and keeping the work pointed at measurable outcomes.

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