Custom Marine

When Custom Marine secured the opportunity to work with Sunseeker International, they needed more than additional production capacity. They had to demonstrate that their internal systems, processes and reporting could support the scale, quality and accountability expected by a major luxury yacht manufacturer.

The opportunity came to my agency, SKYLAB, through an existing client relationship, and I led it from the outset. I researched the business and its operational challenges ahead of our first meeting, identified areas where digital systems could remove bottlenecks, led discovery with the client and began mapping how their existing processes could be brought together into a single integrated solution.

Through those discussions, I identified that the real requirement was much broader than the standalone app initially being considered. Custom Marine needed to connect the entire operational journey, from confirmed order and specification through scheduling, fabrication, treatment, quality assurance, sign-off and delivery. Different stakeholders also needed very different views of the same underlying information, from workers on the production floor through to senior management and, eventually, the client itself.

A large part of my role was turning those operational requirements into something tangible. I mapped the user journeys, defined how different roles would move through the system, structured the app flows and made the UX and UI decisions that translated the client's real-world processes into usable digital interfaces.

Working with our technical lead, I then converted those product flows into a detailed technical scope and implementation plan. I developed this into a phased commercial proposal that explained not only what we would build, but how each component addressed a specific operational problem and how the platform could be delivered iteratively with continuous client feedback.

The solution I defined had two primary interfaces built around the same secure, real-time backend.

For the production floor, I designed the workflows and interface structure for touchscreen devices mounted at individual work bays and tablets carried by managers around the facility. Workers needed to be able to understand what was required immediately, record progress quickly, flag issues and complete quality and sign-off stages without introducing friction into the production process.

For senior management, I designed a separate experience focused on the wider commercial picture, including orders, capacity, production status, deadlines, exceptions and delivery. Both interfaces interrogated the same underlying data, replacing fragmented operational touchpoints with a shared source of truth.

Traceability was another area I considered essential. The system was designed so that changes, approvals and decisions could be recorded against individual jobs, including whether a change originated internally or from the client. That meant questions around specification, cost or delivery could be traced back to the decisions that caused them rather than relying on fragmented conversations, emails or individual recollection.

As the platform developed, I remained closely involved in the product itself, reviewing real-world use with the client, refining workflows, adjusting UX and UI decisions and feeding those changes back into subsequent development phases. We eventually extended the system beyond Custom Marine's internal operation, creating restricted client access so Sunseeker could monitor relevant project and delivery information directly.

The result was much more than a software implementation. Through my agency, I had taken an initial commercial opportunity, uncovered the underlying operational problem, defined the product strategy, translated complex physical workflows into digital user journeys, designed the UX and UI structure, shaped the technical scope and led the client relationship through iterative development and deployment.

Our technical team then brought that product vision into production, with SKYLAB effectively operating as Custom Marine's embedded digital partner. The finished platform improved hand-offs across production, gave management greater control over capacity and delivery, increased accountability through detailed traceability and helped Custom Marine demonstrate the operational maturity required to support the Sunseeker relationship.