If you would like to discuss DEI at Futureheads please contact <a href="mailto:team@wearefutureheads.co.uk">team@wearefutureheads.co.uk</a>

<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>We aim to be brave. We won’t get it right all the time, but we believe it's better to say and do something rather than nothing, and to learn from our mistakes.</strong></div>

 <p>                     <strong>                       But we’re now striving to be better and to drive positive                       change. We firmly believe that everyone is welcome at                       Futureheads, and we aim to demonstrate that in everything                       we do.                     </strong>                   </p>                   We’re committed to creating a culture that reflects the                   make-up of society, we believe diversity promotes innovation,                   growth and equality. We are committed to being intentionally                   inclusive by understanding who we have in our culture and how                   we can best add equity to each individual, and contribute                   towards their professional development. We are actively                   helping our clients do the same. We celebrate the difference                   and rich experience that diversity brings, and we commit to                   ensuring that everyone we interact with, both within and                   outside our business, is valued, respected, and treated                   equally, regardless of their background, identity or                   circumstances. We aim to understand every individual’s                   capabilities, and to give them what they need to succeed to                   their fullest potential.

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<strong>Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR)/ Venture Builder/ Venture Architect<br></strong><br><strong>Start:</strong> ASAP<br><br>Futureheads are representing a venture partner and looking to bring in Entrepreneurs in Residence and Venture Builders/Architects. These opportunities will suit individuals driven by the challenge of building, launching, and scaling new ventures. We’re seeking experienced former founders with strong experience and interest in product, who excel at taking product ideas from opportunity to reality.<br><br><br><strong>You will have confidence in:<br></strong><br><ul><li><strong>End-to-end venture creation:</strong> You have taken products or new ventures from conception through validation, launch, and growth. Ideally in hands-on, entrepreneurial environments.</li><li><strong>Taking a product-first approach:</strong> Your passion is inventing, refining, and positioning products to unlock new market opportunities and deliver genuine value.</li><li><strong>Strategic thinking:</strong> You map out opportunities, test assumptions, pivot when needed, and deliver robust go-to-market strategies.</li><li><strong>Not just planning, doing:</strong> You’re ready to roll up your sleeves, validate concepts with real users, and iterate rapidly to find product-market fit.</li></ul><br><strong>We are looking for the following:<br></strong><br><ul><li>Demonstrated history of successfully launching new products or ventures (as founder, EIR, builder, architect, or similar).</li><li>Experience of innovation and venture-building methodologies (design thinking, lean startup, rapid prototyping, etc.).</li><li>Ability to work cross-functionally, influencing and collaborating with senior stakeholders.</li><li>Strong commercial acumen and market-sensing instincts.</li><li>Willingness to challenge norms and bring unconventional approaches where required.</li></ul><br /><br /><em><em>We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, so if there is anything we can do to make our recruitment processes better for you and to allow you to show your best self, let us know. We also understand that some people require extra time to complete assessments, require alternative application methods and can also benefit from having interview questions or a guide to the type of questions pre-interview. We are open to any suggestions or requests that you may have and are always looking for creative ways to assess talent. Our commitment to you is that you should always feel safe and secure when you’re working with us. Futureheads is a B Corp™ accredited digital recruitment agency based in London. We specialise in recruiting permanent, contract and freelance digital and tech professionals in creative, data, design, digital marketing, engineering, product, project and programme management, UX and service design jobs.</em></em>

Entrepreneur in Residence / Venture Builder

<strong>Contract Product Strategist<br></strong><br><strong>Start:</strong> ASAP<br>  <br><br>Futureheads are representing a venture partner and looking to bring in a genuine product innovator vs a traditional product deliverer. We’re searching for a Contract Product Strategist who goes beyond feature level improvements and has been deeply involved in positioning, inventing, and launching products to new markets, potentially as a founder in the past.<br>   <br><br><strong>What will set you apart:</strong><br><ul><li><strong>You think beyond delivery -</strong> You’ve gone beyond executing roadmaps and deliverables. You’ve directly shaped a product’s market approach and challenged established directions, not just worked on feature sets.</li><li><strong>You’ve often found yourself having a broad remit: </strong>Your track record matters more than your job title, but you will have found yourself looking at ways to expand what you do.</li><li><strong>Innovation at its core:</strong> You’ve brought original solutions to life whether at corporate venture arms or design innovation consultancies, or in environments where you had true freedom to drive product strategy and invent.</li><li><strong>Method-driven:</strong> You use proven methods for innovation, validation, and market-entry, not just standard delivery processes.</li></ul><strong>This is not a conventional role, however the type of experience that will likely suit:<br></strong>  <br><ul><li>End-to-end product innovation experience, from ideation to go-to-market.</li><li>The ability to challenge assumptions and pioneer new approaches.</li><li>Experience influencing C-suite and senior stakeholders with evidence-led product direction.</li><li>A strategic mindset, with the expertise to map out market opportunities and create winning value propositions.</li></ul>If your background is purely in digital agency delivery or classic product management, we’ll be looking for evidence that you had both the freedom and methods to innovate beyond the norm.<br /><br /><em><em>We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, so if there is anything we can do to make our recruitment processes better for you and to allow you to show your best self, let us know. We also understand that some people require extra time to complete assessments, require alternative application methods and can also benefit from having interview questions or a guide to the type of questions pre-interview. We are open to any suggestions or requests that you may have and are always looking for creative ways to assess talent. Our commitment to you is that you should always feel safe and secure when you’re working with us. Futureheads is a B Corp™ accredited digital recruitment agency based in London. We specialise in recruiting permanent, contract and freelance digital and tech professionals in creative, data, design, digital marketing, engineering, product, project and programme management, UX and service design jobs.</em></em>

Product Strategist

<strong>Head of Product</strong><br><br><strong>About the Role</strong><br>Futureheads have exclusively partnered with a growing SaaS scale-up. We’re looking for a Head of Product to lead a collaborative, fast-paced SaaS product team. This is a hands-on, operational role with a strong focus on delivery excellence, managing day-to-day product activities, and building quality, well-designed features.<br><br>You’ll be stepping into a role supporting a team of three Product Managers who work flexibly across multiple products. This would be a fantastic opportunity for someone who is at a Lead Product Manager level and wanting to progress or someone who consukts with start-up/scale-up's and would like to make a move in house (rare on this market).<br><br>This is however for someone who still wants to remain hands-on and has some previous/current people management experience.<br><br>There is a huge amount of growth potential as the company sustainably grows so we are really looking for someone who has the ambition of being the next CPO and growing with the company over time.<br><br>You’ll report directly to the MD who previously lead both Product and design and work closely with the Head of Design and Engineering leads in a highly collaborative environment. The culture is vibrant, fast-moving, and values clear communication and practical execution over rigid processes. You need to be able to work in an ambiguous environment.<br><br><strong>Key Responsibilities</strong><br><ul><li>Lead and mentor a team of 3 Product Managers, fostering ownership, clarity, and delivery discipline.</li><li>Ensure product specs are clear, testable, and well-documented with defined acceptance criteria.</li><li>Collaborate closely with design and engineering teams to deliver high-quality features.</li><li>Manage day-to-day product delivery, unblock issues, refine scope, and maintain focus on customer outcomes.</li><li>Engage directly with clients and stakeholders to gather insights and shape product decisions. (There is a client facing aspect to the position)</li><li>Embed lean, hypothesis-driven discovery practices to validate ideas quickly without slowing delivery. (You need to really value the delivery side of Product management and have high standards for design and usability.)</li><li>Help shape long-term product strategy as delivery stabilises, with potential to grow the product team.</li></ul><br><strong>Who You Are</strong><br><ul><li>Experienced product leader with at least 6+ years in SaaS or B2B/B2B2C environments, ideally with some client-facing consulting experience.</li><li>You have worked with start-up/scale-up environment and are used to affecting quick change, being autonomous and pivoting seamlessly through challenges and changes.</li><li>Comfortable managing and developing junior product managers. (some people management is essential but this position will remain very hands on not only strategy driven)</li><li>Strong operational focus: you care deeply about shipping quality products on time and managing resources effectively.</li><li>Not overly process-driven - you prefer pragmatic, flexible approaches and have an easy-going, organised personality.</li><li>Excellent communicator, concise and clear, able to engage technical and non-technical stakeholders alike.</li><li>Intellectually curious and committed to continuous learning.</li><li>Appreciation for design and customer experience; a background in or affinity for design is a plus.</li></ul><br><strong>Location & Working Pattern</strong><br><ul><li>Based in London</li><li>4 days a week in-office (Monday to Thursday).</li><li>Finish at 4pm on Fridays</li></ul><br><strong>Compensation & Benefits</strong><br><ul><li>Salary: £85,000–£115,000 (depending if you are taking a step up from Lead or are already at that Head of Product level.)</li><li>Bonus: 20%</li><li>Health insurance included</li><li>Flexible working culture with a vibrant, supportive team environment</li><li>Opportunities for career growth, potentially into a Chief Product Officer role</li></ul><br /><br /><em><em>We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, so if there is anything we can do to make our recruitment processes better for you and to allow you to show your best self, let us know. We also understand that some people require extra time to complete assessments, require alternative application methods and can also benefit from having interview questions or a guide to the type of questions pre-interview. We are open to any suggestions or requests that you may have and are always looking for creative ways to assess talent. Our commitment to you is that you should always feel safe and secure when you’re working with us. Futureheads is a B Corp™ accredited digital recruitment agency based in London. We specialise in recruiting permanent, contract and freelance digital and tech professionals in creative, data, design, digital marketing, engineering, product, project and programme management, UX and service design jobs.</em></em>

Head of Product - Prop Tech

Senior Mobile Product Manager (Remote, UK & Europe)<br><br>Salaries:<br><ul><li>£79,000- £95000</li><li>€90,000- €108,000</li></ul><br><strong>Want to lead mobile innovation for a major subscription disruptor?</strong><br><br>Here’s a rare chance to take ownership of a flagship app that puts cutting-edge features, user experience, and subscriber retention right at the centre. They are looking to continue to improve their mobile app as they look to expand further globally.<br><br>About the Company<br><br>Join a fast-growing, remote-first business at the heart of the subscription revolution for physical goods. Backed by huge growth in the US and now expanding across the UK and Europe, this creative scale-up is reshaping how loyal customers experience direct-to-consumer products. Fully virtual, collaborative, and passionate, it’s a place where ideas, ownership, and autonomy thrive.<br><br><strong>What You’ll Be Doing:</strong><br><br>Drive the mobile product roadmap from vision to rollout, working with specialists who love data and UX. The app is the main revenue and engagement channel, so your work will be seen (and felt!) by thousands.<br><br><ul><li>Define and own the mobile product strategy and roadmap across iOS and Android.</li><li>Lead the end-to-end lifecycle, including ideation, launch, and optimisation.</li><li>Champion new mobile-first features that give users experiences they’ll love- not just lift and shift with web.</li><li>Own user flows, onboarding, and subscription surfaces in the app, always improving UX through insight and research.</li><li>Use analytics, A/B testing, and usability data to guide major decisions.</li><li>Act as product owner in an agile squad, managing backlog and coordinating with engineering, design, and architecture.</li><li>Collaborate across teams for unified subscriber journeys, working with growth, retention, and web teams.</li><li>Evangelise all things mobile, sharing learnings and successes across the wider business.</li></ul><br><strong>What You’ll Need If You Want to Apply:</strong><br><br><ul><li>At least Seven years’ experience in digital product management, with a strong mobile focus (min. seven years working on iOS/Android).</li><li>You must be able to speak English to a very high standard.</li><li>Extensive experience building and scaling subscription-based mobile apps- physical goods focus strongly preferred, SaaS subscriptions considered***</li><li>A proven record of moving the needle on engagement, LTV, and retention in native apps; you’ll love sharing your numbers and stories.</li><li>Confident using analytics tools like Mixpanel, GA4, and Amplitude, plus designing impactful A/B tests.</li><li>Deep understanding of mobile UX, architecture, QA, and app store processes.</li><li>Expert collaborator in a virtual set-up, working across functions and time zones.</li><li>Passion for blending instinct and data, with a real interest in AI and emerging tech.</li><li>Clear, confident English communicator who works independently and drives best practice.</li></ul><br>If you do not meet the experience needed (especially if you do not have subscription experience) your profile will not be considered and we may not be able to provide feedback for this one<br /><br /><em><em>We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, so if there is anything we can do to make our recruitment processes better for you and to allow you to show your best self, let us know. We also understand that some people require extra time to complete assessments, require alternative application methods and can also benefit from having interview questions or a guide to the type of questions pre-interview. We are open to any suggestions or requests that you may have and are always looking for creative ways to assess talent. Our commitment to you is that you should always feel safe and secure when you’re working with us. Futureheads is a B Corp™ accredited digital recruitment agency based in London. We specialise in recruiting permanent, contract and freelance digital and tech professionals in creative, data, design, digital marketing, engineering, product, project and programme management, UX and service design jobs.</em></em>

Senior Mobile Product Manager

<strong>Senior Product Manager – Subscriptions (Remote, UK & Europe)</strong><br><br>Salaries:<br><ul><li>£79,000- £95000</li><li>€90,000- €108,000</li></ul><br><strong>This is your chance to pioneer new subscription journeys.</strong><br><br>If you love shaping products and launching features users actually enjoy, this is the unique scale-up disrupting a traditional goods market with a well designed digital subscription solution. You’ll have full ownership from discovery and design to delivery, always with experimentation and learning at the heart of the work.<br><br>About the Company<br>Work for a creative, high-growth force in the subscription sector as they make the big expansion from the US to the UK and Europe. They marry exciting digital experience with a subscription base of luxery physical goods. You’ll join a remote-first team that’s all about launching bold features, learning fast, and delighting users at every stage.<br><br><strong>What You’ll Be Doing</strong><br>You’ll lead the end-to-end journey for subscription offerings, turning insights into actionable innovations in product.<br><ul><li>Build and execute product strategy for subscription products, from first sketch to launch and beyond.</li><li>Own the customer lifecycle, optimising sign-up, conversion, renewal, and churn management.</li><li>Lead product discovery, working with data and users to decide where to take things next.</li><li>Champion experimentation, developing hypotheses, running A/B tests, and partnering with data specialists for rapid learning.</li><li>Collaborate across engineering, marketing, customer experience, and ops to make sure every product move is connected to commercial impact.</li><li>Monitor, report, and optimise on crucial KPIs including churn, retention, LTV, and activation—always looking for new ways to improve.</li><li>Document progress, wins, and learnings, sharing them in a way that energises peers and leadership.</li><li>Help drive an agile and knowledge-sharing culture, contributing frameworks and methods to the wider team.</li></ul><br><strong>What You’ll Need If You Want to Apply</strong><br><ul><li>7 years of hands-on digital product management experience, owning end-to-end subscription journeys B2C/ D2C physical goods background, strong user centric SaaS experience for a high growth company will be concidered.</li><li>Demonstrable track record of launching, scaling, and improving subscription models, with real business results for retention, churn, and growth.</li><li>Mastery of analytics, experimentation, and customer research tools (GA4, Optimizely, Mixpanel, etc.).</li><li>Deep experience working cross-functionally in high-growth or scale-up environments.</li><li>Confident leading UX outcomes, collaborating closely with designers, engineers, and architects.</li><li>Advanced storytelling and presentation skills and the ability to influence across all levels of business.</li><li>Totally self-driven, quick to learn, and passionate about continuous improvement.</li><li>An open, collaborative mindset; you love sharing frameworks and contributing to a real team culture.</li></ul><br>If you do not meet the experience needed (especially if you do not have subscription experience) your profile will not be considered and I may not be able to provide feedback for this one.<br /><br /><em><em>We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, so if there is anything we can do to make our recruitment processes better for you and to allow you to show your best self, let us know. We also understand that some people require extra time to complete assessments, require alternative application methods and can also benefit from having interview questions or a guide to the type of questions pre-interview. We are open to any suggestions or requests that you may have and are always looking for creative ways to assess talent. Our commitment to you is that you should always feel safe and secure when you’re working with us. Futureheads is a B Corp™ accredited digital recruitment agency based in London. We specialise in recruiting permanent, contract and freelance digital and tech professionals in creative, data, design, digital marketing, engineering, product, project and programme management, UX and service design jobs.</em></em>

Senior Product Manager - Subscriptions

Senior Retention Product Manager (Remote, UK & Europe)<br><br>Salaries:<br><ul><li>£79,000- £95000</li><li>€90,000- €108,000</li></ul><br>(Experience in a B2C/D2C subscription based company is a must for this one)<br><br><strong>Here’s your chance to champion subscriber loyalty at a scale-up expanding to the UK but remianing 100% remote.</strong><br><br>Futureheads has partnered to find a Product Manager experienced with making users love their subscriptions and stay. If you enjoy driving impact through data-led decisions, and can creatively tackle churn then this would be a great fit.<br><br>About the Company<br><br>Step into a rapidly growing, remote-first subscription business that’s winning fans and disrupting the physical goods market from the US to the UK and Europe. The company’s passionate, creative team is united by a vision for truly loyal customers, open collaboration, and a drive for innovation in expanding their reach globally.<br><br>What You’ll Be Doing<br><br>Lead the retention mission, taking full control of churn reduction, offboarding insight, and maximising repeat engagement using a blend of data and creativity.<br><br><ul><li>Develope overall retention strategy and set ambitious goals for churn reduction and lifetime value.</li><li>Ideate, design, and implement initiatives based on customer interviews, analytics, and experiments.</li><li>Oversee the creation of processes to spot and address churn risks before they become cancellations.</li><li>Analyse churn causes, build robust offboarding processes, and conduct user research to monitor why customers leave.</li><li>Document roadmaps, functional requirements, and vision for all churn and retention features.</li><li>Operate as the product owner in a scrum team, ensuring effective prioritisation, backlog management, and alignment with engineering.</li><li>Communicate successes, learnings, and data clearly to the leadership and the wider team.</li><li>Champion a culture of proactivity and continuous improvement in all things retention.</li></ul><br>What You’ll Need If You Want to Apply<br><ul><li>A minimum of seven years’ experience managing retention, churn reduction, or optimisation within subscription products- physical goods focus a big plus but if its SaaS or digital subscriptions you MUST come froma high growth start-up/scale-up</li><li>Solid record of delivering and clearly measuring retention improvements, ready to share past metrics and case studies.</li><li>Experience in designing and delivering A/B and multivariate tests, as well as running and analysing user research end to end.</li><li>Advanced data skills using tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Optimizely, with the proven ability to turn insight into action.</li><li>Strong experience with both strategic and tactical aspects of retention, ideally in a scale-up or high-growth B2C environment.</li><li>Excellent written and verbal communication, and an ability to thrive both independently and as an energetic virtual team player.</li><li>Developed business acumen, comfortable prioritising opportunities, identifying trade-offs, and driving commercial results.</li><li>Committed to best practice, data compliance, and collaboration with all parts of the business.</li></ul><br><strong>Important Note for All Roles:</strong><br>If you do not meet the key subscription experience and baseline requirements outlined above, you will not be considered and unfortunately we cannot offer tailored feedback.<br /><br /><em><em>We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, so if there is anything we can do to make our recruitment processes better for you and to allow you to show your best self, let us know. We also understand that some people require extra time to complete assessments, require alternative application methods and can also benefit from having interview questions or a guide to the type of questions pre-interview. We are open to any suggestions or requests that you may have and are always looking for creative ways to assess talent. Our commitment to you is that you should always feel safe and secure when you’re working with us. Futureheads is a B Corp™ accredited digital recruitment agency based in London. We specialise in recruiting permanent, contract and freelance digital and tech professionals in creative, data, design, digital marketing, engineering, product, project and programme management, UX and service design jobs.</em></em>

Senior Retention Product Manager

<p>Bruno is a seasoned product leader with over 12 years of experience, starting his tech career as a founder and having worked with companies such as Google, Vodafone, Clear Channel, and more recently, <span style="color: #ff3055;"><a style="color: #ff3055;" title="Definely" href="https://www.definely.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Definely</a></span>. He now focuses on helping product teams working on AI-powered products navigate complex problems and help lawyers get their jobs done in new and innovative ways by taking features and products to market.</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">Tell us about you and your journey to your current role?</h2>
<p>I started my product career as a founder back in 2011. We had to build lots of systems to manage our company's operations, from our initial e-commerce website where customers could place their design-to-code orders, to our internal CRM, analytics, project management tools, messaging systems, payment processor integrations and more. That's where I discovered my passion for product and solving our customers' problems. After selling my side of the business, I joined Potato (a product consultancy) and spent almost 6 years working as a product manager at different parts of Google, including Digital Academy, Android Developers, and Google Ads.</p>
<p>This is where I was able to grow my product and strategic skills and learnt to build features and products used by millions of users all over the world. Earlier this year, whilst I was taking some time off after my previous role in ad-tech, I got approached by the team at <span style="color: #ff3055;"><a style="color: #ff3055;" title="Definely" href="https://www.definely.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Definely</a></span> as they'd been looking to hire a product manager to lead the development of two new AI-powered products and also coach and mentor other PMs in the company. After a series of conversations with the leadership team, Feargus &amp; Nnamdi (Definely's co-founders), I decided to join them to help build products that augment lawyers in their day-to-day jobs.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">What do you love most about what you do?</h2>
<p>At the moment, one of the things I love most is being at the forefront of this amazing platform shift that artificial intelligence is bringing. It's been a few years since anything this big happened, and it's been super interesting trying to make sense of it and understand how these new pieces of technology can be leveraged to create innovative new products and experiences for users. Other than that, I love collaborating and working with people and users, building teams and seeing them grow together and overcome challenges brings me a lot of joy on a daily basis.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">What is the most interesting challenge you are looking to solve right now in LegalTech products?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Right now, there seems to be lots of momentum in leveraging AI agentic technology and Model Context Protocol (MCP). We've been investing in this for a few months at Definely, and we have an amazing AI/ML engineering team working on how to make the most of the new tech available to us. A very interesting challenge I'm looking to solve is understanding how we can leverage this technology and put it to work solving real-life problems lawyers have. Sometimes tech can feel like solutions looking for problems, and it&rsquo;s key that we can always go back to the problem and job we are helping users to solve for and the value that our solutions create for them.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There's also work needed to be done in ensuring our products have the needed trust, safety and privacy that law firms and their clients need to feel comfortable when it comes to deploying AI products and tools. I believe traceability and keeping the human in the loop will be a big focus in the next year as we see more and more companies in the legal tech industry move to infuse all their existing offerings with AI-powered solutions.</p>
<h2><strong id="docs-internal-guid-16091d0f-7fff-f429-7aeb-57fcf621dba8">What are the things that candidates do that stand out to you in all your years of hiring?</strong></h2>
<p>I've probably interviewed hundreds of people over the last decade or so. For me, the candidates that always stand out are the ones who are genuinely interested in the company and do the research ahead of the interview. If you don't show any interest and don't have great questions prepared, that's not a good start. There's a lot of chemistry within an interview process, and other than checking that you've got the necessary experience and skills to perform the role you're being hired for, I've always wanted to understand if I'd be able to collaborate well with the person and rely on them. A lot of the work that we do in product is about relationships and trust, and being able to portray that goes a long way. I also appreciate when candidates follow up after an interview and share links to books, sites or articles they mentioned that I wasn't aware of.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">What is the one piece of advice you'd share for someone starting out in Product?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Learn by doing. There's never been a better time to do this than now. Back when I started, I had to teach myself to code in order to be able to test some of my ideas for products or services. But these days, with all the new advancements in prototyping and coding tools that are powered by GenAI, it's easier than ever to practise your skills and also get really quick feedback on whatever products or features you put out there. Things are moving at an unprecedented pace these days as well, so being able to move quickly and increase the speed at which you can ship ideas and iterate on them is a crucial skill to learn. I'd also recommend developing a good understanding of strategy, critical thinking and user science that can serve as a solid foundation for your product career.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">What are your predictions for the product industry over the next 12 months?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I believe that critical thinking will remain a key skill to possess and continuously develop.<a title="As I wrote earlier this year" href="https://www.brunobelcastro.com/posts/the-product-managers-edge-in-an-ai-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> <span style="color: #ff3055;">As I wrote earlier this year</span></a><span style="color: #ff3055;">,</span> AI is here to stay, and the product managers who know how to leverage its power will be the ones with an advantage. I don't believe the people who say PMs will be replaced by AI, but I certainly believe that the ones who know how to make the most of AI will have a significant edge over the ones who don't. Whether it's using chatbots and LLMs, or more complex applications like prototyping or even developing your own MVPs using tools like Cursor or Claude Code, it will be a very important skill to have in your arsenal during the next few years. I also believe teams will be smaller and PMs will be able to scale themselves a bit more. In the long run, I don't necessarily think this means fewer jobs, as companies will want to build and ship more features and products. But it will bring a big increment in efficiency and the amount of work that a small team of three people can get done.</p>
<h2>Connect with Bruno</h2>
<p dir="ltr">If you'd like to hear more from Bruno, please check his <span style="color: #ff3055;"><a style="color: #ff3055;" title="website" href="https://www.brunobelcastro.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a></span> or connect with him on <span style="color: #ff3055;"><a style="color: #ff3055;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brunobelcastro/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a></span>.</p>

Future Thinker: Bruno Belcastro Pinto

<p>Initially working in design agencies with brands like BA, Microsoft, and the BBC, Mark went on to co-found the automation startup UBIO in 2013, where he spent&nbsp;eleven years as COO and Chief Product Officer.&nbsp;Today, Mark applies these lessons by helping other founders, clients, and growing companies navigate scaling challenges while maintaining focus on products that <em>connect with people and push the world forward.</em></p>

<h2 dir="ltr">What inspired you to pursue your current path in technology or creativity?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">My journey into technology began through design, first as a graphic designer, then evolving through UX to product design. What captivated me was the realisation that design is only superficially about aesthetics, harmony and even function: More deeply, it&rsquo;s about solving real human problems. Early in my career, working with brands like BA and Heal&rsquo;s, I witnessed how thoughtful design could genuinely improve people&rsquo;s experiences and daily lives.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The transition from agency work to entrepreneurship felt natural because I wanted to build things that would have maximum impact. Co-founding<a href="https://ub.io/"> UBIO</a> wasn&rsquo;t just about building technology; it was about democratising access to web data and automation for businesses that just couldn&rsquo;t get what they needed any other way. The entrepreneurial route is perhaps the most direct way to get very close to a product and the impact it can have.</p>
<p dir="ltr">What inspires me is the intersection of creativity, technology and humanity. Having a background in an oddball combination of things like graphic design and operations gives me a unique perspective on how products should serve people, not the other way around. Every product decision should be rooted in genuine human need.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The entrepreneurial path isn&rsquo;t always smooth,<a href="https://ub.io/"> UBIO</a> taught me that lows and highs will come, but that both can be valuable. Success and setbacks provide crucial learning opportunities that shape better products and stronger leadership. The approach to building things that matter continues to fuel my passion for creative technology.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">How do you approach problem-solving when faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">During<a href="https://ub.io/"> UBIO</a>&rsquo;s journey, we faced what sometimes felt like insurmountable challenges: times when runways got short, pivoting from B2C to B2B, team dynamics, navigating complex technical hurdles, and scaling internationally. In truth, you have to get on with it, accept unknowns, and apply a little strategic thinking to come out the other side and grow.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Breaking down a challenge into manageable components is the first step. When we needed to pivot our entire business model, we didn&rsquo;t try to solve everything at once. Instead, we analysed each element: market fit, technical architecture, and team capabilities, and addressed them systematically. This structured approach can save you from being overwhelmed, provide visibility, and reveal actionable next steps.</p>
<p dir="ltr">That said, I believe in rapid experimentation over endless planning. My design background taught me the value of prototyping and iteration. When facing technical challenges at<a href="https://ub.io/"> UBIO</a>, we&rsquo;d build and test to validate assumptions quickly rather than debating theoretical solutions. (Though there were ever-present conversations about everything we did.) This approach saved us months of development time and reduced risk significantly. It&rsquo;s how little teams can eat some of the industry monsters&rsquo; breakfast.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The entrepreneurial spirit is crucial. Viewing challenges as opportunities for innovation rather than roadblocks is central. Some of UBIO&rsquo;s best features emerged from constraints that initially seemed impossible to overcome. Our bots were human-like way before the current crop of machine intelligence. Combined with honest communication with clients and others who mattered, and ethical decision-making, this mindset transforms obstacles into competitive advantages and better products.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">What do you love most about what you do?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">It&rsquo;s got to be the moment when something I&rsquo;ve been part of building genuinely improves someone&rsquo;s life. I&rsquo;ve seen how automation tech helped clients do things they previously couldn&rsquo;t dream of doing, and it was incredibly fulfilling. One example was seeing our data in Google Search. These weren&rsquo;t just technical achievements; they were real solutions enabling companies to do what they did better.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There&rsquo;s also the entrepreneurial journey itself. Building something from an idea through to a thriving business taught me that creativity and persistence can overcome pretty much any obstacle. The highs of securing major clients like Google and Microsoft, balanced with the challenges of team building, technical setbacks and navigating the market, create a richness of experience that you don&rsquo;t often get elsewhere. Though I really don&rsquo;t believe this way of working is exclusive to startups. Agencies and small teams inside bigger organisations can arrange themselves in a similar way, too.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Most importantly, I love mentoring others and sharing the lessons learned from the teams I&rsquo;ve been in and built. The entrepreneurial spirit isn&rsquo;t a solo thing; it&rsquo;s about conspiring with others, fostering innovation, and building products that push the world forward or make it a little bit better.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">What role do you think cross-disciplinary collaboration plays in driving creative and technological advancements?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">In a sentence, you can&rsquo;t build anything without it. It&rsquo;s just business.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Cross-disciplinary collaboration is essential for meaningful innovation. Every breakthrough moment in my career consistently came from combining different perspectives: technical expertise with design thinking, business strategy with user experience research. This collaborative approach revealed solutions that no single discipline could have discovered alone.</p>
<p dir="ltr">My own wiggly journey from graphic design, through UX to product leadership and founding a company has taught me that each discipline has unique problem-solving approaches, and also that they must all cross over. Designers think in systems and user journeys, engineers consider scalability and technical opportunities, and commercial focuses on market dynamics. But those things aren&rsquo;t siloed. Or if they are, there&rsquo;s a problem. Designers have to be commercial, engineers creative and so on. It&rsquo;s this big mix of perspectives that creates great products.</p>
<p dir="ltr">A collaborative approach becomes ever more crucial as technology becomes more integrated into daily life. Products that genuinely help people require input from multiple disciplines, not just to ensure technical feasibility, but to guarantee ethical implementation and meaningful human impact. The future belongs to teams that can bridge these different ways of thinking while maintaining honesty about each discipline&rsquo;s strengths and the voice they bring to the conversation.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">What skills do you believe will be crucial for the next generation of innovators in your field?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Systems thinking will be paramount. The next generation of designers and innovators needs to understand how their products fit into broader ecosystems, technical, social, and economic. You&rsquo;ll need a sense of impact and, from that, opportunity.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ethical reasoning combined with technical capability represents a crucial skill set. As AI and automation become more powerful and embedded, innovators must be able to assess not just what can be built, but what should be built. This requires both technical understanding and philosophical consideration of human impact. I often chuckle about the utility of my philosophy degree, but here it is. Deep thinking and systemic understanding is essential.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The ability to work effectively alongside AI will be increasingly important, too. At<a href="https://ub.io/"> UBIO</a>, we saw early how automation could augment human capability rather than replace it, and this principle extends to AI integration. Future innovators need to understand where AI excels in things like pattern recognition, rapid iteration and data processing, while recognising where human judgment, creativity, and reasoning remain irreplaceable. The skill isn't just using AI tools, but knowing when to and when not to deploy them.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Most importantly, combining an entrepreneurial spirit with honest self-assessment and humility will distinguish successful innovators. The next generation will need resilience to navigate new technologies, setbacks and creativity to find novel solutions, and the integrity to acknowledge what they don&rsquo;t know.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Connect with Mark</h2>
<p dir="ltr">If you'd like to hear more from Mark, connect with him on<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrkrsl/"> LinkedIn</a> or check out his<a href="https://mrussell.co.uk/"> website</a>.</p>

Future Thinker: Mark Russell

<p dir="ltr">With over 20 years&rsquo; experience in digital product and service design, Tim is a hands-on design leader specialising in customer-centric solutions across mobile, web, and enterprise platforms. He helps organisations unlock business value through intuitive experiences, agile delivery, and scalable design systems, while building high-performing design teams and embedding DesignOps at scale.</p>

<h3><strong id="docs-internal-guid-8f66101b-7fff-c2e2-2965-832972e7db45">Tell us about you and your journey to your current role</strong></h3>
<p>I&rsquo;ve spent over 20 years shaping digital experiences across mobile, web, and enterprise platforms, blending hands-on design, technical execution, and strategic leadership. I started out as a designer, but quickly gravitated towards product and customer experience, leading cross-functional teams to deliver large-scale digital solutions for brands like Ticketmaster, Universal Music, and the London 2012 Olympics. My journey has always centred around the user, whether that's redefining journeys for a legal brand like Slater and Gordon or launching real-time customer experiences in-branch at Barclays. Today, I play a player-coach role, partnering closely with C-suite stakeholders while mentoring high-performing product, design, and engineering teams.</p>
<h3><strong id="docs-internal-guid-76cd97c8-7fff-21dd-444f-eaa79c230409">What do you love most about what you do?</strong></h3>
<p>What I love most is seeing the impact of great digital experiences - when complex systems are simplified and made genuinely useful, especially in high-stress environments like travel or finance. I thrive on turning ambiguity into clarity and aligning teams around a shared product vision that delivers for both the business and the customer. There&rsquo;s nothing better than watching a team grow in confidence and capability while delivering something meaningful to users.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">What is the most interesting challenge you are looking to solve right now?</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Right now, I&rsquo;m working on transforming how travellers interact with membership-based services across their journey - from booking to boarding and beyond. That means not just modernising the tech stack but also designing seamless, personalised touchpoints in digital and physical environments. One key challenge is defining and integrating new features like planning and contextual concierge experiences in a way that feels human, effortless, and scalable across multiple brands and regions.</p>
<h3><strong id="docs-internal-guid-f537e255-7fff-1681-2cf1-e1471c87d257">What is the one thing that a candidate has done that has stood out to you in all your years of hiring?</strong></h3>
<p dir="ltr">Honestly, I&rsquo;ve interviewed hundreds of candidates across roles - researchers, designers, developers - and very few have truly stood out by doing something radically different or unexpected. But one thing I have started doing is asking candidates: &ldquo;What&rsquo;s something about you that you&rsquo;d never think to put on a CV?&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">That&rsquo;s where the interesting stuff comes out. Real, unfiltered answers that give me a sense of someone&rsquo;s character, resilience, creativity, or how they think when they&rsquo;re not &lsquo;performing&rsquo;. It&rsquo;s not a trick question - it's a chance to connect on a more human level, and those answers often tell me far more about whether someone will thrive in a team than their portfolio ever could.</p>
<h3><strong id="docs-internal-guid-578e3a21-7fff-8b3c-d311-87afe4f66269">What is the one piece of advice you&rsquo;d share for someone starting out in your career?</strong></h3>
<p dir="ltr">Don't listen to all the b*llshit on LinkedIn. The number of times I've wanted to call BS on the AI-regurgitated drivel about how to become a designer in 14 minutes, or why old processes and methodologies are dead, or posts saying something completely derogatory just to get a rise from people.</p>
<p dir="ltr">You can't be a designer overnight. You can't create great digital experiences that work and will last with little to no experience of how design, product, tech, data, brand, marketing, and commerce all fit together.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Get out there. Ask questions. Find a mentor. Always look for reasons to stay in love with your craft. Build things. Break things. Keep exploring.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr"><strong id="docs-internal-guid-0a2d7d1d-7fff-dd9a-b439-504a66dbcbae">What are your predictions for the UX/CX/Design industry over the next 12 months?</strong></h3>
<p dir="ltr">AI will become what it should be: an invisible processing tool, not the answer to every problem.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Personalisation might finally grow up and become something more than "Hi Tim, welcome back. Here&rsquo;s something you don&rsquo;t need."</p>
<p dir="ltr">And Liquid Glass? It&rsquo;ll be everywhere... until it isn&rsquo;t.</p>
<h2>Connect with Tim&nbsp;</h2>
<p>To learn more from Tim, you can connect with him directly via&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyhutchinson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a>.</p>

Future Thinker: Tim Hutchinson

<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>Izzy Raffi</strong> is a business and operational leader with over 15 years of experience driving growth, scaling high-impact initiatives, and leading cross-functional teams across fast-paced, mission-driven environments.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Her career spans iGaming, digital commerce, and tech-enabled businesses, with leadership roles at brands including Pizza Hut Digital &amp; Technology, Just Eat Takeaway, and John Lewis &amp; Partners. Currently Head of Product at Legend, Izzy specialises in strategic planning, portfolio management, and organisational change, using operational excellence to align innovation with business outcomes. As a qualified Executive Coach and passionate mentor, Izzy champions leadership development and actively supports women in leadership through career acceleration programmes.</p>

<h3 class="MsoNormal">What inspired you to pursue your current path in technology or creativity?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am driven by a deep love for solving complex problems and building scalable solutions. Taking something seemingly chaotic and shaping it into something scalable, intuitive, and high-performing has always been the driving force behind why I do what I do. There&rsquo;s nothing more rewarding than removing friction so that teams, businesses, and end users can move faster, make better decisions, and truly thrive.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am at my best where big-picture strategy meets hands-on execution. The best ideas, no matter how visionary, fall apart without the right structures to support them. That puzzle-solving mindset, the curiosity of <em>how do I turn ambition into tangible outcomes?</em> <em>How do we build systems that don&rsquo;t just work, but work brilliantly?</em> That&rsquo;s what keeps me engaged every day.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For me, technology and problem-solving, whether in product, operations, or scaling businesses, should empower, not exhaust. Whether I&rsquo;m building teams, streamlining processes, or designing user experiences that &lsquo;just flow,&rsquo; my focus is always on making things work beautifully, for both the business and the people it serves.</p>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">What skills do you believe will be crucial for the next generation of innovators in your field?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">Success for the next generation of innovators won&rsquo;t be defined solely by technical expertise. I believe it will be about blending adaptability, strategic problem-solving, and the ability to distil insights from big data into real impact. Crucially, it will be about cross-disciplinary leadership.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As AI reshapes industries at an unprecedented pace, true AI literacy goes beyond just using it for automation or insights. It means understanding its limitations, ethical implications, and biases and knowing when and how to use it so that it serves as a tool rather than dictating decisions.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Beyond AI, the pace of work continues to accelerate. In today&rsquo;s environment, resilience, mental agility, and the capacity to navigate high-pressure, shifting priorities are as essential as technical skills. This shift is reflected in the growing need for cross-disciplinary leadership. Organisations will increasingly seek leaders who can blend technological insight with strong operational and strategic capabilities.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This evolution calls for moving beyond the traditional T-shaped skill set. It means developing a multi-dimensional profile that deepens the core expertise while bridging gaps between disciplines. By stepping outside a single specialisation, future innovators can offer fresh perspectives and add value in unexpected areas. For example, today&rsquo;s Chief Product Officers (CPOs) are increasingly seen as ideal candidates for future CEO and COO roles. Their ability to synthesise customer insights, technology trends, and operational dynamics positions them to lead organisations that demand both strategic vision and practical execution.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, the line between hard and soft skills is blurred. Innovators must combine technical problem-solving with effective leadership, clear communication, and strong cross-functional collaboration. It&rsquo;s about bringing people along on the journey and aligning diverse teams toward a common goal.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In short, the future belongs to those who can adapt, use technology wisely, and lead with impact, balancing strategic vision with operational excellence to turn innovative ideas into successful realities.</p>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">How do you cultivate a culture of innovation within your team or organisation?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">By fostering psychological safety. Innovation thrives when bold ideas are encouraged, failure is seen as a learning tool, and cross-functional collaboration is the norm. The best ideas emerge in high-trust environments where diverse perspectives are valued, where healthy debate fuels better decisions, and where people feel empowered to challenge assumptions without fear of blame.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But I also know that great ideas alone aren&rsquo;t enough. Without the right structures, alignment, and momentum, even the most groundbreaking ideas can die on the vine. That&rsquo;s why I focus on removing friction, whether in decision-making, communication, or operational processes, to ensure innovation isn&rsquo;t just talked about, but actually executed. It&rsquo;s not about more brainstorming sessions; it&rsquo;s about making sure ideas turn into tangible outcomes that drive impact.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have 3 principles when it comes to innovation:</p>
<ul>
<li class="MsoNormal"><strong>Psychological safety is a given, not a luxury.</strong> People need to know that failure isn&rsquo;t punished. It&rsquo;s a tool for learning. This is especially true in product development, where experimentation fuels progress.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><strong>Innovation needs structure.</strong> Creativity without execution is just a good idea that never goes anywhere. I believe in <strong>structured innovation</strong>, where teams have the right <strong>frameworks, data, and operational clarity</strong> to move fast without chaos. AI, product discovery, and cross-functional collaboration are just tools. The real key is making innovation <strong>repeatable, not accidental</strong>.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><strong>Challenging the status quo is non-negotiable.</strong> Innovation stalls in organisations that fear change. I believe in a <strong>healthy tension between stability and transformation,</strong> where teams are pushed to rethink assumptions but given clear strategies to execute meaningful change. Scaling a business isn&rsquo;t just about growing fast; it&rsquo;s about <strong>growing with purpose</strong>, ensuring that both the organisation and its people evolve in the right direction.</li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal">I want innovation to stop being a buzzword but be a habit.</p>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">How do you approach problem-solving when faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">When in doubt, simplify. It&rsquo;s the advice I give my teams, and sometimes I even need to remind myself to follow it. The hardest problems in Product Management and Business Operations aren&rsquo;t always unsolvable. More often, they&rsquo;re poorly framed, overloaded with assumptions, or tangled in ego. The first step is recognising that. I then break things down and define what truly matters, and I can focus on progress and momentum instead of chasing perfection.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I rarely, if ever, solve big problems in isolation. Bringing the right people into the conversation cuts through blind spots. The best solutions come from asking better questions, challenging assumptions, and leaving ego at the door. It doesn&rsquo;t matter who solves the problem; it&rsquo;s almost always a group effort anyway.</p>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">What role do you think cross-disciplinary collaboration plays in driving creative and technological advancements?&nbsp;</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">It&rsquo;s everything! In my experience, the best solutions don&rsquo;t come from a single discipline. They emerge at the intersection of different perspectives, skill sets, and ways of thinking. Whether it&rsquo;s product, operations, data science, engineering, or marketing, real positive change happens when silos break down and teams tackle challenges from multiple angles, without ego.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Technology moves too fast, and in some verticals, markets evolve too unpredictably. One discipline can not possibly have all the answers. I look at a great product as an ecosystem. It&rsquo;s not just about the technology or the great product idea that solves customer problems. It&rsquo;s an ecosystem of operational scalability, user experience, business strategy, and data-driven decision-making. The most impactful advancements come from the ability to integrate these elements seamlessly, creating solutions that are not only innovative but also <strong>practical, scalable, and valuable to the end user.</strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yes, collaboration is about bringing different disciplines together, but equally, it is about creating an environment where they can <strong>challenge each other, push boundaries, and unlock insights that wouldn&rsquo;t emerge in isolation.</strong> Some of the most powerful innovations I&rsquo;ve seen weren&rsquo;t the result of a single brilliant idea, but the <strong>collision of perspectives</strong>&mdash;where an engineer&rsquo;s technical insight meets a designer&rsquo;s intuition, or where a data scientist&rsquo;s model is enhanced by real-world operational constraints.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For me, that&rsquo;s where the real magic happens in cross-functional teams that don&rsquo;t just coexist but actively <strong>co-create.</strong></p>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">What motivates you to continue innovating and pushing boundaries in your field?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">The thrill that there&rsquo;s a better way. Growth, whether personal, organisational, or industry-wide, is never finished. Nothing stands still, and neither should we.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sometimes, going with the flow or trusting your gut is just as valuable as data-driven decisions. The real challenge is striking the right balance between technology and human intuition, automation and empathy, scale and personal connection.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In a world overflowing with data, the human element matters more than ever. How do we build products, organisations, and systems that are not just efficient, but meaningful? That&rsquo;s what drives me, a puzzle mindset, solving challenges that aren&rsquo;t just operational, but human.</p>
<h2 class="MsoNormal">Connect with Izzy</h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">Connect with Izzy on <a class="secondaryBtn" title="LinkedIn&nbsp;" href="linkedin.com/in/izabelraffy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener"> </a></span>and explore her insights on&nbsp;<a class="secondaryBtn" title="Substack" href="https://izzyraffy.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Substack.</a></p>

Future Thinker: Izzy Raffi

<p>With their specialised skills and increased flexibility, Product Design and UX contractors can significantly contribute to your business's growth and success.</p>
<p>If you're considering hiring Design contractors in London, here are some key ways in which they can enhance your operations:</p>

<p>According to a report by <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.upwork.com/research/future-workforce-report-2022">Upwork</a></span>, the freelance platform, 56% of hiring managers that engage freelancers have increased utilisation of independent talent over the last 12 months. Additionally, 66% of hiring managers plan to increase utilisation of freelancers over the next two years.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In the U.S alone, there are approximately 70.4 million freelancers. This number is trending upwards to account for 53% of the total US workforce by 2028. Google employs more freelancers than it does permanent employees. &nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Hiring a contractor in the tech and digital space can provide several benefits, including:&nbsp;</span></strong><br>&nbsp;<br><strong>1. Expertise:</strong> Contractors in the tech and digital space have specialised skills and knowledge that can be difficult to find in-house. They can provide valuable insights and guidance on your project, ensuring that it is completed to a high standard.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>2. Flexibility:</strong> Contractors can be hired on a project-by-project basis, which provides flexibility and allows you to scale your team up or down as needed. This can be particularly useful for businesses with fluctuating workloads or seasonal projects. &nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;<br><strong>3. Cost-effective: </strong>Hiring a contractor can be more cost-effective than hiring a full-time employee, as you only pay for the work that is completed. This can help you save money on salaries, benefits, and other overhead costs.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>4. Access to specialised tools and resources:</strong> Contractors often have access to specialised tools and resources that may not be available in-house. This can help you complete your project more efficiently and effectively.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>5. Reduced risk:</strong> Hiring a contractor can reduce your risk of legal and financial liabilities, as they are responsible for their own taxes, insurance, and other expenses. This can provide peace of mind and protect your business from potential legal issues.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Overall, hiring a contractor in the tech and digital space can provide many benefits and help you complete your projects more efficiently and effectively. It is clear that hiring contractors and freelancers is becoming a more popular and necessary practice in the tech and digital sectors, as businesses seek to access specialised skills and fill short-term needs.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Futureheads is a Digital Recruitment Agency based in London. Our focus is on balancing profit with people and the planet. At Futureheads, we're working with thousands of other B Corps to build an inclusive and sustainable economy that works for everyone.</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Reasons for hiring Product Design and UX Contractors 

<p>When it comes to looking for work in the current climate, it certainly has affected the mental health of many. You do not have to look far to hear stories of others going through the same thing following redundancy or restructuring. Firstly, allow yourself to feel and process the emotions you are going through. Suppressed emotions are more likely to produce physiological symptoms.</p>

<p>To safeguard our mental health when looking for work, it comes down to four key areas &ndash; building our confidence to believe in ourselves, resilience to overcome setbacks, the ability to manage our anxiety or stress levels and finding perspective to not feel alone in this challenging time.</p>
<h2>Building your confidence:</h2>
<p>1. Write a list of 100 things that you have achieved.</p>
<p>We often hold on to our failures more than our achievements. So, writing them down and reading it every few days will remind you how truly awesome you are. You are unique.</p>
<p>2. Know what your superpowers are.</p>
<p>Some people find it&rsquo;s communication, others are great at analytical tasks, some creative and innovative projects. Values assessments, feedback from people you have worked with, personality tests can all help with this.</p>
<h2>Building Resilience:</h2>
<p>You have overcome 100% of your hardest days so far. Take a reflection day (a day with a notepad, a cuppa and the aim to investigate yourself) and ask yourself these questions based on the book by Bernadette Jiwa &ndash; &lsquo;Story Driven&rsquo;:</p>
<p>a. What is the hardest thing you have ever done?</p>
<p>b. What did this teach you about yourself?</p>
<p>c. What&rsquo;s your proudest memory?</p>
<p>d. When are you at your best?</p>
<p>e. What wouldn&rsquo;t you change about yourself? And how can you bring that into your next role?</p>
<h2>Managing Anxiety and Stress levels:</h2>
<p>1. Focus on what you can control</p>
<p>Anxiety and fear comes from feeling that our lives are out of our control when in fact they are to an extent. There are two parts to the anxiety cycle that we can control &ndash; our thoughts and our coping methods. There is an article I wrote on this which you can find here: https://www.modernmindgroup.co.uk/post/how-to-manage-anxiety-or-stress</p>
<p>2. Give yourself a timeline</p>
<p>You will hear people say looking for work is a full-time job. It can be, although many of us let it consume our thoughts way beyond the 9-5 hours. Set yourself a timeline every day to finish looking by, for example, 4pm or make the morning about you. First, for example, get up, do some exercise, walk the dog and then start looking with a clear mindset.</p>
<h2>Finding Perspective:</h2>
<p>There is a good quote that is &ldquo;The man that fears the wild animal on the way to work has everything else in the back of his mind&rdquo;. Many of us are blessed enough to live in a world where we don&rsquo;t have to worry about basic survival. We have running water, an indoor toilet, electricity, heat and clothes. If you have all these things plus one mode of transport (even if it is a bike) puts you wealthier than most of the world.</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s something to be very grateful for. Make a list of all the things that you can be grateful for that give you comfort and peace of mind in your life. Do this daily for seven days and it will help you feel better by up to 35%.</p>

Navigating Job Search Anxiety: Essential Tips for Maintaining Mental Wellbeing

From recruiting your first Product Owner to hiring your next experienced Product Managers, our recruiters have developed a specialist Product network in the design and tech space. They are trusted experts in sourcing and delivering both permanent and contract professionals in the field.

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>From recruiting your first Product Owner to hiring your next experienced Product Managers, our recruiters have developed a specialist Product network in the design and tech space. They are trusted experts in sourcing and delivering both permanent and contract professionals in the field.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Chief Product Officers (CPO)</li>
      <li>VPs of Product Management​</li>
      <li>Directors of Product Management</li>
      <li>Product Managers​​</li>
      <li>Product Owners</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Product

With positions across agencies, brands, start-ups and tech companies, we work with Creatives delivering new brands, campaigns and integrated experiences. From hiring freelance Creative Teams to your first in-house Copywriter, we’ve got it covered. 

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>With positions across agencies, brands, start-ups and tech companies, we work with Creatives delivering new brands, campaigns and integrated experiences. From hiring freelance Creative Teams to your first in-house Copywriter, we’ve got it covered.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes professionals in:</h5> 
    <ul>
      <li>Motion Graphics & Video Editing</li>
      <li>Branding</li>
      <li>Copywriting</li>
      <li>Art Direction</li>
      <li>Illustration</li>
      <li>Digital Design</li>
      <li>Marketing Design</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Creative

Navigating the complexities of AI, machine learning, and data integrity presents a growing challenge for businesses, especially when it comes to hiring professionals with the right blend of compliance, system integration and advanced analytics expertise. That’s where we come in. 

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    <p>Navigating the complexities of AI, machine learning, and data integrity presents a growing challenge for businesses, especially when it comes to hiring professionals with the right blend of compliance, system integration and advanced analytics expertise. That’s where we come in.</p>
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    <h5>Our network of data professionals includes experts in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Data Engineering</li>
      <li>Data Science</li>
      <li>​Data Analytics</li>
      <li>​Machine Learning</li>
      <li>AI Research and Development</li>
      <li>​ML Ops</li>
      <li>​Data Governance</li>
      <li>Head of Data</li>
      <li>CDO</li>
    </ul>
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Data & AI

Our niche is technical experts who specialise in IT and digital projects, across multiple platforms and technology stacks. Come and talk to us about all things Engineering, from entry to CTO-Level.

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    <p>Our niche is technical experts who specialise in IT and digital projects, across multiple platforms and technology stacks. Come and talk to us about all things Engineering, from entry to CTO-Level.</p>
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    <h5>Our network includes professionals across:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Front-end</li>
      <li>​Back-end​</li>
      <li>​Full-stack​</li>
      <li>Native Mobile​​</li>
      <li>Cross-platform​​</li>
      <li>Technical Architecture​​</li>
      <li>Solution Architecture​​</li>
       <li>DevOps / SRE / Platform Engineering</li>
      <li>Testing & QA</li>
      <li>Engineering Managers</li>
      <li>Head of Engineering</li>
      <li>CTO</li>
    </ul>
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Engineering

We know that the world of Digital Marketing moves at a fast pace. That’s why our teams are on hand to support, and always ahead of the curve.

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    <p>We know that the world of Digital Marketing moves at a fast pace. That’s why our teams are on hand to support, and always ahead of the curve.</p>
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    <h5>Our network includes professionals in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Multidisciplinary Marketing Management</li>
      <li>Product Marketing</li>
      <li>Growth Marketing</li>
      <li>Performance Marketing</li>
      <li>CRM</li>
      <li>Social Media</li>
      <li>Marketing Ops</li>
      <li>Affiliate Marketing</li>
    </ul>
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Marketing

Part of our founding offering; since 2009 we have been part of the growth and evolution of the Design market in the UK. With a comprehensive network across all major skills-sets we have consistently helped businesses hire world-class Design talent. 

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    <p>Part of our founding offering; since 2009 we have been part of the growth and evolution of the Design market in the UK. With a comprehensive network across all major skills-sets we have consistently helped businesses hire world-class Design talent.</p>
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    <h5> Our network includes Designers with skills in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Digital Product (UX/UI) Design</li>
      <li>User Interface (UI) Design</li>
      <li>​Visual Design</li>
      
    </ul>
  </div>
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Product Design

With a deep understanding of what is required from Project Managers and Programme Managers in the digital and tech space, we can help you find the talent to deliver better budget controls, communication and reporting as well as ways to introduce new processes, tools and technology to optimise efficiency. 

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    <p>With a deep understanding of what is required from Project Managers and Programme Managers in the digital and tech space, we can help you find the talent to deliver better budget controls, communication and reporting as well as ways to introduce new processes, tools and technology to optimise efficiency.</p>
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    <h5>Our network includes:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Digital & Technical Project Managers</li>
      <li>Programme Managers</li>
      <li>Delivery Managers</li>
      <li>Business Analysts</li>
      <li>Scrum Masters</li>
    </ul>
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Projects & Delivery

From helping shape the London UX market in its early days, to running and sponsoring some of the best-known UX networking events in the UK, we're highly regarded for our breadth and depth of expertise in this space and for our ability to match top-tier UX practitioners into brilliant opportunities. 

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    <p>From helping shape the London UX market in its early days, to running and sponsoring some of the most well-known UX networking events in the UK, we're highly regarded for our breadth and depth of expertise in this space and for our ability to match top-tier UX practitioners into brilliant opportunities.</p>
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    <h5>Our network includes practitioners with skills across:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>User Research</li>
      <li>UX & Interaction Design​</li>
      <li>​Service Design​</li>
      <li>Content Design</li>
    </ul>
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UX & Service Design

Jamie Perlmutter

<p>Jamie has worked in the tech/digital sector for over a decade and since joining Futureheads in 2016, he&rsquo;s helped a number of leading businesses to scale and achieve their strategic and commercial goals.<br>&nbsp;<br>His recruitment mantra (inspired by a poster in one of our meeting rooms) is to work hard and be nice to people. In practice, this means Jamie strives to go the extra mile, providing clear channels of communication and leveraging his problem-solving skills to create positive experiences for candidates and clients alike.<br>&nbsp;<br>Jamie&rsquo;s a hands-on recruiter and people manager whose experience includes both embedded and 360 contingency recruitment, spanning all talent disciplines across the product development lifecycle. However, his sweet spot is Product Design, UX, Service Design and User Research.<br>&nbsp;<br>Outside of work, when Jamie&rsquo;s not busy being a dad to his young son, you&rsquo;ll either find him at gigs, eating fancy burgers or complaining from the North Bank at the Emirates Stadium.&nbsp;</p>

AJ Phipps

<p>Ashleigh-Jean, better known as AJ, spent 7 years in sales before finding her home in recruitment 4 years ago. Having honed her skills in the cybersecurity world, AJ is excited to bring her blend of tech and creative passions to lead our Product Management recruitment here at Futureheads.</p>
<p>Specialising in placing product leaders across complex technology ecosystems, she focuses on roles spanning product strategy, user experience design, technical roadmapping, and AI-driven innovation. Working with anyone from start-ups to recently IPO'd companies and candidates as a career matchmaker, AJ leverages her deep understanding of technical frameworks, agile methodologies, and emerging tech trends to connect brilliant people with employers they would love to work for.</p>
<p>Outside of work, if AJ is not recruiting, hosting events or advocating for DEI, you can find her wearing her pink suit and disco heels watching Broadway shows, finding the best eateries in London and geeking out on anything AI and Tech!</p>

Sectors we cover

Product

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