A conversation with Stanley Wood, VP, Head of Product Design

Stanley Wood’s career has been anything but linear. Starting in computer science, detouring into filmmaking, and traveling the world before settling in Stockholm as a designer, Stanley has always been driven by a curiosity for how people and systems work together. Now leading Wolt’s global design team, Stanley shares how his journey shaped his approach to design, the team’s philosophy of craft, and how Wolt is scaling delightful experiences across 28 countries.

Stanley, your career so far really is “a road less travelled”. Tell us about how you got to Wolt. 

I’ve always been drawn to the idea of connecting dots—finding unexpected links between systems and people to create something meaningful. That curiosity led me to study computer science, where I developed an appreciation for logic, structure, and problem-solving. It taught me how systems connect and scale, but I realised I wanted to go further—beyond how things work, to how they feel. That’s what drew me to the arts—writing, filmmaking, and eventually design—where I could focus on human experience and emotion.

After graduating, I spent six months travelling across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and those experiences deeply shaped my perspective. In Moscow, I was struck by the grandeur of the metro stations—palaces underground that blended culture, function, and art. Travelling by train to China, I saw cities transforming with a sharp focus on modernity and efficiency ahead of the Beijing Olympics. In India, the street markets were full of life, a chaotic blend of trade and conversation, contrasted with the calm and reflection you could find meditating at an ashram by the Ganges. And in New York, Art Deco skyscrapers reflected ambition and scale, showing how design can define a city’s identity.

These moments made me see how design—whether it’s infrastructure, architecture, or cultural systems—connects people to their environment and to one another.

That curiosity for connecting systems and people has guided me throughout my career. At Telefónica, I worked on social networking tools to connect communities. At Spotify, I focused on creating experiences that made listening to music feel personal and meaningful, even at a global scale. At Volvo Cars, I explored how physical and digital design could come together to create seamless, sustainable solutions. And at Kry, I tackled the complexities of designing services that adapt to the unique demands of healthcare systems and cultural contexts.

Each of these roles taught me something new—how to design for scale, balance speed with quality, and tie design closely to a business’s purpose. These experiences have shaped how I lead today at Wolt.

Why did you join Wolt?

Wolt felt unique. The product already had this game-like magic—playful, intuitive, and human—which is rare for a scaleup. That heritage of care, especially on the consumer side, stood out, and I saw an opportunity to build on that and expand to merchants, couriers, and internal tools.

What really drew me in was the challenge of scaling craft. Creating delightful experiences when you’re small is relatively easy—there’s a natural intimacy in the work. But maintaining that same level of care and quality as you grow globally? That’s a much harder problem, and one I first encountered when we scaled design at Spotify. Too often, at scale, companies lose sight of the details that make products special, and craft becomes the exception rather than the rule. Metrics and processes take centre stage, sometimes overshadowing designers’ taste and judgement. But I believe design scales when it’s built on conviction, curiosity, and care—balancing bold ambition with the smallest details that show customers they matter.

Meeting Wolt’s CEO and founder, Miki Kuusi, reinforced everything I’d admired about the company. His thoughtful approach to design and focus on creating high-quality products made it clear that design was a core part of Wolt’s vision. I was also impressed by Niilo Säämänen, Wolt’s CTO, who demonstrated a genuine appreciation for craft and quality. It’s not often you get to partner with a technical leader who values design so highly. I could mention many others, like Alo, our Head of Brand, who has shaped such a bold and distinctive identity—but I’ll leave it there.

Wolt’s complexity was another motivator. Designing for a three-sided marketplace—where consumers, couriers, and merchants all interact—is incredibly challenging. Every decision has ripple effects across the ecosystem. For example, improving the courier experience can directly impact consumer satisfaction and merchant success. That interconnectedness makes the work both rewarding and high stakes.

And joining Wolt was an opportunity to bring together everything I’d learned so far: designing for complexity, scaling craft, and creating products that feel thoughtful and human. Like how my time at Volvo Cars taught me how to connect physical and digital experiences, or how my work at Kry showed me how to design for local cultural and operational nuances. Those lessons have been invaluable at Wolt, where every market has its own needs, yet the experience must remain cohesive at a global scale.

You’ve been building our design team for the past two years. How has this journey been and what’s your vision?

I think of our journey in seasons. Building a design team from a local startup to a global scaleup is a long process that requires compounding effort over time. In an industry that often demands immediate results, storytelling has been an essential tool for me over the years. It helps clarify the path ahead, giving the team a clear structure to follow, inspiring them along the way, and ensuring everyone sees the role they play in bringing the vision to life.

Inspired by the zodiac new year, I think of this journey in three seasons, each with its own challenges and opportunities:

At the heart of this journey is the belief that happy designers create happy customers. When designers feel supported, empowered, and proud of their work, that passion flows directly into the experiences they create for users. This creates a sense of purpose and connection, with my role as a leader to ensure the team has the clarity, tools, and space to bring that to life every day.

What is at the core of our design team?

Our design team is built on the belief that we are ONE team, speaking with ONE voice, and moving to ONE rhythm. This alignment is essential to creating a seamless and cohesive product experience for our users. To achieve this, we’ve built shared principles, tools, and processes that allow us to zoom in on the details and zoom out to align with the bigger picture, ensuring every part of our ecosystem feels intentional, connected, and human.

To speak with ONE voice, we invest in shared principles and frameworks that guide both the macro and micro aspects of our work. At a high level, our Experience Principles—Playful, Snappy, Familiar, Rewarding—help us design interactions that resonate emotionally with users, ensuring every experience feels engaging, efficient, and satisfying. These are supported by tools like experience maps, archetypes, and strategy frameworks, which help us design for the broader ecosystem and its complexities. On a more detailed level, our design tool stack and design system provide the foundation to execute these principles with precision and consistency.

To maintain ONE rhythm, we align around a unified cadence that drives collaboration and momentum. LOOP (our design process) acts as the backbone of this rhythm, enabling us to integrate feedback, iterate rapidly, and stay responsive to the evolving needs of our users. This rhythm fosters a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring that our work feels cohesive, relevant, and thoughtfully crafted.

Our commitment to being ONE team extends beyond collaboration—it’s about building a design community that cascades a shared voice while integrating effectively with cross-functional partners. We intentionally organise our teams to work fluidly across disciplines, balancing collaboration with autonomy. Design leadership plays a key role here, coaching through the details and bridging work across touchpoints to ensure the user experience feels unified and seamless.

To support these values, we rely on our Magic 8 Operating Principles which guide how we approach design with focus, effectiveness, and alignment:

1. Begin with magic: Set bold, forward-looking visions and work backward to make them real.

2. Check the pulse: Stay attuned to user feedback, ensuring our designs evolve with their needs.

3. Prototype to Gold: Use rapid prototyping to test, iterate, and refine ideas while maintaining high standards.

4. Seek feedback, not comfort: Embrace critique to improve and grow.

5. Avoid side-quests: Focus on what truly matters, ensuring we channel energy toward impactful goals.

6. Aligned Autonomy: Balance alignment across teams with the freedom to innovate.

7. Features Evolve, Standards Endure: As our products change and grow, our commitment to consistent quality ensures every experience remains reliable and cohesive.

8. Celebrate Delight: Recognise and appreciate moments of joy—whether in the experiences we create for users or the progress we make as a team.

These principles anchor us in craft and quality, helping us create experiences that inspire trust and loyalty.

Ultimately, being ONE team with ONE voice is about creating a shared purpose that connects people, solves meaningful problems, and shows users they matter. Every interaction, every detail, every system we design is part of a larger story—one that feels intentional, human, and deeply considered.

What kind of problems do our designers work on?

Our design challenges are as diverse as our marketplace, which is what makes the work so interesting. Designing for a three-sided marketplace—consumers, couriers, and merchants—means solving problems for very different audiences while ensuring everything works together seamlessly.

• For consumers, it’s about creating smooth, joyful experiences. Whether someone’s discovering what to order, tracking their delivery, or browsing promotions, we aim to craft moments that feel personal and human. Functionality alone isn’t enough—our work is about designing interactions that build trust, connection, and delight.

• For couriers, we’re building tools that help them navigate efficiently, stay motivated, and feel rewarded for their work. Couriers often balance busy schedules and time-sensitive deliveries, so our focus is on creating clear, reliable tools that help them succeed without unnecessary friction.

• For merchants, we partner with a diverse range of businesses, from small local shops to national retailers. These businesses often have multiple people using our tools—taking orders, packing deliveries, or tracking performance. Our job is to design systems that feel seamless and scalable, empowering merchants to grow their business with confidence.

And our work goes beyond the marketplace. We’re expanding into areas like B2B solutions with Wolt for Work, and fintech tools like Wolt Capital, helping businesses unlock new opportunities. We also create tools for our support teams and develop self-service options for customers, ensuring everyone can find the help they need quickly and independently.

What ties all of this together is the interconnectedness of the ecosystem. A courier’s experience directly impacts a consumer’s satisfaction, and merchants rely on both couriers and delivery systems to meet their customers’ expectations. Every problem we solve has ripple effects, so we have to think holistically about how each piece fits together.

This variety is what makes designing at Wolt so rewarding. Every day, we get to work on meaningful problems that help people shop, earn, and grow their businesses, all while crafting experiences that feel thoughtful and human.

Phew, that’s a lot! What’s the most exciting part of it all? 

What excites me most is how much potential we still have. Wolt has built a strong foundation, but there’s so much more to explore—whether it’s pushing boundaries in fintech, supporting local businesses, or scaling our tools globally.

For the design team, I’m excited about how we’ll continue to grow while maintaining our craft and care. The momentum we’ve built over the past two years is incredible, and I see us leading the way in creating products that truly delight.

At Wolt, we talk a lot about craft excellence. What does this mean to you and your team?

Craft excellence is about two things: obsession and purpose. We obsess over the details—how every interaction feels, how every feature works—because those details are where trust and loyalty are built. At the same time, we never lose sight of the human on the other side. How will they feel when they use our products? Did we demonstrate that we cared? Craft is about more than polish; it’s about empathy, connection, and creating something people genuinely value.

For us, craft starts with a mindset we call ‘beginning with magic.’ Instead of starting with constraints—budget, time, or technical limitations—we start with a bold vision of what could be magical for the user. Once we have that vision, we work backward, solving the challenges to bring it to life. This approach helps us push boundaries while staying grounded in what’s possible.

Craft excellence also means embracing iteration. We rely heavily on prototyping to test, explore, and refine ideas quickly. Whether it’s the microcopy in a confirmation message or the flow of an onboarding journey, we aim to prototype to gold—making sure every detail feels considered and effortless.

Ultimately, I believe craft is a promise. It’s how we show our users that we’ve thought deeply about their experience and how we ensure that every interaction—no matter how small—feels intentional and delightful.

What are some of the biggest challenges of working at Wolt as a designer?

One of the biggest challenges is maintaining focus. There are countless exciting opportunities we could pursue, but the key is to stay disciplined and solve the problems that matter most. We often talk about avoiding ‘side quests’—it’s tempting to explore everything, but real impact comes from prioritising what aligns most closely with our vision and goals.

Wolt’s product portfolio is incredibly diverse. Designers work across consumers, merchants, and couriers simultaneously, while also contributing to fintech products, B2B solutions, and internal tools. This level of complexity requires clarity and the ability to say no to distractions so we can channel our energy into creating meaningful solutions.

Another challenge is scale. Wolt operates in a three-sided marketplace across many countries, and every design decision impacts multiple audiences. For example, improving the courier experience—like making deliveries more efficient—can ripple out to influence consumer satisfaction and merchant success. Designing for this interconnected ecosystem means taking a holistic approach and collaborating deeply across teams to ensure our solutions work seamlessly.

But these challenges are what make the work so rewarding. At Wolt, designers tackle problems that shape daily life—helping couriers navigate busy cities, enabling merchants to grow their businesses, and making it easier for consumers to enjoy their favourite meals. It’s a dynamic, high-impact environment that pushes you to grow in your craft and think beyond the obvious.

You’ve moved around a lot but are now firmly based in Stockholm. What’s the vibe there like?

I originally moved to Stockholm to work at Spotify. At the time, I’d only been to the city once for my interview, and to be honest, I didn’t expect to stay this long. As a Brit, I’m used to unpredictable weather, but I was moving from sunny Madrid, so it felt like quite the contrast—but here I am, 12 years later, and it’s the longest I’ve lived anywhere in my life.

What keeps me here is the balance. Stockholm offers an incredible mix of nature and city life. You have forests and water just a short walk away, but there’s also a vibrant cultural scene—music, arts, cinema, and everything you’d expect from a capital city. Sweden has this word, lagom, which roughly means “not too much, not too little”—it’s about balance and finding what feels just right. I think it captures the lifestyle perfectly.

It’s also been a fantastic place for family life. I have four kids and a dog, and Stockholm feels designed for families in so many ways. There are countless parks, playgrounds, and outdoor spaces, and everything is so accessible. It’s a city that makes it easy to find harmony between work and personal life.

From a tech perspective, Stockholm is one of the most dynamic hubs in Europe. It’s home to some of the biggest names in tech, but also an exciting ecosystem of new startups and scaleups. That energy is one of the reasons I love working here. It’s a place where creativity and innovation thrive.

What excites you most about the future of Wolt?

For a company that’s been around for 10 years, it feels like we’re still in the early chapters of our story. We’ve built a strong foundation to connect neighbourhoods with businesses of all sizes, and the opportunities ahead feel bigger than ever.

In design, we’ve made incredible progress over the past two years. We’ve developed systems and tools that empower designers to deliver at scale without losing sight of craft and care. The ambition and creativity within the team inspire me every day, and I’m excited to see how we can continue creating seamless, thoughtful experiences for consumers, couriers, merchants, and beyond.

What excites me most is the human impact of what we design. Every decision we make has the potential to make someone’s day a little easier. It’s the busy parent in Berlin who relies on Wolt to put dinner on the table after a long day. It’s the courier in Tokyo navigating the city efficiently and earning on their own terms. It’s the shop owner in Athens who uses Wolt to grow their business and reach new customers. These are the moments where design meets real life, creating tools and services that feel effortless but genuinely enrich the lives of the people and communities we serve.

Looking ahead, I’m excited to see how we evolve to solve new challenges and create even more value for the people who rely on us. The potential to make a difference in everyday lives drives everything we do. It’s about connecting people, systems, and ideas to create experiences that truly matter—and I’m privileged to be part of that journey.

Want to join our design team? We're hiring! Check out our open roles from here.