    (Updated Jan 2023) We will update this statement on a                   twice-yearly basis to share our progress. If you would like to                   discuss DEI at Futureheads please contact                   caroline@wearefutureheads.co.uk.

<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>We aim to be brave. We won&rsquo;t get it right all the time, but we believe it&apos;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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Futureheads in Numbers

Futureheads have partnered with a boutique agency that have a very strong footprint within the ecommerce space. They pride themselves on working with premium brands in that space boasting a book of work that demonstrates world class digital products and services. <br><br> They are hiring for a Product Owner to join their growing team. This is a pivotal role for them,  working closely with and leading an agile teams, and ensuring clients get the best experience possible.<br><br>  <strong>What you will be doing</strong><br><br> This role is for a Product Owner, or a delivery-focused Product Manager. This role will involve working closely with their clients to grow their businesses through product strategy, taking concepts initiatives from discovery through to delivery and working closely with the cross-functional teams. The majority of these projects are in the ecommerce space, and you will need to be customer focused. The role involves using data & insights to bring accuracy to the team and decisions.<br><br> <strong>About you</strong><br><br><ul><li>You will need experience in a Product Management, or Product Owner position, or a product focused delivery role. You will have worked in a successful software delivery environment.</li><li>Good Ecommerce experience & knowledge.</li><li>Experience in either an agency or a start-up/scale-up.</li><li>Experience working through the full product lifecycle.</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>

Product Owner

Futureheads have partnered with a boutique agency that have a very strong footprint within the ecommerce space. They pride themselves on working with premium brands in that space boasting a book of work that demonstrates world class digital products and services. <br><br> They are hiring for a Product Owner to join their growing team. This is a pivotal role for them,  working closely with and leading an agile teams, and ensuring clients get the best experience possible.<br><br>  <strong>What you will be doing</strong><br><br> This role is for a Product Owner, or a delivery-focused Product Manager. This role will involve working closely with their clients to grow their businesses through product strategy, taking concepts initiatives from discovery through to delivery and working closely with the cross-functional teams. The majority of these projects are in the ecommerce space, and you will need to be customer focused. The role involves using data & insights to bring accuracy to the team and decisions.<br><br> <strong>About you</strong><br><br><ul><li>You will need experience in a Product Management, or Product Owner position, or a product focused delivery role. You will have worked in a successful software delivery environment.</li><li>Good Ecommerce experience & knowledge.</li><li>Experience in either an agency or a start-up/scale-up.</li><li>Experience working through the full product lifecycle.</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>

Product Owmer

Currently working with an Ed-Tech platform 🧑‍🏫 that's reshaping the education landscape. Their mission is to revolutionize learning by integrating dynamic methods and immersive story-driven content.<br><br> They bridge the gap between traditional e-learning platforms and modern user expectations, fostering both professional and personal growth. <br><br> They are looking for a Lead Visual Designer to join their team and lead design efforts for their learning platform, creating a seamless fusion of appearance, interactivity, and usability and also formally managing 2 designers in the team. <br>You'll be crafting compelling content infusing creativity throughout every stage with a focus on storytelling visuals and you'll collaborate with product leads and tech experts to smoothly transition designs from conception to development. <br><br> 💰Salary: up to £80,000 (depending on experience) + Benefits <br><br> 📍Location: West London, 2 days a week in the office<br><br> 📃Interview Process: 3 stages<br><br> Required Skills:<br><br> ✅ Experience with Design Systems, ideally building them from the ground up and if not, adding, updating and creating new components<br>✅ You're a UI designer that's comfortable working across hi-fi wireframing and prototyping<br>✅ Software knowledge of Figma, Adobe Suite, Adobe After Effects (nice to have), Webflow (nice to have)<br>✅ Bold, playful and creative visuals!<br>✅ You've worked in small/agile teams before, ideally in the publishing sector<br>✅ Formal line management experience<br>✅ Minimum of 6 years of industry experience<br><br> If this is you 👆 submit your application including you CV and Portfolio (please make sure there's a link on your CV).<br><br> ❗Please note: this role does not offer sponsorships*❗<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 Visual Designer - Ed-Tech Platform

Futureheads are looking for a Senior Product Manager to join an exciting start-up which is  breaking down bureaucracy and opening up doors previously closed to those who didn’t have the information needed to compete. Their platform opens up transparency into public sector spending as well as a way to compete with those who are currently winning public sector tenders, when they are next up for negotiation, relevant contacts and the expenditure afforded for various government backed projects.<br><br> This will be first Product Manager joining the business, and will work alongside the CPO to help scale their suite of products. The business have a successful product on the market, but are still early on in their journey so this is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious Product Manager to make an impact on the next phase of their journey.  This role will have ownership of their Product, and as well as the CPO, you will work along side the tech & design teams as well.<br><br> What you will do:<br><br><ul><li>Partner with the leadership team, in order to set the vision & strategy for their existing suite.</li><li>Work with the wider cross-functional team of engineers & designers.</li><li>Research and analysis of data and usage patterns to help track their progress and understand trends to support future decisions.</li><li>Work closely with commercial teams, to ensure the go-to-market message is strong.</li></ul>What they are looking for:<br><br><ul><li>A Product Manager with experience with B2B SaaS products.</li><li>An understanding of how to work in a start-up/scale up environment.</li><li>A Product Manager with experience working on a Product that is maturing, and who is able to be hands on.</li><li>Previous experience working on data products would be a bonus.</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>

Product Manager

<p>Mags Hanley is a career coach, mentor and trainer, based in Melbourne Australia. She has worked in UX for over 25 years in the US, UK and Australia. Her passion is to help UX professionals find into the roles that suits them best.</p>
<p>She works with primarily with senior practitioners moving into leadership, and senior women defining their role for the next phase of their lives. She has recently launched a new 8-week programme The Way Forward for senior women in digital.</p>
<p>You can connect with Mags on&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/magshanley/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;or read her latest blogs on her&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://magshanley.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">website.</a></p>

<h2>What&rsquo;s the story of your career so far?</h2>
<p>I started in digital when it was called Multi-Media. I fell into the work, having trained as a librarian and graduated in a recession &ndash; no grad positions for me!</p>
<p>My first role was at Yellow Pages in Australia as a Cybrarian &ndash; so 1990s. As we were all making it up, I asked if I could look after the search engine, because I knew how people searched &ndash; and my career as an IA started.</p>
<p>I&rsquo;ve lived and worked in the US and UK for 15 years, and have been back in Australia for 5 &frac12; years.</p>
<p>My career has been varied; an IA, project manager, product manager, Head of UX, Executive Producer, Consultant. The one I love the most is Career coach, Mentor and Trainer.</p>
<p>In the last year, I have developed a practice supporting senior practitioners move into leadership, and women in Design to thrive in their careers.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>What&rsquo;s the most important lesson you&rsquo;ve learnt over the course of your career?</h2>
<p>Be authentic and true to yourself!</p>
<p>I love managing people and products, and seeing both grow, but I have struggled all of my career managing up. I&rsquo;ve improved over time, working relationships with the mostly male leadership, but this has been my greatest weakness.</p>
<p>To move into the higher levels of digital management I felt I wasn&rsquo;t myself; I had to be less emotional, female, and kind. I left my last job feeling disheartened, stressed and unconfident in my skills.</p>
<p>I saw Bren&eacute; Brown speak a week after leaving that job, and did the Value assessment. I realised I was not living my values of authenticity and kindness. So any new opportunity must match my values.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>How can organisations ensure they thrive, rather than simply survive, as they attempt to return to a &lsquo;new&rsquo; normal over the next few months?</h2>
<p>There are a number of realisations for organisations:</p>
<ol>
<li>The commute to the inner city office is wasted time &ndash; people love the extra time with their families.</li>
<li>Knowledge workers can be productive working from home. I&rsquo;ve had a number of bosses who have actively discouraged it, thinking we were skiving off.</li>
<li>Child care and flexibility is important to keep women in the workforce. The burden of looking after children intensified as women worked from home.</li>
</ol>
<p>To thrive, organisations should look at what worked well &ndash; with their staff &ndash; and leverage it.</p>
<p>They should:</p>
<p>Plan for the majority of staff to work from home&nbsp;Reimagine work spaces as distributed hubs where people come in collaborate&nbsp;Find the best online tools for collaboration&nbsp;Provide support for their team&rsquo;s mental health&nbsp;Used the money saved from corporate office leases to include child care in their benefits packages&nbsp;</p>
<h2>You&rsquo;ve recently written a blog about the challenges faced by women in UX and in particular by those women who are well into their careers &ndash; can you tell us more about that, and how women can really exploit the opportunities available to them in the digital workplace?</h2>
<p>Many of my peers have been 20-25 years in digital; we are now considering what&rsquo;s next. How can we use our skills and experience in work that gives us joy?</p>
<p>Interface design is commoditised, creating pixel perfect prototypes; it&rsquo;s not the space we want to play in.</p>
<p>We do deep thinking, breaking apart problems and putting together solutions. My friend Tom Coates describes it as finding the nugget of truth that the rest of the model hangs off.</p>
<p>I am introducing the concept of Elder for women in Design; someone brings a depth of experience and wisdom to a role.</p>
<p>Elders don&rsquo;t have to be a Head or Director, they are Certain of their value and place; Grown and grounded in their skills and experience, and a Model by the way they behave, speak and write.</p>
<p>Once we know who and what we offer, we can then find those opportunities.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>What&rsquo;s going to be the biggest challenge in your particular industry over the next 12 months?</h2>
<p>The biggest challenge for women in digital is learning how to blend all aspects of your life into the work you do. We need to find the right blend that gives us financial stability, life with our families, and joy in work.</p>
<p>With the ongoing instability of COVID pandemic changing the way we work, the next 12 months will be stressful. Women need to find their stable base for their lives, learning how to flex with working from home and the rest of life.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s not about being a superwoman, but finding what new normal feels like and working with it. We have moved from pandemic crisis mode into living with the pandemic; therefore we need change our lives in response to it.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Futureheads Five Stories – Margaret Hanley

<p>The thought of a job interview can be nerve-wracking, particularly for those who haven&rsquo;t been in an interview situation for a long time, years perhaps. Here are our tips to help you feel prepared for the interview, and how to follow up when that fantastic job offer comes along.</p>

<p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">Prepare to stand out at interview:</span>&nbsp;Do your research! Check out your interviewers on Linkedin; get to know their background. You may have shared connections, or interests! Check out the product, be ready to give balanced feedback about what you like, and ideas for improvements. Prepare a list of questions; sometimes a great question is as good as a great answer. If you can ask them a question that really makes them think, challenges their assumptions or fuels further debate, they&rsquo;ll remember it!</p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">Do your reading:</span>&nbsp;Here are some of the most important technology developments around at the moment, so make sure you&rsquo;ve done your homework if the job is tech-related:</p>
<p>Healthcare: Data privacy and innovation within telemedicine&nbsp;Education: Adaptive content &amp; investment in online learning&nbsp;Fintech: strategic partnerships and marketplaces&nbsp;Insurance: AI for risk management &amp; case management<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">Following up after an interview:</span>&nbsp;Sending a positive follow-up email can leave a great final impression on the hirer, but be mindful that the reader is likely to be time-poor so keep it brief. Thank them for their time and reaffirm your interest in the position. If something didn&rsquo;t go well, acknowledge it, and offer new suggestions having reflected on the question or task.</p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">Negotiating salary following a job offer:</span>&nbsp;You performed fantastically at the interview and they&rsquo;ve offered you the job, so now&rsquo;s the time to discuss salary which many can find tricky. Try and get an understanding of the salary on offer prior to communicating your expectations, give context around your thoughts and offer some level of benchmarking to show you know the industry. Communicate other motivations for joining the business as well as financial ones; employers want to hire candidates that are invested in their brand and product; while money is important, it shouldn&rsquo;t be the primary motivator.</p>

Futureheads Top Tips series: Preparing for that interview and getting the job!

<p>Did you know that as many as 70% of employers screen candidates by looking them up online? If you&rsquo;re considering finding a new role, your online presence can matter just as much as your CV. In this blog we explore how to make sure your personal brand is employer-friendly, plus how you can take that a step further and create an online presence that helps you stand out from the crowd.</p>

<h3>First thing&rsquo;s first &ndash; do your housekeeping</h3>
<p>We&rsquo;ve all been tagged in unflattering pictures on Facebook before, or shared Buzzfeed quizzes that were funnier at the time. If you&rsquo;d rather potential employers didn&rsquo;t see what you were up to in your student days, you could go through the process of untagging old pictures and deleting old posts, but this can be onerous. So, the swiftest solution is to change your profile settings to private on Facebook and Instagram.</p>
<p>To be extra cautious, do a quick Google search of your name and see what comes up. This way you can check that your digital footprint e.g. old blogs or unused profiles, doesn&rsquo;t include any surprises (to you &ndash; or anyone else!).</p>
<h3>Next step &ndash; polish up your profile</h3>
<p>If employers are searching for you online, you generally want LinkedIn to be the place they find you, because this is where you&rsquo;ll be presenting yourself professionally. Twitter can be good too, depending on your industry and how much time you have available.</p>
<p>With that in mind, think about how you can get your profile in good shape.</p>
<h3>Is your profile picture up to date? Is it good quality, friendly and approachable, professional looking? If not, it&rsquo;s time to get it updated!&nbsp;Have you filled out all the profile details? Are your experience and descriptions up-to-date? Make sure you update this regularly so potential employers know you are proactive.&nbsp;Think about key words. What are the core skills required for the field you want to move into? Make sure these are focussed on throughout all sections and ask connections to endorse you for them too.&nbsp;Have you got recommendations? The more the better &ndash; these are a great way to advertise your skills! Consider direct messaging some former colleagues to ask them if they can do one for you &ndash; they&rsquo;re even more likely to do it if you write one for them first so it&rsquo;s worth spending a bit of time here.&nbsp;Make connections &ndash; we&rsquo;d say aim to add someone new at least once a week.Think about what you post</h3>
<p>Whichever platforms you&rsquo;re now using, thinking about what you post is always crucial. You have an opportunity to build a presence, show who you are and establish yourself within your industry, but you want your updates to be interesting, relevant and inclusive.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s really helpful to have some organising ideas behind what you post &ndash; here&rsquo;s some ideas of where you can start.</p>
<h4><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">What to post:</span></h4>
<p>Sharing industry related content &ndash; this can be developments in your field, news stories, and topical subjects that are trending. Showing your finger is on the pulse within your sector is a great way to show potential employers that you&rsquo;re engaged in what you do!&nbsp;Work related content &ndash; this is a great way to shout about your successes or showcase your areas of interest. Remember, your challenges can be successes too, if you can show how you tackled them, and people will value your honesty and authenticity if you do this well.&nbsp;&lsquo;Behind the scenes&rsquo; posts &ndash; having a balance of content related to yourself personally helps build a picture of who you are as an individual. Consider whether you can take a quick picture &ndash; or even better, a video &ndash; of yourself at work with an update on something interesting that happened in your day.&nbsp;Engage with others &ndash; building your profile isn&rsquo;t just about your own posts, it&rsquo;s making connections and taking part in conversations, so aim to comment on someone else&rsquo;s update at least once a week.These tips give you an idea of what to post, now we&rsquo;ll explore how to go about posting on social media.</p>
<h4><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">How to post:</span></h4>
<p>There are lots of tools out there that can help you find useful content to share &ndash; Google Alerts, Google Trends and Exploding Topics are good places to start &ndash; so a lot of the leg work of searching is done for you.&nbsp;Think about your tone of voice &ndash; this should be consistent, informative and use your own words to be reflective of your personality.&nbsp;Ask yourself why your audience will find what you&rsquo;re sharing interesting and focus on that with a pithy, informative paragraph. Include your personal take on the subject &ndash; personal brand is all about showcasing your unique point of view.&nbsp;It goes without saying that you should ideally avoid any controversial opinions online, and humour is great, but avoid sarcasm &ndash; make sure nothing you say online could be misinterpreted and found offensive.&nbsp;Lastly, think about how often you post &ndash; we suggest that between 2 &ndash; 3 posts a week is a realistic goal especially when balancing other work commitments.You may be intending to find a new job in the near future, or you&rsquo;re happily settled in your current role, but even so, it&rsquo;s worth considering the above to lay the groundwork for when you do decide to move on.</p>
<p>If you&rsquo;re ready to look for new work opportunities, contact our team of expert recruiters on&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="mailto:team@wearefutureheads.co.uk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">team@wearefutureheads.co.uk</a></p>

How to maximise your employee brand online in 2022

<p>Matt has 20 years experience starting and scaling business through digital media.</p>
<p>As the founder of marketing technology business&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.driftrock.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Driftrock</a>, Matt helps brands like BMW, Honda and The University of Birmingham deliver marketing that people actually want to see, whilst protecting privacy.</p>
<p>Previously, as 3rd employee Matt helped Forward Internet Group scale to over &pound;100 million+ revenue and 500 staff. He also founded top mobile phone comparison site Omio, which merged with uSwitch in 2010 as well as co-founding Forward Labs helping test and grow startups.</p>

<h2>1. In what shape has your business emerged from Covid-19?</h2>
<p>With the new Covid-19 restrictions, we&rsquo;re very much still in the thick of things. We took a hit in April, but thankfully, changes we made have had an overall positive effect on the business and our clients. We&rsquo;ve recovered revenues and now enjoying some growth this quarter.</p>
<p>We feel very privileged with the global situation to be able to resume hiring again to expand our team.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>2. What are the most important and emerging skills to work in the new normal?</h2>
<p>With the ever changing global landscape we&rsquo;ve taken time and researched how we build resilience and agility into our organisation (more on some of those changes below). One of our core principles has always been continuous improvement, but now more than ever, we need to constantly evaluate and adapt to changing circumstances.</p>
<p>Like lots of tech companies we made a decision to close our office, and migrate to becoming a fully remote organisation. This has had a huge knock-on effect on the way we work and the skills we need to thrive in the new normal.</p>
<p>After lots of research, the core skills we&rsquo;ve focused on are a results-driven culture and asynchronous working. As well as being critical skills for distributed teams, these changes have had a big impact on our productivity and focus &ndash; regardless of where we are working.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>3. What changes have you made in operations and hiring that are here to stay, and what will you lose?</h2>
<p>Like many companies in 2020, we&rsquo;ve made more changes to the organisation than in any of our previous 7 years. For the results-driven focus we leveraged the&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.eosworldwide.com/eos-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EOS</a>&nbsp;framework and&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.cio.com/article/3302036/okr-objectives-and-key-results-defined.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OKRs.</a>&nbsp;This has influenced processes across everything we do from the product roadmap to HR processes. We&rsquo;ve made strides to work asynchronously using new collaboration tools and over-communicating where we can in everything we do.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve completely overhauled our hiring, onboarding and ongoing HR processes too in order to do things remotely. This mainly involved more deliberate, planned meetings and connections to integrate and improve relationships across the teams. Whereas previously things happened serendipitously, we&rsquo;ve found it important to work hard on these.</p>
<h2>4. What has been your biggest key learning and how will this prepare you for the future?</h2>
<p>Our biggest learning has been the benefits of focus and a shared vision across the business. Whilst it was important before, we&rsquo;ve seen first hand how being ruthlessly focused has improved our ability to deliver more value for our clients and the company.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s resulted in some features being deprecated, huge improvements to our products and services, and new processes across the board that have been very positive.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>5. What has been the biggest surprise to you?</h2>
<p>During the height of lockdown we onboarded two new teammates remotely, which was a daunting experience.</p>
<p>Thanks to some heroic work by Maryline, our Operations Manager and teammates who are always happy to jump in and help each other out, it&rsquo;s been a good experience overall.</p>
<p>One of our new teammates is having to shield, so we&rsquo;ve never met in person, yet we&rsquo;ve still managed to build bonds together. That said, we can&rsquo;t wait to meet up again as a team in person and celebrate!</p>
<p>To find out more about how Driftrock are helping clients generate more leads and grow their business through social advertising, visit their&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.driftrock.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">site</a>&nbsp;or follow them on&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/driftrock/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">LinkedIn.</a></p>

Futureheads Five Stories – Matt Wheeler

<p>Sally Brogan has over ten years&rsquo; experience, designing and building innovative, user-centric and data-led products as well as establishing and developing cross-functional teams. Her experience is predominantly in B2B SaaS products and she has a special interest in Data and Analytics.</p>

<p>Earlier this year she joined Wazoku to take on the role of Product Director. Wazoku&rsquo;s mission is to help businesses change the world one idea at a time. Their tech platform enables clients to gather, review, develop, analyse and manage innovative ideas pooled from internal and external specialists and communities to solve problems, feed into strategy or improve business operations.</p>
<p>Sally spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.wearefutureheads.com/tag/ffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here.</a></p>
<h2>1. Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business?</h2>
<p>Wazoku is all about ideas and innovation and we&rsquo;ve been fortunate to be able to help businesses adapt during this challenging time. Our clients have been harnessing our technology to reach out to both internal and external experts to solve current challenges &ndash; from how to work better at home to broader societal ideas to support the response to Covid-19.</p>
<p>As a business, we were already set up for remote working, with distributed teams and portable hardware and so have adapted well. We are also fortunate our Platform IdeaSpotlight is a versatile tool and has proved invaluable not only to our clients but in engaging our internal team during this pandemic.</p>
<p>What we&rsquo;re really missing most is catching up after the weekend, chatting in the kitchen whilst making a tea, Friday drinks and those meetings that are just better face to face.</p>
<h3>2. How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</h3>
<p>Each employee is grappling with their own unique set of circumstances and so we&rsquo;ve been conscious of providing support to match different needs, whether that&rsquo;s through flexible hours to support childcare, creating regular touchpoints or highlighting our mental health packages. Like many organisations, we aren&rsquo;t currently hiring but we&rsquo;re keeping in tune with changes in approach to recruitment to take advantage of any lessons we can learn for the future.</p>
<h3>3. What are your top tips for successfully managing a remote On-boarding process?</h3>
<p>Seven new starters have been onboarded during lockdown, including myself. Our Operations Team responded quickly to make sure equipment was shipped out to homes ready for start dates, the onboarding programme moved online, so that newcomers could get up to speed quickly and there was a lot of emphases placed on regular communication across the team both in terms of work and on a social level. I&rsquo;m still getting to know my team, most of which I haven&rsquo;t yet met in person and I&rsquo;ve had to adjust my approach to meet the demands of the current situation, but all things considered, it&rsquo;s been surprisingly smooth.</p>
<h2>4. Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</h2>
<p>Our Product strategy meant we were already expanding into the world of Open Innovation and the crisis has really served to reinforce our vision by highlighting the value of using the wisdom and skills of crowds to solve problems. In terms of day-to-day operations, it&rsquo;s definitely demonstrated what can be achieved remotely and has shown how a truly distributed team could work &ndash; we&rsquo;d certainly be more open to hiring across different locations.</p>
<h2>5. What advice would you give to anyone in a similar position to you at the moment?</h2>
<p>Keep calm and carry on. There&rsquo;s no point second-guessing what may or may not happen, so I&rsquo;ve found the best thing to do is take things as they come and be prepared to be flexible to meet the changing situation. Make sure communication is clear, confident and consistent and that business leaders remain approachable. Luckily, my experience as a Product Director in start-ups and scale-ups means this is almost second nature.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Futureheads Five Stories – Sally Brogan

<p>Jonathan is the Chief of Staff at Lightful, a technology company for social good, who support charities through consultancy, social media products and a unique online learning programme.</p>

<p>He&rsquo;s spent 15 years working in tech for good, first for over a decade at JustGiving where he managed their Crowdfunding product from an idea to raising &pound;100m in five years, and more recently as an independent consultant supporting a range of small and large tech-for-good startups and charities with strategy, growth, product management and business model validation.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Jonathan spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found here.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>1. Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business?</p>
<p>The most obvious impact, as with many others, is that we&rsquo;re now a fully remote company. We decided to move to working from home a week before the lockdown started, so we&rsquo;re now in week 7 and the team has adjusted really well &ndash; we have always encouraged flexible working, and so most people were used to working remote work some of the time already.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>We&rsquo;re also fortunate that our main clients have also managed the transition to remote work and we&rsquo;ve been able to continue delivering excellent work for them.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The charity sector has been hit very hard &ndash; with huge declines in income and huge increases in demand for services &ndash; so we&rsquo;ve adapted to support it in multiple different ways. We&rsquo;ve had to cancel some in-person events, but we have always run regular webinars for charities and so we have increased the frequency of them, and covered more topics like top tips for getting better at online meetings and free digital tools for charities.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>2. How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</p>
<p>We have two &lsquo;all-hands&rsquo; meetings a week now. One was a regular operational meetup to share important information which has moved online. But we also added a new &lsquo;WFH update&rsquo; at the end of every week for a chance to share any more news, and where different team members share two things they&rsquo;re grateful for and one thing they&rsquo;d wish to see.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s a great way to foster a sense of connection when we&rsquo;re all apart, as is showcasing each team&rsquo;s work from the sprint. We are also sharing tips on a very active and engaged #work-from-home slack channel.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>As for hiring, we&rsquo;re having more video interviews with different team members to make sure everybody gets honest and good insights. We&rsquo;re also making COVID-19 topic we cover &ndash; both in terms of its impact on us and our partners, but also as a way to ask how people deal with stressful situations, how they are coping and how they respond to constraints by being creative or solving problems.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>3. What are your top tips for successfully managing a remote recruitment</p>
<p>process?</p>
<p>For recruitment, we&rsquo;ve tried to increase communication and transparency. Both internally and externally. In terms of onboarding, we&rsquo;ve made use of various online tools (zoom, slack, HR software) to make the process smoother, but are also erring on the side of over-communicating to help people start well.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>We&rsquo;re trying to set really clear expectations for the first few weeks, months and probation in general. As well as that, we&rsquo;re getting more of the team involved in onboarding and connecting with new joiners.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>4. Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</p>
<p>Yes, in terms of how important it is for us to fulfil our vision: we believe those doing the greatest good deserve the best technology. For example, we run a 12-month programme to support charities in building resilience in digital engagement, and we&rsquo;re adapting that to include topics related to COVID-19 and the lockdown. We&rsquo;re committed more than ever to delivering support to our charity partners at a time when the need is even greater.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>5. What advice would you give to anyone in a similar position to you at</p>
<p>the moment?</p>
<p>To start, here are eight tips for managing remote teams from our wonderful HR team. We&rsquo;re also working hard on checking in on the team&rsquo;s wellbeing and mental health &ndash; everyone has a &lsquo;WFH buddy&rsquo; outside of their immediate team who they&rsquo;re encouraged to talk to, and we&rsquo;ve done regular surveys to see if anyone needs anything &ndash; be that equipment or a chat.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In addition, we&rsquo;re making a lot of effort to build and maintain a virtual company culture through virtual coffees, WFH tips and regular Friday showcases of the work different teams across the company are doing. We&rsquo;ve had really good feedback about the variety of things we&rsquo;re doing, so it&rsquo;s also really important to listen and adapt &ndash; what was appropriate in weeks 1-2 of lockdown may not be relevant from weeks 6 or 7.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>All in all, it&rsquo;s a delicate balancing act between trying to deliver excellent value to customers as best you can in difficult circumstances, whilst listening and responding to the needs of your team. This needs regular attention and commitment to get right.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Futureheads Five Stories: Jonathan Waddingham

From recruiting your first Product Owner to hiring your next experienced Product Managers, our recruiters have developed a specialist network in the design and tech space. They have 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 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>VP's 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 include professionals in:</h5> 
    <ul>
      <li>Motion Graphics & Video Editing</li>
      <li>Branding</li>
      <li>Copywriting</li>
      <li>Art Direction</li>
      <li>Illustration</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Creative

The complexities of AI and Machine learning, as well as the focus on data integrity, means hiring professionals with compliance, system integration and advanced analytics skills can be challenging. Our team is on hand to help with your Data recruitment needs.

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>The complexities of AI and Machine learning, as well as the focus on data integrity, means hiring professionals with compliance, system integration and advanced analytics skills can be challenging. Our team is on hand to help with your Data recruitment needs.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes professionals in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Data Engineering</li>
      <li>Data Science</li>
      <li>​Data Analytics</li>
      <li>Business Intelligence</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Data

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 majors skill-sets we have consistently helped businesses hire world-class Design talent. 

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <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 majors skill-sets we have consistently helped businesses hire world-class Design talent.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <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>
      <li>Digital Design</li>
      <li>Marketing Design</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Design

We know that the world of Digital Marketing moves at a quick pace. Digital Devices, Digital Platforms, Digital Media, Digital Data, And Digital Technology never stops. This is why our teams are on hand to support these changing landscapes and are always ahead of the curve.

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>We know that the world of Digital Marketing moves at a quick pace. Digital Devices, Digital Platforms, Digital Media, Digital Data, And Digital Technology never stops. This is why our teams are on hand to support these changing landscapes and are always ahead of the curve.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes professionals in</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)</li>
      <li>Pay-per-Click</li>
      <li>Social Media Marketing</li>
      <li>Content Marketing</li>
      <li>Email Marketing</li>
      <li>Mobile Marketing</li>
      <li>Marketing Analytics</li>
      <li>Affiliate Marketing</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Digital Marketing

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.

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <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>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes professionals across:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Front-end</li>
      <li>​Server-side​</li>
      <li>​Full-stack​</li>
      <li>Native Mobile​​</li>
      <li>Technical Architecture​​</li>
      <li>Solution Architecture​​</li>
      <li>Testing</li>
      <li>QA​​</li>
      <li>DevOps</li>
      <li>SRE</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Engineering

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 help you deliver better budget controls, communication, and reporting, to help you find ways to introduce new processes tools and technology that can support more efficient work delivery.

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <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 help you deliver better budget controls, communication, and reporting, to help you find ways to introduce new processes tools and technology that can support more efficient work delivery. </p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Digital Project Managers</li>
      <li>Programme Managers</li>
      <li>Engineering Project Managers</li>
      <li>Software/IT Project Managers</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Project & Programme Management

From helping shape the London-UX market from the early days, to running and sponsoring some of the most well-known UX networking events – our reputation holds in our ability to match top-tier UX practitioners into opportunities. 

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>From helping shape the London-UX market from the early days, to running and sponsoring some of the most well-known UX networking events – our reputation holds in our ability to match top-tier UX practitioners into opportunities. </p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes practitioners with skills across:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>User Research</li>
      <li>Interaction Design​</li>
      <li>​UX Design</li>
      <li>Information Architecture</li>
      <li>​Service Design​</li>
      <li>Content Design</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

UX & Service Design

Emily Massey

<p>Emily is a Principal Consultant, leading the Product &amp; Projects team, working across roles up to C-suite level. She has eight years of experience across a range of sectors and clients, helping clients to grow teams across both contract and permanent work.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Outside of work, Emily has a wide range of interests including going to gigs and the theatre, both reading and buying books (one day she will finish her ever-growing to-be-read pile) and is always looking for new podcast suggestions, especially if it&rsquo;s true crime, history, film or pop culture based.&nbsp;</p>

Sectors we cover

Product

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