When Anna Prokůpková was part of the team drafting legislation for the European Health Data Space, she noticed a missing piece. The framework was meant to help patients across the EU, but the process lacked a crucial element: user experience. Despite the project’s scale and significance, little was understood about how real people would engage with the system once it was built. 

“The first time I actually heard about UX was when I was working on legislation… and none of us had a clue what UX really was.”

This experience marked a turning point for Anna, who was working as an Environmental Advisor for the European Parliament and sitting on the Committee for Public Health. It sparked a new curiosity about the practical application of policy and what happens after laws are written.

That curiosity would eventually lead her across the world – from Brussels to New Zealand – and into a new career at the intersection of policy and product design, with the help of the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator.

We spoke to Anna during a live Career Accelerator Info Session. You can catch up on the full conversation and hear how her career change into UX design began here:

Considering new horizons

When Anna and her partner decided to pursue a long-held dream of relocating to New Zealand, the personal move brought with it professional unknowns. Her partner had already secured a role, but for Anna, it meant leaving behind a successful position in the EU Parliament and preparing for a completely new job market.

“I joined this Accelerator to be competitive in a completely new job market, and to up my skills as I was preparing for this challenge.”

With multiple priorities to juggle, including wrapping up her role in Brussels, planning an international relocation, and continuing her studies, Anna sought out a flexible UX design course that could help her stay focused, motivated, and supported. The Career Accelerator met these needs head-on with structured assignment-based learning, industry-validated projects, personalised career coaching, and the credibility of King’s College London.

Exploring a new skillset

With a background in policy and data analysis, Anna began exploring UX and product design as a way to build on her strengths – translating complexity into clarity and designing for real-world application.

“UX actually sounded really interesting – it’s all about critical thinking and solving different problems.”

She was particularly drawn to the comprehensive and practical structure of the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator, which combined user research and testing skills with hands-on experience in real design tools. The programme didn’t just offer technical learning, it helped her build an end-to-end understanding of the UX process, backed by a portfolio-ready project and personalised coaching.

“For me, it was very important that it was structured. I didn’t want to do one course on Figma here and another on research there… Just the fact that King’s College London is actually supporting the course… that was a guarantee of quality for me.”

Building a bridge to new opportunities

Anna’s transition “wasn’t just about learning things”, it was about applying what she learned to build a competitive presence in a brand-new job market. With personalised one-on-one support from the Career Accelerator’s career coaching team, she was able to:

• Update her CV and LinkedIn profile to align with New Zealand’s hiring standards
  
• Craft tailored cover letters to stand out in a market where she had no prior network
  
• Build a UX project portfolio by taking on freelance and pro-bono UX work, including for a local NGO
  
• Strengthen her job search strategy, with coaching that helped her identify opportunities, build confidence, and grow her network
  
• Balance her coursework and relocation challenges thanks to regular check-ins and flexible support from the programme team
  

Even with the pressures of an international move, multiple time zones, and a 13-hour difference, Anna stayed on track, thanks to consistent, practical support that adapted to her circumstances.

A real-world role that aligns with her skills

It all paid off. Anna landed a role that perfectly blends her policy expertise with her newly acquired UX and product design skills: Policy Change Advisor and Service Designer at the Medical Council of New Zealand. The organisation was so impressed by her experience and blend of skills that they created a new position for her, starting just one week after her arrival.

“I had to draw a strategy on how I would integrate a new medical product into the healthcare system. That was the test. And it reflected exactly what the role turned out to be – a mix of policy and service design.”

Anna’s new role allows her to shape healthcare policy through a user-centred lens, a unique and impactful intersection of her past and present careers.

Finding the right balance between bias and empathy

One of Anna’s biggest mindset shifts while on the programme came from learning how to separate personal bias from user feedback – something she hadn’t needed to do in her policy work.

“While in policy, I’m mainly just selling my own bias and trying to convince people about what I think is correct… In UX, I had to completely distance myself and focus on what the users are saying.”

The programme introduces learners to research frameworks and testing methodologies that challenge them to listen first, analyse patterns, and let user feedback drive their decisions. It’s not just a change in tools, it’s a shift in mindset.

“Then later, you have to switch back on, defending the user in discussions with stakeholders like management or developers. That’s been really useful, and I think I’ve trained it quite well within the course.”

This human-centred approach is core to the King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator. For many learners, including Anna, it becomes the foundation for how they approach not just design, but communication, leadership, and collaboration in a new career.

Practical, flexible learning that fits real-life

Anna also appreciated how the programme’s structure fit into her unpredictable and high-pressure schedule.

“I really liked the fact that it was assignment-based. You manage your own time throughout those six weeks, but that deadline is there and that motivates the learners to do it in time.”

She used AI tools like ChatGPT to improve her user research and critical thinking – an approach encouraged by the course’s emphasis on real-world tools and AI literacy.

“I redrafted my questions about four times and then asked ChatGPT to identify leading questions and explain why. That feedback was excellent, and that’s how I finally understood what a leading question actually is.”

A journey made possible with support

In just a few months, Anna relocated internationally, closed a high-profile chapter in Brussels, retrained in a new discipline, and secured a job that combined her passions and skills.

The King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator made that possible through its blend of structured learning, real-world application, personalised coaching, and community support – hallmarks of strong UX design course outcomes.

“It’s very comprehensive… The quality of services I’ve gotten out of this course… I’m very happy with the whole package.”

Ready to make your career change into UX design?

The King’s UX & UI Product Design Career Accelerator has supported learners around the world in making confident, strategic career moves into UX, service design, tech, and more.

Download the programme brochure to view the curriculum and UX project portfolios, and discover how alumni have successfully transitioned into impactful roles across industries.