Richard Ilott | Lead Product Designer & Design Maturity Diagnostic
Open to Lead Product Design roles — also taking a small number of Design Maturity Diagnostic engagements

Evidence, not opinion.

Designing for users. Accountable to the business. Nine years at platform scale inside Flutter Entertainment and JD Group — now looking for the next Lead or Senior role, permanent or contract.

Alongside the search, I run the Design Maturity Diagnostic — a framework for finding out where design actually sits in an organisation.

Richard Ilott at the JD UP 2026 event in Manchester, standing in front of a large-format display showing the JD Sports app navigation

Exhibit 01JD UP — Manchester, 2026

18% → 32%Nav CTR uplift, £300k+ revenue across a 28-day A/B test
+£1.5mRevenue across a 14-day cross-sell test
−12%CS contacts within 12 weeks of launch
10+Designers led and worked to my process framework

Case studies

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Verified method

Built to repeat

The same systemic thinking behind the four lenses in the Diagnostic — applied here to how ten designers have worked, across two organisations, without losing consistency.

10+ designers · 2 organisations
Hiring — right now

For hiring managers.

Looking for Senior and Lead Product Design roles where design has genuine influence and the work connects to real outcomes. Permanent or contract.

Open to opportunities Get in touch →
What good looks like
  • A lead or senior role with real design influence
  • High-traffic products at platform scale — the kind where bad decisions hurt
  • A culture that debates the problem before jumping to the solution
  • North West hybrid or remote · open to the right setup

Doesn't need to tick every box — but the more it does, the better the fit.

Consulting — fixed fee

The Design Maturity Diagnostic

A structured, evidence-based read on where your design function actually sits — not where you hope it is. Built on a framework shaped by nine years in design roles at two FTSE 100 businesses — including the contrast between one where design reported to the CEO, and one where it didn't.

Nine years, two FTSE 100 businesses Evidence-led, not opinion-led Fixed fee — confirmed before we start

Most organisations sit at Stage 1–2 and believe they're at Stage 3. The gap between the two is usually the most useful single finding in the report.

FixedNo day-rate uncertainty
5–8 daysKickoff to delivery
RemoteDelivered as standard
What you get
  • A scored assessment against the five-stage Ladder above
  • Findings across four lenses — structural position, decision proximity, investment signals, cultural language
  • A prioritised, sequenced fix list — what to address first, and why
  • A closing walkthrough with your sponsor, live
About

Senior designer.
Strategic lens.

I didn't start in design. Recruitment came first, then UX, then nine years of platform-scale products across two of the UK's biggest digital businesses. The non-traditional route turned out to be useful.

More about me →
Free library

Books & guides for
product designers.

Writing on AI, stakeholder work, and design leadership — including the Design Maturity Playbook, the same framework behind the Diagnostic above.

Browse the library → (opens in a new tab)