Jay Hughes
My work history
Here are my most recent employment placements. In addition, feel free to view my Notion CV.
Why hire me?
Product Design leader with deep expertise in innovation, design systems, and product-led growth. I partner with startups, scale-ups, and enterprises to create data-driven products that improve engagement, reduce churn, and enable design teams to deliver at a higher standard.
TransferRoom
Staff Product Designer - Jul 2025 to Present
Senior Product Designer - Jun 2024 to Jun 2025
I lead the design of data-driven products for the global football transfer market, driving 0–1 innovation and scaling experiences that fuel product-led growth while strengthening retention across high-value customer segments.
- 0–1 product innovation: Delivered a market-ready Scouting MVP in 6 weeks using Lovable, rapidly validating concepts and testing market fit with existing and new customers.
- Impact at scale: Shipped features across web and mobile that consistently exceeded adoption, engagement, and retention targets.
- Commercial outcomes: Turned around a declining Agents product by surfacing key pain points through research, shaping product and packaging improvements that reduced churn and steadily improved agency customer stickiness.
- Design leadership: Mentor and support team members through 1:1s, coaching on impact statements, and driving professional growth across squads.
- Strategy & innovation: Embedded design rituals, formalised quality standards, and championed faster validation methods; nominated as the business’s AI Champion, leading adoption of AI in design and product workflows.
Sustain3
Lead Product Designer - Mar 2023 to Jun 2023
I was the founding designer at Sustain3, working closely with the CEO and CFO to shape the early product strategy and vision for an AI/LLM-powered sustainability reporting tool.
- Define and drive product strategy in collaboration with leadership, aligning business goals with user needs.
- Develop a design system-led proof of concept, creating a scalable foundation for the first release.
- Deliver all key concepts, demos, and product designs, ensuring stakeholder alignment and readiness for launch.
Marks & Spencer (via 101 Ways)
Lead Product Designer - Mar 2023 to Dec 2023
I led the design of an internal Android OS launcher and digital tools for in-store operations, improving efficiency and reducing device loss.
- Define and deliver a bespoke Android OS launcher, shaping the overall product strategy and roadmap.
- Conduct user research throughout the lifecycle, ensuring continuous alignment with user needs.
- Implement tracking software and UX improvements, achieving 99% adoption and significantly reducing lost devices.
- Build the initial Figma design system and align teams through journey mapping and problem-statement workshops.
- Mentor product, design, and UX teams, embedding best practices and improving delivery quality.
Case Study: M&S
I started working at M&S via 101 Ways in March 2023. My initial objectives were to help review the product strategy and approach and look at aspects of design and user experience - for the M&S staff, which they call ‘Colleagues’. So, from the initial outset, one of
Jay Hughes
Instinct Digital
Head of Product & Design
Aug 22 - Feb 23
- Built and executed a product vision, resulting in measurable improvements across content delivery and UX.
- Managed and mentored a team, implementing frameworks that improved workflow efficiency by ~20%.
- Defined the core value proposition for a new product suite, securing stakeholder buy-in.
Springer Nature
Lead Product Designer - 101 Ways
Oct 21 - Aug 22
- Worked on a new feature for Springer Nature called ‘Collections’
- Product analysis, stakeholder management and user experience methods such as user journey mapping and problem statement workshops using Miro
- Helping shape goals and OKRs using tools such as Notion
- Designing in Figma with a central team as an integrated member of a product team
- The objective was to increase the number of submissions from authors to journals as well as improve the speed at which submissions were reviewed
- Ran product design and user experience workshops, as well as user research sessions
Case Study: Springer Nature
I spent 9 months working for Springer Nature via 101 Ways. The statement of work from the business was to develop out it’s editorial application to include ways of handling manuscript submissions from authors, into ‘Collections’. Springer Nature is a leading academic and educational publisher, for…
EtonX
Lead Product Designer
Sep 20 - Sep 21
- EtonX is an online education tool that offers students a virtual classroom experience.
- I helped the team develop user archetypes, journey mapping, problem statements and overall design processes.
- We delivered two significant pieces of work: an improved customer sign-up/purchase journey and a new Virtual Classroom design.
- Since leaving EtonX, I have helped them hire my replacement and offer that person weekly mentoring and personal development.
- Managed an external resource facility based off-shore consisting of designers and developers
Case Study: EtonX
EtonX is an online education tool that offers a virtual classroom experience to students. Signup flow My first project was to look at the signup flow. The team had feedback from customers for various pain points they had - it was about visualising that journey. We discovered some opportunities,…
Argos
Lead Product Designer - 101 Ways
Sep 20 - October 20
- No Argos retail unit in Ireland had a digital in-store ordering system
- As a team, we delivered a solution to adapt the Argos website into an in-store touch-screen experience using Figma
- Discovered, defined, designed and delivered within nine weeks
Cast Study: Argos
I worked with Argos as a client with 101 Ways in 2020. The company had a fixed target that by January 2021, they were finally removing all the in-store paper ordering systems - from their stores in Ireland. They were mass ordering substantial display screens and installing them up and
Provar Testing
Lead Product Designer
May 20 - Sep 20
- As a team, we delivered a solution to adapt the Argos website into an in-store touch-screen experience using Figma
- Discovered, defined, designed and delivered within nine weeks
- The business wanted to progress its product from a desktop client to a cloud-driven, browser-based product.
- The problem areas focussed on were relative to user permissions.
- I've conducted various workshops and produced concepts/designs for the business.
- Consultative role working alongside the CTO
Zoopla
UX Designer
Sep 19 - May 20
- I designed a new flagship product called 'ZSP', a mobile-first platform for estate agents to manage lead progression
- I conducted workshops, user research, and user journey mapping and designed wireframes and prototypes in Figma
- I tested these remotely with agents in recorded sessions to refine our assumptions and problem statements
- Working in multiple teams and helped coach designers and product managers using Figma and Miro
Case Study: Zoopla
At Zoopla, I was working on a project focused on the experience of an estate agent. Estate agents often receive leads with low value/quality ratings and spend lots of time qualifying that lead. They receive leads from multiple sources, but for Zoopla, it was about valuing that lead for
Further experience:
- Swedbank - UX Designer (Brilliant Basics)
- Not On The Highstreet - UX Designer (101 Ways)
- Kindred Group Senior Designer
- The R.V.C. UX Consultant
- Arcadia Group Team Lead
- B.C.A. Research UX Lead
- Transform Front End Developer
- EssDocs Designer & Developer
- Arcadia Group Front-End Developer
- Salmon Front End Developer
- O2 (Telefonica) Front End Developer
- Salmon Front End Developer
- O2 (Telefonica) Front End Developer
- Portland Television Developer
- Debenhams Developer
- Maximuscle Designer
Further career details are available on my LinkedIn
Development Tools / Software
- Figma
- Miro
- Notion
- Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, X.D., InDesign)
- Sketch, InVision, Justinmind, Abstract
- Microsoft Office Suits (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Quick prototyping using Node/Express/Mongo stacks.
Education
University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham
B.A. (Hons) Design for Interactive Media
Oaklands College St Albans
A.V.C.E. Media
Queen Elizabeth's Boys School Barnet
G.C.S.E.'s (A-C)