👋 Hi, I’m Joe Willmott

Founding Product Designer & Senior Product Leader

London, UK    ·    +44 (0) 7825 874 644    ·    [email protected]    ·    joewillmott.com

Profile

Over a decade shipping B2B and B2C products from zero to one across startups, scaleups and enterprise SaaS with full P&L ownership. Built and scaled FanKit, a sports engagement platform now used by 26 global clients including the NBA, FIFA and Real Madrid, driving a 200% revenue uplift. Experience ranging across sports, broadcast, fintech and clinical platforms. Former software engineer, so I design with a close read on what is technically achievable and bridge communications between disciplines.

Core Skills

Product Design & UX Leadership · 0 to 1 Product Design · B2B & B2C Product · P&L Ownership · Startups & Scaleups · Design Systems · UX Research & Audits · Figma & Prototyping · Cross-functional Team Leadership · AI-native Product Workflows

Professional Experience

Founding Product Designer · Independent · 2025 – Present

• Run solo product design and UX audit engagements for enterprise and scale-up clients, working end to end from discovery through to prioritised delivery roadmaps.
• Smarkets: designed Momentum, a motion and liquidity-signalling system for the trading market view, making live trading activity legible without redesigning the surface it lives on.
• PENN Entertainment (via Gift&Go): led a UX audit of a loyalty marketplace, diagnosing friction across acquisition, motivation and retention and converting findings into a prioritised roadmap.
• Trading 212: designed Community Pulse, a personalised push notification system built to lift community post engagement.
• Away Resorts: audited the property discovery and sales journey, diagnosing and prioritising conversion friction across the funnel.

Product Owner & UX Lead · Monterosa · 2019 – 2025

• Owned product and UX for FanKit, a white-label B2B SaaS sports engagement platform, pivoting the business from a bespoke agency model to a configuration-led SaaS product used by 26 global enterprise clients including the NBA, FIFA, F1, Real Madrid and Liverpool FC.
• Drove a 200% revenue uplift by prioritising high-ROI, reusable platform features over one-off client customisation.
• Led UX architecture across 92 number-one App Store activations, designing for millions of concurrent users during peak live events including the FIFA World Cup.
• Took on product leadership for the wider function following a 2022 restructure, aligning roadmaps with commercial KPIs across engineering, design and delivery.
• Designed flagship match centre and fan engagement products for Real Madrid, Liverpool FC and FIFA, several of which won industry awards for fan engagement.

UX Lead · CookiesHQ · 2017-2018

• Led UX and product design across a portfolio of 10+ start-ups and scale-ups, spanning regulated sectors including MedTech and non-profit platforms.
• Led the strategic overhaul of the agency’s largest account, work that contributed to that client later acquiring the agency.

Product Manager · UNIT9 · 2017

Directed a physical hardware product from early technical concept through to a market-ready, commercialised asset for a major production studio.

Head of Product · Paper Street Games · 2016

Appointed by the board to lead a strategic turnaround of a mobile games portfolio reaching over 100 million users, pruning underperforming titles to focus investment on the highest-scale assets.

Engineering Lead · Sparkol · 2015

Architected the porting strategy for a leading video editing suite, translating it into a high-performance iPad application.

Founder · Paper Street Games · 2014

Founded and secured venture capital funding for an independent mobile games studio, with follow-on investor interest driven by above-market in-app purchase performance.

Game Designer · Aardman · 2013

Designed levels and mechanics for interactive projects at the animation studio, including work on BBC digital titles.

Independent Developer · Self-directed · 2004-2013

Self-taught developer and designer; shipped 100+ independent games and interactive projects for Nickelodeon, MTV, Nike and more – the foundation for a career spent bridging design, product and engineering.

Education & Certifications

BSc Digital Art & Technology, Plymouth University (2009 – 2013)

Google AI Essentials: Generative AI for Product Leaders (2025)

Awards & Recognition

• SportsPro Media Awards: Best in Fan Engagement (multiple years)
• Sports Technology Awards: Best in Fan Engagement / Best Fan Engagement Technology
• Football Business Awards: Best Use of Technology, Liverpool FC Match Centre
• Monterosa Most Innovative Employee (2024); Most Impactful Employee (2019)