I'm an end-to-end designer who loves solving challenging problems. Curious by nature, I love connecting with and understanding people , passionate about improving experiences.

 

Hi! Thanks for stopping by.

I am dedicated and determined to create the next level of innovative products with a focus on business outcomes encompassing Design strategy, Cost Cutting, Team Growth & Management as well as Growing Revenue.

I'm extremely competent in UX, UI and product development process in an Agile environment with the ability to learn, adapt and improvise. With 15+ years of experience in the design environment, creating responsive design solutions is a part of my day to day activities.

With a proven knowledge of user-centric product development, creative strategising, user-focused vision and communication, my expertise revolves all rounded on both client and platform side - delivering solutions within a full cycle of a UX/UI project for brands and the people who matter to them.

 

Experience


 

 


Brand’s I’ve recently worked for


Product Design & UX/UI Contracts

November 2021 – Present

I have been the driving force behind delivering exceptional UX/UI and product design services. I have successfully collaborated with some of the world's most renowned brands, driving innovation and enhancing user experiences across various industries.

Key Projects and Contributions:

Boeing:

  • Lead design for Boeing’s Emissions Reporter, ensuring user-centricity and compliance with standards.
  • Innovated as product owner alongside UX lead role, significantly enhancing efficiency.

RSA Group:

  • Senior member on RSA Group’s Unity transformation project, focusing on Home and Commercial property claims solutions.
  • Led the development of a comprehensive Design System, ensuring design consistency and efficiency.

Mastercard:

  • Optimised Mastercard’s “Community Pass” suite, increasing user engagement by 15%.
  • Provided embedded support to Humanitarian & Development team with end-to-end product design.

NatWest Group:

  • Led UX projects addressing challenges across the bank’s operations.
  • Improved mortgage application completion rates by 4% through enhanced digital experiences.

David Lloyds PLC (Softwire):

  • Led user-centered experience efforts for online website journey and in-club sales app.
  • Developed an accessible design system improving scalability by 30%.

Anglo American:

  • Lead user experience efforts from a platform-as-a-service perspective.
  • Innovated solutions that affect worker safety in mines from data analytics and day-to-day user experience angles.

Experian:

  • Delivered a new financial resilience proposition to increase customer acquisition and retention.
  • Led an experience design team consisting of Senior Product Designers, UX Writers, and User Researchers.

Ernst & Young (EY):

  • Designed a SaaS platform to drive digital engagement with clients, leading to £3 million in revenue.
  • Managed and developed a young design team through constant learning to improve their skills.

Homeward:

  • Delivered strategic product design solutions enhancing overall customer experience.

Emoov Ltd.:

  • Drove net revenue growth by doubling it within one year through best-in-class SaaS platform development.
  • Applied design thinking methodologies to resolve compliance issues saving the firm significant costs.



Ernst & Young

March 2019 – November 2021
Head of Product Design (Innovation Hive)

Design a SaaS platform to drive digital engagement with our clients by facilitating day-to-day interactions on the platform, leading to growth in SaaS revenue and technology enabled services.

Currently used by over 3000 users, across every Sub Service line and enabling £3m in revenue.

Design innovative solutions enabling spending less time on routine tasks and more on business partnering.

Develop the Product design strategy for the platform to enable shared understanding across teams

Managing and coaching a young design team along with developing User-research function within the team.

Developed and delivered the vision of an end-to-end SaaS platform including Design mythologies, Design principles.



Paddy Power Betfair

January 2019 – March 2019
Product Design Manager - Customer Acquisition & Customer Engagement

Focused on translating human insights into actionable experiences to improve the product and service ecosystem

Managed, mentored and guided the global team to create well crafted on brand experiences that best suit our customers needs. My role required me to resource, plan & hire for our design team. I was also responsible to knit together the teams spread across London, Dublin, Cluj (Romania) and bring stakeholders on our journey through design.

Working closely with a large number of agile teams we worked hand in hand with our tech teams to develop industry leading products.

Lead user experience efforts from a customer acquisition and engagement perspective, advancing design strategies and driving design awareness as a critical function for competitive advantage and market differentiation.



Emoov Ltd.

June 2017 – December 2018
Head of Design and UX

Drove 2x net revenue / ~25% CoS reduction over 12 months at Emoov via a best-in-class SaaS platform.

Applied design thinking methodology to solve a compliance issue that saved the firm ~£200K over 12 months and also improved customer acquisition as well as onboarding.

Responsible for delivering a Product Roadmap for the business that moved the needle on critical KPIs as well as reporting into C-level execs.

Delivery of 5-10 new features and enhancements every 2 weeks via a continuous stream of requirements for a team of 9 devs.

Projects ranging from e-commerce optimisation to boost conversion, to an automation of repetitive, manual tasks to reduce COS.



Mintel Group Ltd.

May 2009 – June 2017
Head of Design

Established and developed designs teams across Product design, Marketing, Video production and Digital publishing across London, Chicago and Shanghai.

Ideated, developed and managed a new revenue generation channel to sell single-copy reports online - resulting in over £500k+ revenue in first year


 

Skills



Core competencies

Wire-framing and prototyping highly functional UX frameworks and creative user interfaces that match the needs of both customers and business areas.

Capture, document and present holistic user journeys in a clear, engaging way and creating modern and accurate user-journey mockups.

Drive complex UX/UI requirements from concept to release.

Define features, interactions, user flows, content & error conditions.

Ensuring the designs are responsive and functonal across mobile and desktop devices with a mobile-first approach

Create and rapidly iterate digital service prototypes

Work with user researchers and front-end developers to turn concepts into user-centred services

Know how to use data and research to influence design thinking

 

Recommendations

I have had the pleasure of knowing Jay for quite some time now. He is an exceptionally talented UX designer with a wealth of experience in the field, boasting an impressive 20+ years of expertise.

During his time at Boeing as a UX consultant, Jay consistently demonstrated his exceptional skills in understanding user interaction and translating it into intuitive and user-friendly designs. He has a keen eye for detail and a deep understanding of human behavior, which reflects in the outstanding quality of his work.

What truly sets Jay apart is not just his professional competence, but also his wonderful personality. He is a genuinely nice human being, always approachable, collaborative, and willing to lend a helping hand. His positive attitude and empathy make him not only a pleasure to work with but also someone who brings out the best in those around him.

I highly recommend Jay for any UX design or consulting role. He brings a rare combination of expertise, professionalism, and warmth to every project he undertakes.

It was great working with you Jay! :)

Devendra Salunkhe - Product Designer | Boeing

Jay is a strong and independent designer. He brings a clear design philosophy that benefits both the products he works on and the product organisation he's a part of. I enjoyed working with and managing Jay, and would recommend him and his work.

Raghav Malik - VP of Product | ClimateHack Ambassador | Mastercard

Jay was always attentive, had an eye for detail and a willingness to take full ownership of projects and initiatives. His contributions were always constructive and ranged from tactical to strategic - appropriately delivered based on what was needed. I would not hesitate to hire Jay in the future.

Victor Lopes - Transfer Solutions | Mastercard

Jay was a great design lead when we worked together. From navigating stakeholder challenging requests though to introducing the product team to new ways of working.

There's no doubt, that you can see Jay is a talented designer. However, he's fun, smart and positive. Three personality traits that are critical for keeping the team supported during difficult times. We worked for months together and over that time I saw him thrive in challenges.

Always there to support and backup his teams decisions, challenge the product team into making user led design decisions, develop sustainable working practices (frameworks and systems) and communicate how and when research can support.

Hannah Knowles - UX Researcher | NatWest Group

I am delighted to recommend Jay as a Lead UX Designer who excels under pressure and consistently meets tight deadlines.

Throughout our collaboration, Jay displayed remarkable composure and problem-solving abilities in high-pressure situations. His exceptional time management and prioritization skills ensured that critical tasks were completed with outstanding quality, boosting our team's overall productivity.

Jay's effective communication skills were pivotal in fostering collaboration and unity, making him an invaluable asset for any organization looking for a talented professional who thrives in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments. His passion for UX design and unwavering commitment to delivering top-notch results make him an outstanding choice for any team.

Joao Ferriera - Sr. UI Designer | NatWest Group

I’ve been lucky enough to work alongside Jay at EY’s Innovation Hive where he was the Principal Product Designer. I have seen Jay create the entire visual foundation and the design principles for our entire SaaS platform.

Jay has been coaching his design team and everyone at the organisation who had questions about design. Jay quickly caught on with the task and only after a few days of joining he had a wholistic plan to redesign the entire platform. He redesigned the way to work with the design team using design sprints and design briefs.

Jay introduced the team to the concept of Atomic design principles and despite his extreme workload Jay personally helped me outside of his scope to give feedback and advice on how to best visualise artifacts for senior stakeholders.

Jay is very approachable and easy to get along with, he is always fair and gives designers enough creative freedom to ensure they do their best work. I have seen Jay coaching designers instead of micromanaging or doing the task instead of them to ensure they learn and grow in their roles. I would happily work with Jay again, he is an outstanding designer and leader and fun to be around.

Marton Gaspar - Freelance Head of Product | Product management consultant and coach | Advocate for Neurodiversity in tech

Luckily for me I had the pleasure of working with Jay directly at the Betfair, as I reported directly to him.

He is a thoughtful, highly skilled creative professional who always wants to get things delivered, but to the highest possible quality. His leadership was critical during a high pressure period on a very high profile project that I was delivering and his measured approach meant that the right things happened at the right time.

He's so awesome that we all make positive reference to him on a daily basis, which I find helps the team to remain positive during the more challenging moments, as Jay helped restore faith and value in what we do when we needed it the most. He's very much missed.

Leon Copeland - Senior User Experience Designer at Paddy Power Betfair

I have had the pleasure of working with Jay for a couple year at my last startup Emoov. Jay was great to work with.

An amazing UX/UI designer with a big appetite to get deeper and deeper into the business to understand those experiences he needed to handle gracefully with his designs. Hard working and always went the extra mile. Highly recommend...

Ivan Ramirez - CPO | COO | CEO | CSO at Emaar