Joe Willmott

Founding Product Designer / UX Lead / Zero-to-One Digital Products

London  /  [email protected]  /  +44 (0) 7825 874 644  /  joewillmott.com  /  linkedin.com/in/joewillmott

Senior product designer with over a decade of experience owning the full design process across web, native mobile and SaaS platforms, from the first sketch to the shipped product. The kind of designer who builds design systems, writes interaction logic, challenges product strategy and works directly with engineers, without needing a team around them to do it. Equally at home designing B2B enterprise tooling (white-label SaaS sold to the NBA, FIFA and F1) and high-stakes B2C experiences consumed by millions of concurrent users at peak global events. A founding designer in the truest sense: has taken products from nothing, through funding rounds, to market.

Core Skills

• End-to-end UX ownership: research, information architecture, interaction design, high-fidelity prototyping and design system build, without dependency on a larger team
• B2B SaaS design: creating configurable, white-label product frameworks deployable across dozens of enterprise clients with distinct brands and requirements
• B2C experience design: fan-facing journeys, gamification systems and real-time interactive products at scale, across web and native iOS
• Design systems and component libraries: building robust, reusable UI frameworks in Figma and React that reduce front-end rework and accelerate delivery
• Cross-functional fluency: translating between product, engineering and business stakeholders, removing ambiguity and keeping complex builds moving
• Founding design: taking a product from zero, validating with real users and investors, iterating to product-market fit and scaling up

Experience

UX Lead & Product Owner / Monterosa / 2019 – 2025

Sole senior designer and product owner across Monterosa’s broadcast and sports portfolio

Design

• Led UX architecture for FanKit, Monterosa’s white-label SaaS platform, designing a component and configuration system that could be rebranded and deployed for any enterprise client without bespoke engineering work
• Designed the England Rugby fan data collection and engagement journey, achieving a 91% conversion rate
• Led UX on the Love Island in-app and web commerce experience, contributing to over £20M in merchandise revenue through research-led optimisation of payment flows, mobile layouts and conversion bottlenecks
• Designed the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards digital experience for three consecutive years, navigating COPPA compliance, WCAG accessibility requirements and celebrity likeness restrictions to deliver a product used by over 10 million children
• Produced high-fidelity prototypes and interaction specifications for 92 number-one App Store activations across iOS, spanning broadcast titles including Love Island, I’m a Celebrity and X Factor, and sports clients including the NBA, FIFA, F1 and Real Madrid
• Built and maintained Figma design systems and UI libraries used across the full engineering team, reducing front-end rework by 40%
• Acted as de facto UX authority across the wider design team, including for the Design Director, and mentored junior designers in craft and process

Product

• Took on full product ownership of FanKit from 2022, growing the enterprise client base from 7 to 26 global accounts while maintaining the UX Lead role
• Structured co-funded development deals with anchor clients to prioritise high-value features and accelerate the roadmap without full internal budget commitment
• Managed full sprint lifecycle including planning, estimation, retrospectives, design handovers and QA sign-off across front-end, back-end and design teams

Fractional Product & Design Lead / Independent / 2018 – 2019

UX and product direction for early-stage startups; B2B data visualisation products for IMG

• Designed and built white-label sports data visualisation products for IMG, sold to major global sportsbook operators and contributing to the company’s growth ahead of its $3.25B acquisition by TKO
• Led UX and product strategy for multiple early-stage B2C startups, taking products from concept through to investor-ready prototypes

UX Lead / CookiesHQ / 2017 – 2018

• Directed UX strategy and delivery at a technical agency, raising design quality to a standard that contributed directly to the agency being acquired by its primary client

Product Manager / UNIT9 / 2017

• Bridged elite creative and engineering teams to deliver award-winning interactive digital installations and complex web platforms

Founder & Chief Product Officer / Paper Street Games / 2014 – 2016

• Founded and ran a mobile games studio end-to-end: concept, design, development, App Store publishing and marketing, reaching over 100 million users globally
• Secured two rounds of venture capital; built on the principle that one person with a clear vision and high standards can outperform a larger, slower team

Engineering Lead / Sparkol / 2015

• Led mobile strategy and development for VideoScribe, translating a complex desktop creative tool into a high-performance, intuitive iPad application

Game Designer / Aardman / 2013

• Level and mechanic design for high-profile interactive projects including major BBC digital titles

Awards and Recognition

• Deloitte TechTrack 100 (Monterosa, 2019/2020)
• Monterosa Most Innovative Employee (2024)
• Monterosa Most Impactful Employee (2019)
• SportsPro Media Awards: Best Fan Engagement – Fanatics F2P Games
• Sports Technology Awards: Best Fan Engagement – NBA Games Hub
• SportsPro Media Awards: Best Fan Engagement – England Rugby
• Sports Technology Awards: Best Fan Engagement Technology – Entain Games
• Football Business Awards: Best Use of Technology – Liverpool FC Match Centre

Education

BSc Digital Art & Technology / Plymouth University / 2009 – 2013

Interdisciplinary degree spanning software engineering, physical computing, interaction design and augmented reality.

Joe Willmott

Senior Product Manager / Product Owner / Zero-to-One SaaS

London  /  [email protected]  /  +44 (0) 7825 874 644  /  joewillmott.com  /  linkedin.com/in/joewillmott

Product leader with over a decade of experience taking products from zero to one and scaling them into market-leading SaaS platforms. Built and owned the full product lifecycle at Monterosa, growing FanKit from a single client to 26 global enterprise accounts, including the NBA, FIFA, F1 and Real Madrid, without an established reputation in sports technology. Equally fluent in B2B commercial reality (enterprise licence management, stakeholder ROI, co-funded roadmaps) and the B2C fan experiences those products deliver to millions of concurrent end users. The kind of product leader who does not wait to be handed a brief; they find the opportunity, build the case and ship the product.

Core Skills

• Roadmap ownership: vision, prioritisation, sprint ceremonies, release management and retrospectives across a complex multi-stakeholder SaaS product
• Enterprise B2B: licence renewals, co-funded feature development and ROI conversations with global organisations across sport, broadcasting and gambling
• B2C product depth: designing and shipping fan-facing experiences consumed by millions of concurrent users at peak global events
• Zero-to-one: MVP scoping, product-market fit validation, technical stack selection and investment-ready infrastructure from scratch
• Cross-functional delivery: bridging design, engineering, QA, sales and accounts to eliminate blockers and keep complex programmes moving
• AI integration: implementing LLM-driven features and agentic workflows to accelerate discovery and reduce development overhead

Experience

Product Owner / Monterosa / 2022 – 2025

Sole product owner of FanKit, a white-label B2B SaaS platform for global sports organisations

• Owned the FanKit roadmap end-to-end, balancing demands from 26 enterprise clients, upcoming renewals and new sales pipeline to prioritise a configurable, scalable feature set
• Grew the enterprise client base from 7 to 26 global accounts in 12 months, including the NBA, FIFA, F1, Real Madrid, England Rugby and Fanatics, by continuously validating the roadmap as a live sales tool
• Structured co-funded development deals with anchor clients: identified high-value features, matched them to specific client needs, split build cost 50/50, then rolled the feature out to the wider client base to accelerate renewals
• Drove significant revenue growth by standardising delivery, eliminating redundant engineering cycles and introducing a configuration-first framework that reduced bespoke build costs
• Managed all sprint ceremonies across front-end, back-end and design teams, including planning, estimation, retrospectives, design handovers and QA sign-off
• Served as the primary communication bridge between engineering, design, QA, sales and account management, translating between disciplines to keep delivery unblocked
• Scoped and led integration of AI features, gamification layers and third-party authentication services, defining MVP scope and phased rollout for each

UX Lead / Monterosa / 2019 – 2025

Sole senior UX designer across Monterosa’s broadcast and sports product portfolio

• Architected the interaction design framework that underpinned FanKit’s white-label configurability, enabling rapid rebranding and deployment for each new enterprise client
• Designed the England Rugby fan data collection journey, achieving a 91% conversion rate
• Produced UX architecture and high-fidelity prototypes contributing to 92 number-one App Store rankings across iOS, spanning broadcast titles including Love Island, I’m a Celebrity and X Factor, and sports clients including the NBA, FIFA, F1 and Real Madrid
• Acted as de facto UX authority across the wider design team, including for the Design Director, and mentored junior designers in craft and process

Fractional Product Lead / Independent / 2018 – 2019

Strategic product and UX consultancy for early-stage startups; B2B data visualisation products for IMG

• Conceptualised, built and brought to market white-label sports data visualisation products for IMG, sold to major global sportsbook operators and contributing to the company’s growth ahead of its $3.25B acquisition by TKO
• Provided go-to-market strategy, UX and product direction for multiple early-stage startups across B2C digital products

UX Lead / CookiesHQ / 2017 – 2018

• Led UX delivery at a technical agency, raising product quality to a standard that contributed to the agency being acquired by its primary client

Product Manager / UNIT9 / 2017

• Bridged elite creative teams and engineering to deliver award-winning digital installations and complex web platforms

Founder & Chief Product Officer / Paper Street Games / 2014 – 2016

• Founded and ran a mobile games studio end-to-end: concept, design, development, App Store publishing and marketing, reaching over 100 million users globally
• Secured two rounds of venture capital investment; returned to the company as CPO at investor request after a period at Sparkol

Engineering Lead / Sparkol / 2015

• Led mobile strategy and development for VideoScribe, translating a complex desktop application into a high-performance iPad app

Game Designer / Aardman / 2013

• Level and mechanic design for high-profile interactive projects including major BBC digital titles

Awards and Recognition

• Deloitte TechTrack 100 (Monterosa, 2019/2020)
• Monterosa Most Innovative Employee (2024)
• Monterosa Most Impactful Employee (2019)
• SportsPro Media Awards: Best Fan Engagement – Fanatics F2P Games
• Sports Technology Awards: Best Fan Engagement – NBA Games Hub
• SportsPro Media Awards: Best Fan Engagement – England Rugby
• Sports Technology Awards: Best Fan Engagement Technology – Entain Games
• Football Business Awards: Best Use of Technology – Liverpool FC Match Centre

Education

BSc Digital Art & Technology / Plymouth University / 2009 – 2013

Interdisciplinary degree spanning software engineering, physical computing, interaction design and augmented reality.