Gavin Elliott

Gavin Elliott

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Product Design Leader at Deel | UX, Service Design, AI | Building useful things that actually work in the real world
Blaydon, England, United Kingdom

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Résumé

Jobs verified_user 0% verified
  • DEEL
    Lead Product Designer
    DEEL
    Oct 2025 - Current (1 year)
    As Lead Product Designer at Deel, I lead design across Core Services, a portfolio of horizontal product teams that enable the experiences used across the platform. My organisation includes Design System, Mobile, Analytics, Platform, Home, Delight and AI.

    I lead a team of seven designers, helping shape product strategy, design quality and ways of working across multiple domains. I partner closely with Product and Engineering leadership, alongside Design Leads from across the organisation, to align on long-term vision while ensuring teams deliver high-quality experiences at pace.

    My role combines strategic leadership with hands-on product design. I regularly conduct user research, prototype complex interactions, facilita
  • Scrumconnect Consulting
    Chief Design Officer
    Scrumconnect Consulting
    Mar 2024 - Oct 2025 (1 year 8 months)
    Lead the full user-centred design (UCD) function, interaction design, service design, user research and content design, while frequently providing product direction across large-scale public and private sector projects.
    - Won and manage a £19million account with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
    - Established cross-functional design practice standards, recruitment processes and performance frameworks
    - Founded a design community of practice to support collaboration, growth and capability across all delivery teams
    - Embed design thinking at all levels of delivery, shaping strategy alongside product, engineering and research leaders
  • Shopify
    Senior UX Manager
    Shopify
    May 2022 - Jan 2024 (1 year 9 months)
    Led three UX teams (Domains, Custom Storefronts and Advanced Themes), each comprising product design, content design and research specialists. Directed cross-team efforts to drive user experience strategy, design consistency and measurable outcomes across the platform.
    - Directed the go-to-market design of the relaunched Domains, transforming it from a top 3 pain point to a minor issue
    - Laid strategic foundations for Shopify-wide capability, leading early product and UX direction
    - Directed the go-to-market design of Hydrogen 2.0 and Oxygen, ensuring the user journey reflected core merchant needs
    - Created a performance management framework for designers
    - Advocated for end-to-end experience thinking, helping teams
  • UK Health Security Agency
    Head of UX
    UK Health Security Agency
    Oct 2021 - Apr 2022 (7 months)
    Directed user experience across the NHS Covid19 App, International Travel and Daily Contact Testing services. Delivered strategic support and design leadership during the critical transition from pandemic response to recovery.
    - Managed 10-15 user-centred design professionals across multiple agile teams
    - Set delivery direction and maintained oversight of quality across research, content and design
    - Supported policy alignment and public service transformation at national scale
  • Department for Work and Pensions DWP
    Design Lead
    Department for Work and Pensions DWP
    Nov 2020 - Oct 2021 (1 year)
    Lead and direct the departmental strategy for digital customer experience working with director level stakeholders.

    Set and maintain the Good Customer Experience Design Standard and work with business areas to achieve it in order to meet the Departmental Strategy.

    Consult and advise on the design of Departmental common components liaising with senior architectural stakeholders in order to meet our application reference architecture model.
    Consult and advise on strategy for Departmental wide discoveries, supporting decision making and overall direction.

    Work with the Head of Interaction and Service Design professions to ensure design team members are aligned to the design strategy and working towards it.
  • Department for Work and Pensions DWP
    Head of Interaction and Service Design
    Department for Work and Pensions DWP
    Jul 2018 - Nov 2020 (2 years 5 months)
    Led interaction and service design across DWP, managing a team of 79 designers and supporting delivery on over 40 simultaneous projects, including Universal Credit and Retirement Services.
    - Created design processes that improved consistency, delivery speed and design quality at scale
    - Built mentoring, progression and performance structures that scaled with the community
    - Introduced a distributed management model to ensure oversight and support across a large team
    - Positioned DWP’s design community as the most mature and respected within central government
  • Department for Work and Pensions DWP
    Head of Interaction Design
    Department for Work and Pensions DWP
    Jun 2017 - Jun 2018 (1 year 1 month)
    Took over leadership of the interaction design profession, strengthening structure and strategy across teams.
    - Recruited and allocated interaction designers across dozens of cross-functional teams
    - Fostered a strong design culture, aligned to GDS standards and delivery priorities
  • Department for Work and Pensions DWP
    Lead Interaction Designer
    Department for Work and Pensions DWP
    May 2016 - Jun 2017 (1 year 2 months)
    Provided service and interaction design expertise within agile teams. Supported junior designers and worked closely with product and engineering to deliver evidence-based improvements.
  • Department for Work and Pensions DWP
    Interaction Designer
    Department for Work and Pensions DWP
    Aug 2015 - May 2016 (10 months)
    Understand customer needs and iteratively design Government services. Organise and run user research sessions and translate the research into user needs. Collaborate in large teams with the likes of Product Owners, development teams and management stakeholders.
  • t
    Head of UX & Product
    traveljunctioncom
    Jan 2015 - Aug 2015 (8 months)
    Lead the product team to create and maintain effective travel products and services.

    The Product Team’s position in the company is to focus and improve on the following areas:

    :: Product Design & Development
    :: Quality Assurance
    :: Product Innovation
    :: Technical Support

    DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

    :: Developing product strategy
    :: Managing the full product roadmap, from prioritisation through to delivery

    :: Leading Product Managers', design and engineering teams within the department
    :: Identifying least resistance routes to feature creation and development
    :: Working closely with Commercial & Marketing teams
    :: Analysing competitor activity
  • t
    Head of User Experience
    traveljunctioncom
    Oct 2013 - Dec 2014 (1 year 3 months)
    Led the user experience design of traveljunction.com.

    Leading and building the design and front-end engineering team to design traveljunction.com, a new name in the OTA space. Setting direction for the mobile (responsive) solution for booking hotels and other travel options.

    The team designed and built one of the few responsive OTA sites available today, focusing on the user experience and performance of the solution.
  • O
    Designer
    Obox
    Aug 2012 - Aug 2013 (1 year 1 month)
    Led the first-line Customer Support via email and Olark, answering pre-purchase/post-purchase and non-technical support queries.

    In a wide ranging role, I designed various WordPress themes to add to the Obox theme inventory which were being sold direct and via WordPress.com & Themeforest.net

    I led direct and indirect marketing efforts working with various partners and increased the SEO efforts which had been started to focus on theme categories which we would be targeting in our roadmap.

    Initiated partnerships with web h
  • H
    Product Designer
    Happiest
    Dec 2011 - Jul 2012 (8 months)
    At Happiest I was responsible for all of the product design. I worked on the UI/UX of the web platform and iOS app.

    Responsibilities:

    - Brand development, UI/UX Design of the Web Platform and iOS App.
    - Marketing Design of the sales pages of Happiest.
    - Design the on-boarding experience for new users to focus on growth
    - Develop the product strategy with the CEO
    - Lead the Design and Front-End Engineering Teams
    - Work closely with engineering teams to implement the UX across the entire platform
  • I
    Founder & Organiser
    Industry Conference
    Aug 2011 - Apr 2016 (4 years 9 months)
    Industry, the Practical Web Conference is packed with practical content and techniques covering everything from User Experience design to front-end web development. The 4th Industry is taking place on the 20th April 2016, for more information see the website - http://industryconf.com
  • Fueled
    UX Designer
    Fueled
    Aug 2011 - Dec 2011 (5 months)
    Responsible for the User Experience of Mobile Apps. Communicating with UI Designers and iOS Developers.
  • Codeworks
    Organiser of DIBI Conference
    Codeworks
    Nov 2009 - Aug 2011 (1 year 10 months)
    I organised the first two DIBI Conferences. Both conferences had an attendance of 300+ and were highly successful bringing some of the worlds best known web designers and developers to the North East of England.
  • freelance
    Product Designer
    freelance
    Jul 2006 - Dec 2014 (8 years 6 months)
    Work with clients from around the world on mobile and web design projects.
  • British Army
    Plant Operator Mechanic
    British Army
    Jun 2003 - Mar 2006 (2 years 10 months)
    Dug holes with big machines. Great fun.
  • n
    Gaming Editor
    nvmaxcom
    Mar 1999 - Oct 2002 (3 years 8 months)
    Gaming Editor for nvmax.com. Writing previews, reviews and gaming news for an international audience. Working with gaming development and publishing companies from around the world. Managed a team of 5 international reviewers to create daily gaming news.
Education verified_user 0% verified
  • G
    Advanced GNVQ in I.T, Graphic Design
    George Stephenson
    Jan 1999 - Jan 2001 (2 years 1 month)
Projects (professional or personal) verified_user 0% verified
  • G
    GPT Wrapper Apps
    Jul 2025 - Current (1 year 3 months)
    GPT Wrapper Apps is a SaaS platform that helps indie makers, developers and AI entrepreneurs skip the ideation phase and start building straight away. It generates personalised and validated GPT app ideas based on your skills, interests and goals, with each idea including a full PRD, market analysis and technical specification. Whether you are building your first AI app or want to fast-track your next side project, it gives you everything you need to go from idea to build-ready in minutes.
  • Y
    Your Season Guide
    Mar 2025 - Current (1 year 7 months)
    At Your Season Guide, we believe that everyone deserves to look and feel their best. Our mission is to help people discover the colours that truly enhance their natural features and express their personal style.

    Through our innovative colour analysis tools, we've made professional colour advice accessible to everyone, whether you're a fashion enthusiast or someone who's always struggled with knowing what colours to wear.
  • B
    Best AI Things
    Dec 2024 - Current (1 year 10 months)
    Discover and compare the most powerful AI tools to enhance your workflow.
  • T
    TravelJunction.com
    Dec 2013 - Current (12 years 10 months)
    Rebuild of the Front End Architecture + Performance Improvements.
  • H
    Happiest
    Dec 2011 - Jul 2012 (8 months)
    A Social Rewards Platform, both web and iPhone.
Publications verified_user 0% verified
  • O
    NUX4
    OCT
    NUX4 is an all-day event in Manchester focussed on how an understanding of people can help you define, design, and build better experiences, on the web and beyond. With international speakers from some of the biggest digital brands, the day will provide a wealth of practical experience you can apply right away.
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