A huge honour for Xero: Reflecting on the Value of Design Black Pin award

I’m humbled and incredibly honoured to share that on Friday, Xero was awarded the prestigious Value of Design Black Pin by the Designers Institute of New Zealand at the Best Design Awards!

A Black Pin recognises outstanding achievement within New Zealand’s design community. It reflects a multi-million dollar investment in design of all kinds, in all sorts of organisations. The effects driven by that investment are truly good for New Zealand. 

“The 2025 Value of Design Black Pin recipient, Xero, has embedded design into the heart of their organisation. From their founding principle to “make it beautiful”, to elevating design leadership onto their executive team, they’ve built a culture where design isn’t an afterthought –  it’s how they solve problems, shape strategy, and support millions of small businesses worldwide.”

Black Pin judging panel – see the judges’ full write up on the Designers Institute of New Zealand website.

This award specifically acknowledges our deep commitment to user experience, and how we embed beautiful, intuitive design into our software to simplify complex tasks for small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers.

Since the awards began in 1995, the prestigious Black Pin has been awarded only twice: to Fisher and Paykel Healthcare in 2019 and to Emirates Team New Zealand in 2022.

Designing for our customers is in our DNA

Our design ethos ladders directly back to our purpose: to make life better for people in small business, their advisors and communities around the world. This isn’t just a philosophy; it’s a daily practice of listening and acting.

Our approach is built on a constant stream of customer feedback. This is evident in the 300 features our teams have shipped in the last year, and in massive projects like our redesigned navigation and new homepage, which were built with our customers at the forefront. 

On this project, we collaborated closely with more than 3,000 small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers globally during the research and testing phase, and to date, over 30,000 customers have provided valuable, real-time feedback on the new experience during the beta program. This incredibly valuable input helped us find the right balance: creating an intuitive design that feels both fresh and familiar.

And last month, at Xerocon Brisbane, we moved beyond traditional feedback channels and brought our design process directly to our community with ‘The Laundromat’, our first-ever, purpose-built design lab. The goal was to co-create, not just consult.

We collaborated with our customers through immersive workshops, one-on-one interviews, and hands-on design sessions. Together, we explored everything from the future of AI to what a more personal Xero homepage could look like. The incredible energy and actionable ideas that came from these sessions have reinforced our belief that the most innovative products are born from true partnership.

Embedding beautiful design into the heart of our software

We know Xero is part of the fabric of millions of small businesses around the world. This award is a reminder that our daily focus on design helps simplify complex tasks and drive efficiencies for our customers – the small businesses that keep this country moving, and their accountants and bookkeepers.

At the start of last year, we established a bold new strategy to make design a core competitive advantage for Xero. By directly aligning our design efforts with our product strategy, we’ve empowered our product and technology teams and cross-functional partners to deliver on key priorities more effectively.

This strategic shift integrated design into Xero’s core business operation. 

By embedding ‘beautiful design’ into the heart of our software, Xero has helped put Aotearoa on the global design map – showing that world-class innovation can emerge from New Zealand, and inspiring other companies to place design at the centre of their strategy.

A celebration of our people and our purpose

This incredible honour belongs to the hundreds of designers, past and present, who have poured their hearts and talent into Xero. My deepest gratitude goes out to every one of them. I’m also thankful for the support from many wonderful collaborators across Product, Engineering, Brand, The Hub, and the entire Xero organisation—this award recognises our collective effort.

For a company born in Aotearoa, this feels truly special. My team believes that design is key to making our customers’ lives better, and this award is a powerful affirmation of this belief. It also acknowledges the investment and impact we’ve made in design across Xero – in our people, our research, and our strategy – and affirms that this work is genuinely doing good for New Zealand.

It’s also a deeply gratifying moment to see design formally valued at the highest level internally. As SVP of Design, being a member of Xero’s executive leadership team means that design now has a formal ‘seat at the table’ within Xero. This is a testament to the organisation’s belief in design as a craft and the impact design has on the business and its customers.

Thank you to all the designers who have worked at Xero, past and present. This award is recognition for all you have given at Xero to make accounting software beautiful and easy to use!