I’m Hays, a lead product designer building clarity from zero to scale
I partner with founders and early teams to define product direction, build scalable systems, and ship high-impact experiences across AI, fintech, SaaS, and data products.
A lead IC designer who turns ambiguity into shippable products.
I’ve spent 10+ years prototyping and testing real digital products for SaaS, fintech, and mission-led teams. I specialise in information architecture, evolving design systems, and complex UX flows - partnering closely with founders and product leads to turn ambiguous problems into user-tested solutions.
I stay hands-on where execution matters, and I lead when teams need direction. Right now that’s at easyJet, where I’m building a design system from scratch for the operations team that manages flight disruption, and shaping the end-to-end product strategy with the PM. Before that, I shifted design from feature execution to ecosystem leadership at Lantern.
What I’m working on right now.
A design system, from scratch, for flight disruption
Building the design system for the operations team that manages flight disruption, and shaping the end-to-end product strategy with the PM.
Taking Nurii from beta to launch
Nurii is in closed TestFlight beta and heading towards an App Store launch. I designed and built it end to end.
Strategy, systems and creative energy - shipped.
Founding a daily ritual app, end to end
Concept to creation as founder and designer - brand, the eight-pillar model, design system, 100+ rituals and an iOS app now in TestFlight beta.
Scaling experience across an AI product ecosystem
Leading product experience across multiple products while building “Lux,” a unifying design system for accessibility and interaction patterns.
Unifying a European fintech platform
Built “Vault,” aligning B2B and B2C bank-switching products across markets - improving clarity, conversion and consistency at scale.
0 → 1 data product definition
Turning raw hospitality data into a structured analytics product. Defined journeys, IA, dashboards and the brand alongside the founder.
A decade building - agency, fintech, AI.
Building a design system from scratch for the operations team that manages flight disruption, and shaping the end-to-end product strategy with the PM.
Founded Nurii - a daily ritual app for nervous system and brain health. Concept to creation: brand, the eight-pillar model, design system, 100+ rituals of content and an iOS app now in TestFlight beta.
Lead end-to-end experience across 3+ AI products; defined the Lux design system and shifted the team from feature execution to ecosystem leadership.
Built the Vault design system for B2B/B2C bank-switching products and led the UX/UI redesign for the Spanish market, improving conversion.
Partnered with the founder and data scientist to turn raw hospitality data into a structured analytics product - journeys, IA, dashboards and brand.
Else London (T. Rowe Price, Alzheimer’s Society), Splendid, Huge, Foolproof and agency roles at VML/WPP.
Else London - T. Rowe Price, Alzheimer’s Society dementia app. Visual Nomad Ltd (2017–2022) - Splendid, Huge, Foolproof, Appnovation. Mirum/VML/WPP, Brilliant Basics/Wongdoody.
Vision and technical capability, made shippable.
0 → 1 product definition
Turning vision and technical capability into structured user journeys, information architecture, and shippable interfaces.
Systems from day one
Building scalable design foundations early (Vault, Lux, and now at easyJet) to prevent fragmentation later.
Founder-level collaboration
Working directly with founders, product, and technical leads to align business goals with usable product strategy.
Hands-on leadership
Leading teams when needed - and staying close to the work when execution matters most.
Creative impact
starts here.
Tell me a little about what you're building and where you are - I read every message and reply personally.