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>Senior Product Designer - UX focus</strong><br><strong>London - Permanent</strong><br><strong>£70,000-75,000 | Hybrid (approximately 3 days in the office per week)</strong><br><br>We're working with an independent London-based consultancy looking for a Senior Product Designer who enjoys solving complex problems, shaping digital experiences and getting involved early in the design process.<br><br>The role combines UX strategy, research and hands-on product design, with plenty of opportunity to work directly with clients, untangle complex problems and shape the direction of digital products and services.<br><br>The work is varied, spanning digital products, services and business transformation. There's also an increasing focus on AI, particularly agentic experiences and how people will interact with intelligent systems.<br><br>What you'll be doing<br><ul><li>Working with clients to understand business challenges, shape propositions and define better experiences.</li><li>Leading discovery, research, workshops, journey mapping and experience strategy.</li><li>Translating complex problems into clear user flows, wireframes and interactive prototypes in Figma.</li><li>Exploring new interaction models, including AI-powered and agentic experiences.</li><li>Working closely with strategists, designers and client teams, taking ownership of your work from early thinking through to delivery.</li></ul><br>What we're looking for<br><ul><li>At least 5 years of experience in UX or Product Design, ideally gained in a consultancy, agency or studio environment.</li><li>Strong UX thinking, particularly around complex user journeys, information architecture and service design.</li><li>Experience contributing to strategy and discovery, with the confidence to challenge briefs and help clients work out what they actually need.</li><li>Someone comfortable running workshops, presenting ideas and working directly with senior stakeholders.</li><li>Curiosity about AI and evidence that you're already experimenting with it in your work. Experience designing agentic products would be a bonus.</li></ul><br>Benefits<br>You'll join an established, collaborative design team with exposure to different clients and challenges. Some projects are more strategic, while others require you to get deep into the detail of a product or service.<br>There's potential to work with a major financial services client as the team grows, alongside opportunities across the wider consultancy.<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 Designer - UX

<strong>Senior / Lead Product Designer</strong><br><strong>£80,000–£100,000 | London | Hybrid, two days a week</strong><br><br>A growing health technology company is rebuilding the products used by healthcare teams to organise and deliver everyday care.<br><br>This is a complex design problem with a clear human impact. The software needs to help busy professionals act quickly, understand what needs attention and manage large volumes of work without adding more friction.<br><br>They’re looking for a Senior or Lead Product Designer to take substantial ownership of this next phase.<br><br><strong>What you’ll be doing</strong><br><ul><li>Redesigning a connected suite of digital products from the ground up</li><li>Turning complicated processes and information into clear, intuitive interfaces</li><li>Producing detailed, high-quality UI across workflows, states and edge cases</li><li>Visiting users in their working environments to understand how the product fits into their day</li><li>Using AI-assisted building tools to create realistic prototypes and explore ideas beyond static screens</li><li>Helping establish shared patterns and a stronger visual direction across the product</li></ul><br><strong>What they’re looking for</strong><br><ul><li>Strong interaction and visual design skills, supported by a thoughtful portfolio</li><li>Experience designing complex software, operational tools or information-heavy products</li><li>Confidence working from early research through to detailed delivery</li><li>Curiosity about how AI can expand what designers make and ship</li><li>A clear communicator who can explain decisions, challenge constructively and work with different disciplines</li><li>Enough independence to lead a substantial area of work without waiting for a tightly defined brief</li></ul><br>Healthcare or regulated-product experience would be useful, although excellent craft and product judgement matter more.<br><br>The salary is <strong>£80,000–£90,000 at Senior level</strong>, with scope up to <strong>£100,000 for someone operating at Lead level</strong>. The company offers hybrid working, a private pension, generous parental leave and the equipment needed to do your best work.<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 / Lead Product Designer

<strong>Director of Product Design – B2C Ecommerce<br>Europe, Remote</strong><br><strong>€120k–€140k + year-end performance bonus</strong><br><br>We’re hiring a Director of Product Design for an established international B2C ecommerce company.<br><br>You’ll lead a small design team, set the product design vision and raise the quality of the customer experience across mobile and web. Around 80% of the role is focused on leadership, strategy and developing the team, while remaining close enough to the work and hands-on to support important product decisions.<br><br><strong>What you’ll do</strong><br><ul><li>Set the product design and customer experience strategy</li><li>Coach and develop the design team</li><li>Introduce advanced AI workflows across prototyping, motion and production</li><li>Strengthen customer research, usability testing and experimentation</li><li>Connect design decisions to conversion, retention and revenue</li><li>Develop the design system across mobile and web</li><li>Partner with product and senior leadership</li></ul><br><strong>What we’re looking for</strong><br><ul><li>10+ years in product design, including 4+ years managing designers</li><li>Strong B2C experience across mobile and responsive web</li><li>Evidence of improving measurable customer or commercial outcomes</li><li>Advanced use of AI in a current or recent design role</li><li>Strong research, experimentation and design systems experience</li><li>A portfolio showing work delivered by your teams and its impact</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>

Director of Product Design

<strong>Product Designer – Design Systems</strong><br>Permanent<br>London (London Bridge office) - 2 days in the office<br>£60,000–£70,000 + benefits<br><br>We're working with an established London design practice looking for a Product Designer with a strong interest in design systems and the craft behind building great digital products.<br><br>This is an opportunity to work on complex, large-scale products where design systems play a central role in creating consistency, improving collaboration and helping teams deliver better work.<br><br>You'll have the chance to shape how components, patterns and shared foundations are developed, while continuing to work on broader product design challenges.<br><br><strong>Why this role is worth exploring</strong><br><ul><li>Join an established London design practice in a permanent role, with long-term projects and opportunities to progress.</li><li>Shape design systems for complex digital products, influencing everything from individual components to how teams work together.</li><li>Work closely with engineers and explore new tools and approaches that bring design and code closer together.</li><li>Stay hands-on with broader product design challenges rather than focusing exclusively on component libraries.</li><li>Be part of a team that takes design craft seriously, with regular critique, knowledge sharing and room to experiment.</li></ul><br><strong>What you'll be doing</strong><br><ul><li>You'll design, refine and evolve reusable components and patterns, working with product designers, engineers and stakeholders to make sure the system serves real product needs.</li><li>You'll help teams make thoughtful decisions about consistency, scalability and when new approaches are worth introducing. There'll also be opportunities to contribute to wider product design work, from exploring concepts to solving detailed interaction challenges.</li></ul><br><strong>Who we'd love to speak to</strong><br><ul><li>We're looking for an experienced product designer who has worked extensively with design systems and still enjoys being hands-on.</li><li>You'll be confident in Figma, comfortable collaborating with engineers and able to explain design decisions to people with different priorities.</li><li>Experience working across multiple product teams, complex organisations or large-scale digital products would be particularly relevant.</li><li>You don't need to have held a dedicated Design Systems Designer title or worked in a consultancy. What matters is the quality of your thinking, your design craft and your ability to bring people together around good solutions.</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>

Senior Product Designer - Design Systems (forward deployed)

<strong>Senior Product Designer | 2 roles</strong><br><strong>Up to £80,000 DOE + benefits | Permanent | London, hybrid</strong><br><br> We’re working with an award-winning product design agency specialising in AI products to hire 2 Senior Product Designers.<br><br> Following a strong year and new long-term client partnerships, the agency is expanding its permanent design team. Working across healthtech, deep tech and sustainability, its projects range from early vision prototypes and zero-to-MVP builds to improving established products.<br><br> We’re looking for two complementary profiles: one with a particular strength in <strong>UI and visual craft</strong>, and another leaning towards <strong>UX, strategy and service design</strong>.<br><br> Both roles offer hands-on project ownership, direct client relationships and the opportunity to help shape a growing agency.<br><br> The two opportunities<br><br> <strong>**Senior Product Designer, UI focus**</strong><br><br> You’ll bring exceptional visual and interaction design skills, underpinned by strong UX foundations. Your portfolio will demonstrate considered typography, layout, hierarchy, colour and motion, and you’ll be able to explain how your decisions improve the experience.<br><br> An initial project involves an AI-assisted ecommerce and configurator experience for a major infrastructure business. You’ll explore how AI can become an integral part of the product experience, beyond a standalone chatbot.<br><br> You’ll be comfortable moving from early concepts to polished interfaces and interactive prototypes, with a good understanding of design systems and how your work gets built.<br><br> <strong>**Senior Product Designer, UX / generalist focus**</strong><br><br> You’ll bring strong research, problem framing and strategic thinking, alongside the ability to deliver clear, well-crafted digital experiences. Service design experience would be particularly valuable.<br><br> An initial project involves a technically complex healthcare AI platform. You’ll help make sense of intricate workflows, understand the needs of multiple stakeholders and translate your findings into intuitive product experiences.<br><br> You’ll be confident connecting research to insight, exploring different directions and guiding clients towards a clear solution.<br><br> <strong>What you’ll do</strong><br><br> Across both roles, you’ll:<br><br> - Take day-to-day ownership of product design projects, from understanding the brief through to detailed design and prototyping.<br>- Work directly with clients to understand their business, users and technical constraints.<br>- Explore and test concepts through research, wireframes and prototypes.<br>- Create thoughtful interfaces and contribute to scalable design systems.<br>- Present your work confidently and explain the reasoning behind your decisions.<br>- Experiment with AI tools and share approaches that improve the team’s work.<br>- Contribute to the agency’s culture, shared learning and development.<br><br> These opportunities suit experienced senior designers who can take independent responsibility for projects within three to six months, supported by light director oversight.<br><br> <strong>About you</strong><br><br> You’ll bring:<br><br> - A strong portfolio of digital product work, with clear evidence of your personal contribution.<br>- Experience taking projects from an ambiguous brief through to a considered solution.<br>- Strong visual craft or UX and strategic depth, supported by solid skills across the wider product design process.<br>- Confidence working with clients, presenting ideas and navigating feedback.<br>- An understanding of design systems and how digital products are built.<br>- Curiosity about AI-powered experiences and practical experience experimenting with AI in your workflow.<br>- The judgement to assess the quality of your work and know where it needs further refinement.<br>- A collaborative approach and an interest in helping a small agency grow.<br><br> Your experience could span agencies, consultancies, startups or in-house product teams. Skills, judgement and mindset matter more than a specific number of years.<br><br> Freelancers interested in moving into a permanent position are also welcome to apply. You must have the right to live and work in the UK.<br><br> <strong>Salary and benefits</strong><br><br> - Up to £80,000 base salary, depending on experience.<br>- 6% employer pension contribution.<br>- Dedicated learning and development budget.<br>- Hybrid working, with two days per week in Waterloo, London.<br>- Flexible working.<br>- Monthly team events, including exhibition and conference visits.<br>- Close collaboration with experienced design leaders.<br><br> <strong>Interview process</strong><br><br> 1. Introductory call.<br>2. Portfolio review.<br>3. Take-home exercise.<br>4. References from previous managers.<br><br> <strong>To apply, send your CV and portfolio, indicating whether your strengths lean towards UI and visual craft or UX and strategy. If your experience spans both, we’d love to hear from you too.</strong><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 Designer - Agency / AI Products

<strong>Senior Product Designer, 0-1</strong> <strong>Location:</strong> London, hybrid, three office days per week, including Friday<br><strong>Package:</strong> Base salary plus equity and benefits<br><br> Futureheads is partnering with a growing consumer health technology business to hire a Senior Product Designer focused on building new product experiences.<br><br> You’ll take new services from early exploration through to launch, designing the full customer journey from acquisition and onboarding to ongoing support.<br><br> This role suits someone who enjoys starting with an open problem, learning quickly and turning ambiguity into a polished, useful experience. As products mature, you’ll continue improving them through testing and iteration.<br><br> <strong>What you’ll do</strong><ul><li>Shape new product experiences from initial insight to launch.<br><br></li><li>Define problems and priorities with product, engineering and specialist stakeholders.<br><br></li><li>Conduct focused research and usability testing to understand customer needs.<br><br></li><li>Design connected journeys across acquisition, onboarding and ongoing use.<br><br></li><li>Create polished mobile web and app experiences, including clear UX copy and accessible interactions.<br><br></li><li>Navigate regulatory and service constraints while maintaining a high-quality experience.<br><br></li><li>Make thoughtful launch trade-offs and use evidence to guide subsequent improvements.<br><br></li><li>Contribute reusable components and patterns to the wider design system.<br><br></li></ul><strong>What we’re looking for</strong><ul><li>Strong B2C product design experience and excellent visual and interaction craft.<br><br></li><li>Evidence of taking a product or substantial feature from an early idea through to launch.<br><br></li><li>Confidence defining a problem without waiting for a fully formed brief.<br><br></li><li>The ability to think across an entire journey and understand how its parts connect.<br><br></li><li>Practical research instincts and a preference for learning through focused testing and delivery.<br><br></li><li>Comfort working with changing requirements and competing priorities.<br><br></li><li>Commercial judgement and an ability to explain how your work supported customer and business outcomes.<br><br></li><li>Clear communication, thoughtful collaboration and openness to feedback.<br><br></li></ul>Experience in healthcare or another regulated consumer sector would be valuable. You should be comfortable owning research and UX writing where needed. AI fluency is welcome, but curiosity and willingness to learn also matter.<br><br> <strong>What’s on offer</strong> Equity, pension contributions, development support and wellbeing benefits alongside base salary. The team works three days a week from its London office, including Fridays, with flexibility around working hours.<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 Designer - 0-1 - Healthtech

<strong>Senior Product Designer, CRO</strong> <strong>Salary:</strong> Up to £95,000 base, depending on experience, plus equity<br><strong>Location:</strong> London, hybrid, three office days per week, including Friday<br><br> Futureheads is partnering with a growing consumer health technology business to hire a Senior Product Designer focused on conversion rate optimisation.<br><br> This role blends digital design craft with product thinking. You’ll own the landing pages and conversion experiences that help customers understand the service, build confidence and take the next step.<br><br> We’re looking for someone who enjoys making complex information clear and engaging. You’ll use strong storytelling, thoughtful interactions and compelling visual design to support informed decisions.<br><br> <strong>What you’ll do</strong><ul><li>Design and improve mobile-first landing pages, conversion components and reusable templates.<br><br></li><li>Create clear page structures, messaging hierarchies and calls to action.<br><br></li><li>Make detailed information digestible through typography, illustration, interaction and motion.<br><br></li><li>Consider customer intent, emotional state and the journey beyond the landing page.<br><br></li><li>Work closely with growth and CRO colleagues to shape hypotheses, develop variants and learn from experiments.<br><br></li><li>Maintain a coherent experience from acquisition messaging through to conversion.<br><br></li><li>Build accessible, reusable patterns that support fast iteration without compromising quality.<br><br></li></ul><strong>What we’re looking for</strong><ul><li>Strong visual and interaction craft, with a blend of digital and B2C product design experience.<br><br></li><li>A portfolio showing thoughtful landing pages or conversion journeys, alongside clear product thinking.<br><br></li><li>An understanding of messaging hierarchy, social proof, mobile behaviour and page performance.<br><br></li><li>The ability to communicate complex information without removing the detail customers need.<br><br></li><li>An experimentation mindset and a willingness to ship, test and iterate quickly.<br><br></li><li>Confidence collaborating with growth stakeholders and explaining your design decisions.<br><br></li><li>Strong writing instincts and sensitivity to the trust required when customers make important personal decisions.<br><br></li></ul>Agency experience could be particularly relevant, provided your work demonstrates product thinking as well as visual craft. Data literacy is useful, with analytical support available from the growth team.<br><br> AI experience is welcome, as is curiosity and a willingness to learn.<br><br> <strong>What’s on offer</strong> A salary of up to £95,000, equity, pension contributions, development support and wellbeing benefits. The team works three days a week from its London office, including Fridays, with flexibility around working hours.<br><br> The interview process includes a take-home design exercise, capped at four hours, followed by a discussion of your work.<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 Designer - CRO - Healthtech

<strong>Lead Product Designer, Growth</strong><br><br> <strong>Salary:</strong> Up to £120,000 base, depending on experience, plus equity  <br><strong>Location:</strong> London, hybrid, three office days per week, including Friday<br><br> Futureheads is partnering with a growing consumer health technology business to hire a Lead Product Designer for its Growth team.<br><br> This is a hands-on leadership role spanning acquisition and retention. You’ll help shape how customers discover the service, convert and keep coming back, combining excellent design craft with experimentation and commercial judgement.<br><br> Alongside your own design work, you’ll manage around three designers, helping them develop and deliver their best work.<br><br> <strong>What you’ll do</strong><br><br> - Own design across the customer funnel, from acquisition and landing pages through checkout and retention.<br>- Identify opportunities, frame hypotheses and use A/B testing to improve the experience.<br>- Connect design decisions to measurable outcomes, including conversion, retention and revenue.<br>- Stay close to the craft, creating polished visual and interaction design across mobile web and app experiences.<br>- Develop reusable patterns and systems that help the team move quickly.<br>- Coach and manage designers, provide clear feedback and support their development.<br>- Work closely with product, engineering and growth colleagues to prioritise opportunities and deliver at pace.<br><br> <strong>What we’re looking for</strong><br><br> - Strong B2C product design experience, with a portfolio showing excellent visual and interaction craft.<br>- Evidence of improving acquisition and retention journeys, with clear examples of the metrics you influenced.<br>- Confidence designing experiments, interpreting results and deciding what to test next.<br>- Recent hands-on design experience alongside leadership responsibilities.<br>- Previous line management experience is preferred. Strong mentoring experience will also be considered if you have a genuine desire to manage.<br>- Comfortable defining problems, working through ambiguity and making pragmatic decisions.<br>- Clear communication, openness to feedback and a collaborative approach.<br><br> Experience in a startup or scale-up would be valuable. You should also be comfortable conducting usability testing, writing UX copy and using AI tools to support your work, or keen to develop those skills.<br><br> <strong>What’s on offer</strong><br><br> A salary of up to £120,000, equity, pension contributions, development support and wellbeing benefits. The team works three days a week from its London office, including Fridays, with flexibility around working hours.<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>

Lead Product Designer - Growth - Healthtech

<p class="MsoNormal">Anat Grinfeld is a product designer who works in the gap between how a product is built and how people actually think. With a background in visual design and branding, and over 12 years of experience, she has worked across AI-driven and complex systems, mostly in fintech and SaaS products. Anat spent nearly six years at a fintech unicorn and has since led design at early-stage startups, working on problems with no settled answer and turning them into real business outcomes. Her recent work is in AI product design: conversational products, agents that act on a user&rsquo;s behalf, and the relationship between human and agent.</p>

<h3 class="MsoNormal">What part of your background has become more valuable as your work has moved closer to AI?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">I came to design from theatre direction, and it turned out to be a solid foundation for product work. I&rsquo;m not someone who feels comfortable on a stage, but I loved being backstage, and I did every odd job in a theatre you can think of. My favourite thing about a play was actually the audience. I loved watching them more than the play itself: the tension right after the lights go down and the show is about to begin, the moments when a whole room laughs at once, or gasps together, or goes quiet.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When I moved into design, I started in branding, and my favourite projects were hotels, because you get to shape someone&rsquo;s whole experience as if they were the audience in an immersive play. Directing taught me a way of interpreting text that became central to how I read briefs today. When you stage a scene, the key is to find what stands in the way of the character, so you learn to read for the obstacle first. That&rsquo;s how I work now. Handed a goal, my first question isn&rsquo;t how to push users toward it, it&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s stopping them. I read users the way I was taught to read characters, looking at the sum of what they actually do and what&rsquo;s in their way. Compared to theatre, product design is a very new field. It&rsquo;s barely established, and already AI is changing both how and what we design. But reading a lot of plays made me realise that human nature hasn&rsquo;t changed in over two thousand years. You can read a Greek play and still recognise everyone in it. People don&rsquo;t change, and that makes this a steadier craft than it sometimes feels.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">What is it about complex, difficult problems that holds your attention?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most of the problems I&rsquo;m drawn to sit in the gap between a product&rsquo;s logic and the user&rsquo;s mental model. A product&rsquo;s logic is limited. Its screens and definitions are fixed, and there are things it can and can&rsquo;t technically do. The user is the opposite. You&rsquo;re not designing for one person but for many, so you have to work out the mental model they share, and the pain underneath it. You can&rsquo;t control how someone thinks or what they expect, but you can control the experience they get from the product. The designer sits between those two, translating what people need into something the product can actually do. That&rsquo;s the part I find interesting. If users don&rsquo;t find value quickly, they&rsquo;re gone, and the main lever a designer has is the product experience itself. AI is changing what that lever can do. You don&rsquo;t have to commit everyone to one fixed flow anymore. The experience can adapt to how a user describes what they want and meet them where they are. The job underneath is the same as it&rsquo;s always been, understand the users well enough to build around them. AI just gives you a lot more room to actually do it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">How do you know when you&rsquo;re simplifying a complicated problem and when you&rsquo;re removing something important?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">I design mostly by taking things away. It&rsquo;s a habit: on any screen or flow, I question every element, every step, every divider, every label, and ask what job it&rsquo;s doing. I have two questions I ask to decide. The first is necessity: if I remove this, does the design hold up as well without it? If it does, it wasn&rsquo;t contributing to the design, and I remove it. The second is probability: does it make sense that the user arrives here, after what they just did? If taking something out means the path stops making sense, or the person is left guessing, then it was doing real work, and it stays. Editing isn&rsquo;t the same as simplifying. It&rsquo;s knowing the job of every element well enough to tell which ones are holding everything together.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">What does being a designer mean to you now compared with five years ago?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">Five years ago, being a designer meant designing the interface to me. I thought in terms of the visual layer, the screens, what a user sees and touches. The craft was making that layer clear and delightful. As I&rsquo;ve worked on more complex products, the centre of the job has moved underneath the surface. It&rsquo;s understanding human behaviour, understanding the business, finding the root problem, seeing the system as a whole and deciding what it should actually do. The visual design is the last step, not the entire work. What&rsquo;s accelerated that is AI. The relationship between a person and a piece of software used to live on the screen, so that&rsquo;s where most of my attention was. Now a lot of it lives somewhere else, in a conversation, or in an agent acting on your behalf. The surface is moving, and the designer&rsquo;s job is shifting with it. I spend as much time now on how a product behaves and what it says as on how it looks. The thing I&rsquo;m responsible for isn&rsquo;t just the screens anymore. It&rsquo;s whether the relationship between a person and the software actually works.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">Which career decision felt risky at the time but became important later?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">I joined HoneyBook early, just after its Series B, and stayed nearly six years as it grew into a unicorn valued at over two billion dollars. By the end I was comfortable and established. I knew every corner of the product and how our users thought. That was the moment I chose to move on, to lead the design function at an early-stage startup. In a small, early-stage company the ownership is bigger and the agency has to be higher. You&rsquo;re shipping constantly, working at speed, building and improving the product day by day. Every small change can move the business, and most days hold a make-or-break moment. It&rsquo;s addictive, I&rsquo;ll admit. It was a risk, and it paid off. That environment sharpened me. It forced me to push things forward, to think past the obvious, to make the most of a small team, limited money and data.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">What feels genuinely exciting to you about where AI is heading?</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">AI can do almost anything for a user now, and what excites me is what that does to the design work. For as long as I&rsquo;ve been doing this, good UX has meant removing friction, making software easier to learn and quicker to get through. AI takes that much further. People won&rsquo;t have to learn how to operate a product at all, because the AI operates it for them. You describe what you want, and AI delivers. Which is exactly why the designer&rsquo;s job grows. When a system can act on your behalf, someone has to stay focused on the human it&rsquo;s acting for. Where they need to understand what&rsquo;s actually happening, and where moving fast isn&rsquo;t what they really want. Friction, used deliberately, is one way you protect that. The easier software gets, the more the work comes back to the human it&rsquo;s for. My job is to stay on their side.</p>

Future Thinker: Anat Grinfeld

<p data-start="213" data-end="596">Rufus Kahler is a seasoned product design leader with over 20 years of experience spanning marketing, brand, user experience and service design. With close to a decade leading design teams in fast-paced, cross-functional product environments, he has built deep expertise across marketplace platforms, B2B products, customer care and enterprise communication.</p>
<p data-start="598" data-end="863">Rufus has worked with leading organisations including Back Market, FARFETCH and Element, shaping design strategies that balance user needs with commercial and operational outcomes.</p>
<p data-start="865" data-end="1094">His work sits at the intersection of design, technology and systems thinking, with a focus on how emerging technologies, particularly AI, are reshaping the role of design and the way digital experiences are created and delivered.</p>

<h3 data-section-id="xkvj0p" data-start="1123" data-end="1225"><span role="text">How do you envision AI and machine learning reshaping creativity and innovation in your field?</span></h3>
<p data-start="1227" data-end="1274">AI is fundamentally rewriting how we do design.</p>
<p data-start="1276" data-end="1599">We&rsquo;re moving from deterministic interfaces to generative ones, where the experience isn&rsquo;t fully predefined. That shifts the designer&rsquo;s role away from crafting fixed screens and towards shaping systems, defining principles, constraints and guardrails to ensure AI-driven experiences remain coherent, useful and high quality.</p>
<p data-start="1601" data-end="1917">At the same time, parts of the design process are becoming increasingly commoditised. AI copilots are already supporting everything from problem identification to prototyping and shipping, and that trend will only accelerate. The designer role won&rsquo;t disappear, but it will become more distributed across disciplines.</p>
<p data-start="1919" data-end="2152">That redistribution will require a mindset shift. Designers who thrive will be those comfortable working experimentally, collaborating cross-functionally and letting go of rigid processes in favour of adaptability and speed to learn.</p>
<h3 data-section-id="1am5qw0" data-start="2159" data-end="2266">&nbsp;</h3>
<h3 data-section-id="1am5qw0" data-start="2159" data-end="2266"><span role="text">What challenges do you foresee for the UK's creative and tech sectors, and how can we address them?</span></h3>
<p data-start="2268" data-end="2415">One of the biggest challenges is the blurring of roles across product, design and engineering, accelerated by AI and the lower barriers it creates.</p>
<p data-start="2417" data-end="2642">Designers can no longer assume exclusive ownership of the production pipeline. Instead, influence will come from how well we enable others through facilitation, clear communication and strong governance around design quality.</p>
<p data-start="2644" data-end="2847">This means evolving from being makers to orchestrators. It&rsquo;s about working hands-on in complex problem spaces while guiding and supporting others, especially non-designers, working on more routine tasks.</p>
<p data-start="2849" data-end="3112">To navigate this shift, designers will need to invest as much in stakeholder management, documentation and communication as they do in their technical craft. The ability to align teams, articulate decisions and define principles will become a core differentiator.</p>
<h3 data-section-id="u64g2a" data-start="3119" data-end="3201">&nbsp;</h3>
<h3 data-section-id="u64g2a" data-start="3119" data-end="3201"><span role="text">What inspired you to pursue your current path in technology or creativity?</span></h3>
<p data-start="3203" data-end="3336">I was drawn to the early web because of the creative possibilities it offered, and I feel that same energy again with the new AI era.</p>
<p data-start="3338" data-end="3613">In the human-computer interaction space, we&rsquo;re seeing entirely new paradigms emerge. The design canvas is no longer just visual and screen-based, it&rsquo;s verbal, contextual and increasingly spatial. That opens up new ways for people to interact with and benefit from technology.</p>
<p data-start="3615" data-end="3855">What excites me most is the uncertainty of what&rsquo;s next. It&rsquo;s difficult to predict what these experiences will look like in five to ten years, which makes this a rare moment where experimentation can genuinely shape the future of the medium.</p>
<h3 data-section-id="lhnb9q" data-start="3862" data-end="4011">&nbsp;</h3>
<h3 data-section-id="lhnb9q" data-start="3862" data-end="4011"><span role="text">How do you keep ahead in such a rapidly evolving industry, and how do you cultivate a culture of innovation within your team or organisation?</span></h3>
<p data-start="4013" data-end="4098">Staying current means treating learning as an ongoing practice, not a one-off effort.</p>
<p data-start="4100" data-end="4339">AI is evolving so quickly that there isn&rsquo;t a fixed way to learn it. Tools, capabilities and workflows are changing constantly, so instead of relying purely on formal training, we create space for continuous experimentation within the team.</p>
<p data-start="4341" data-end="4528">Just as importantly, we focus on the environment around that learning. Periods of rapid change can create pressure, particularly with the broader narrative around AI and job displacement.</p>
<p data-start="4530" data-end="4715">That&rsquo;s why psychological safety is critical. When people feel safe to experiment, ask questions and share unfinished thinking, they&rsquo;re far more likely to adapt and innovate effectively.</p>
<p data-start="4717" data-end="4806">For me, building that environment is just as important as adopting the technology itself.</p>
<h3 data-section-id="1e4x05q" data-start="4813" data-end="4912">&nbsp;</h3>
<h3 data-section-id="1e4x05q" data-start="4813" data-end="4912"><span role="text">What is the most exciting project you are currently working on, and why does it excite you?</span></h3>
<p data-start="4914" data-end="5055">I&rsquo;m currently working on designing agent-led customer experiences at Back Market, which is a fascinating challenge.</p>
<p data-start="5057" data-end="5207">What&rsquo;s been most striking is how willing users are to engage in conversations with AI, and how effective those interactions can be when designed well.</p>
<p data-start="5209" data-end="5395">At the same time, it requires a completely different approach to design. Instead of defining static journeys, we&rsquo;re shaping behaviours, tone and decision-making frameworks for the agent.</p>
<p data-start="5397" data-end="5549">We&rsquo;re effectively building our playbook as we go, testing, learning and iterating continuously. That makes it both challenging and incredibly rewarding.</p>

Future Thinker: Rufus Kahler

<p>With over 20 years&rsquo; experience, Jane is a product design&nbsp;leader, who has led teams at Sidekick Health and RVU,&nbsp;delivering award-winning digital products&nbsp; for brands such as Uswitch and more. She has designed world-class&nbsp;products and services for global companies including&nbsp;Barclaycard, Vodafone, Visa Europe, Global Media, Dell Technologies, Mattel and Hasbro.</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">What emerging technology or creative trend do you believe will have the most significant impact on your industry next?</h2>
<p>I think we are starting to see a shift back to what I call the foundations of product design. Designers are stepping out from behind rigid processes; they are getting involved in discovery and are reaching the 'making' stage more quickly. They are also making more than one thing and quicker than before.</p>
<p>With so many powerful AI tools at our fingertips, I think we will see more teams creating in their own mini workshops. These will be spaces where you choose the setup and the tools that inhabit them. They will be places to experiment, explore and tinker, whether alone or with others.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">What inspired you to pursue your current path in technology or creativity?</h2>
<p>I was always drawing as a kid and making things, a true product designer in the making! I was totally into sports (I loved football and tennis), and I joined any team I could. As long as I was doing these things, I was pretty happy. I never considered pursuing anything other than 'design' and looking back to my Design Technology A level days, I remember the feeling of sheer joy of learning and discovering so many facets of design, from materials to design tools and design theory. It felt like magic and that sense of discovery has never really left me. More recently, I have noticed just how much overlap there is between sport and design, especially in leadership. It looks like the things that inspired me as a kid still shape how I think today.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">What skills do you believe will be crucial for the next generation of innovators in your field?</h2>
<p>Softer skills matter, yet I believe awareness is vital. Be aware and observe what is happening around you, not only in your team but across your workplace and company. It is important to look up and notice what is happening in your design community, in the place where you live and in the wider world. Too often we stay heads down, so we need to pause, look up and pay attention. Equally, the ability to truly understand who and what you are creating experiences or innovations for is an essential skill to have. I was once told that architects view the world looking up, while product designers observe through what&rsquo;s in their hands. I&rsquo;m not sure this is entirely true from my perspective, but I think what matters is finding a balance between the two.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">How do you approach problem-solving when faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges?</h2>
<p>The point is to take each problem one step at a time and break it down so it feels manageable. It is a similar approach to maintaining passion and creativity. It is about mindset, and how you choose to see the challenge. It is also about how you reframe it.</p>
<p>I enjoy challenges and tend to thrive on them. I try to break problems into bite-sized chunks. Renovating our house recently and doing most of the work ourselves taught me patience, though I am still working on that! It also taught me to tackle one job at a time, as I often looked at the house, without its walls or floors, and felt total panic. It seemed as though it would never be rebuilt (it did and is!)</p>
<p>The takeaway is simple - keep it simple. Something built can always be broken and built again, probably best doing it bit by bit, though.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">How do you maintain your passion and creativity in the face of setbacks or challenges?</h2>
<p>Your passion and creativity can never actually be truly extinguished. This is something that has taken me many years to realise. What I mean is that often we perceive setbacks or challenges as direct attacks on our passion or creativity, whether it&rsquo;s feedback you didn&rsquo;t agree with or a challenge that felt set up to fail you, whatever it is. My takeaway is that you are in control of how these things affect your passion and creativity. It&rsquo;s down to you to choose how you maintain them, finding your own way of topping them up or reigniting them. When you start to reframe setbacks differently, they can actually fuel your creativity. I&rsquo;m not saying it&rsquo;s easy, believe me, there have been many times in my career, at plenty of organisations, when I felt like I had lost that creative spark. Never forget why you do what you do!</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Connect with Jane&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Be sure to connect with&nbsp;<strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 48, 85);"><a style="color: rgb(255, 48, 85);" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-cook-0a0a261/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jane</a></span>&nbsp;</strong>on LinkedIn for her latest insights.</p>

Future Thinkers: Jane Cook

<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>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

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>
  </div>
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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 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. 

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    <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>
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    <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>
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Creative

We partner with organisations to identify and deliver security professionals who can safeguard environments, manage risk and build resilient security strategies.

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  <p>As cyber threats continue to evolve in scale and sophistication, organisations face increasing pressure to protect their systems, data and people. Securing the right cyber security talent across GRC, security operations, and cloud and application security is critical. We partner with organisations to identify and deliver security professionals who can safeguard environments, manage risk and build resilient security strategies.</p>
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    <h5>Our network includes professionals in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Cyber Security Analyst (Entry to Senior)</li>
      <li>SOC Analyst (Tier 1–3)</li>
      <li>GRC Analyst / Consultant</li>
      <li>Security Engineer (Cloud, Application, DevSecOps)</li>
      <li>Penetration Tester / Ethical Hacker</li>
      <li>Incident Response and Threat Intelligence Analyst</li>
      <li>Security Architect</li>
      <li>Cyber Security Manager</li>
      <li>Head of Information Security / CISO</li>
      </ul>
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Cybersecurity

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 & Sales

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.

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    <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>
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    <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>
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Product

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

Chris Chapman

<p class="MsoNormal">As Co-MD, Chris is responsible for leading the Futureheads and SyncD businesses alongside Rohan.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Chris has been an integral part of the Futureheads team for almost a decade, spending time within and growing both Futureheads and SyncD. Having run embedded projects with clients spanning digital media, technical consultancy and med-tech, he's not only a digital hiring expert, but genuinely understands how Futureheads' clients work. Passionate about growing an industry-aligned business, Chris has spoken at several universities, and co-organises and attends industry events.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When he&rsquo;s not living and breathing all things digital, he can be found spending time with family, attending live music events, playing football and searching for golf balls in the long grass.</p>

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>

Joseph Cardone

<p>Joseph is a Lead UI and Product Design Consultant for Futureheads.</p>
<p>He has a background in Sales and previously worked for companies such as Tesla and JIVR. As part of the Design Team at Futureheads Joseph works across a broad range of clients from small start-ups, consultancies/agencies to big brands, across contract and permanent hiring.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Outside of work, Joseph is a DJ and Music Producer who enjoys cooking Italian food and dancing the salsa!&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

Alexandra Busila

<div class="x_elementToProof" data-olk-copy-source="MessageBody">Alexandra prides herself on delivering high standards, using speed, adaptability and precision to seek out hard-to-find talent for her clients. Having joined Futureheads' long-established creative team, she now channels that same energy and rigour into the design world, partnering with design and product leaders to build teams that are not only highly skilled but also culturally aligned and creatively empowered. With a background in the contemporary art world, Alexandra is equally committed to cultivating spaces where designers feel seen, heard, and valued.</div>
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<div>Beyond the world of design talent, Alexandra finds inspiration in films with exquisite costume design and keeps herself grounded by trying new dance classes with questionable grace but full commitment.</div>

Sectors we cover

Product Design

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