CL

Chris Learey

Head of Product Design

London, UK
Lisbon, PT

Email chrislearey@gmail.com
Phone +44 7738 624705
+351 913 923 092
Portfolio chrislearey.com
LinkedIn in/chris-learey

A design leader built for how products get made now. 20 years in, 12 leading teams. I build the function, manage the designers, set the strategy, own the outcome, and still ship the work myself, lately in an AI-native stack, end to end. Most recently 3 years at Nivoda, the global B2B diamond & jewellery marketplace, where I built the design team from scratch and was design lead of a new product line, $1M ARR in its first year.

Experience

Jul 2023 — Now

Head of Product Design

Nivoda · London

B2B diamond & jewellery marketplace

  • Built the design function from scratch, hired and now lead a team of 5 product designers.
  • Shipped a new design system, built to be consumed by AI coding tools, underpinning a complete front-end revamp of the marketplace, cutting design QA by ~90% and eliminating design debt.
  • Led a checkout overhaul and revamped the flagship mobile app; the marketplace now converts at ~85%.
  • Relaunched the gemstones category and 2x'd its revenue in 6 months.
  • Launched a new B2B SaaS business as design lead, $0 → $1M ARR in its first year. Hired a designer for each surface, an in-store consultation tool and a Shopify app, selling diamonds, gemstones, and jewellery.
2021 — 2023

Head of Product Design

MotorK · London

B2B automotive dealership platform

  • Doubled the design team and took the design function through IPO.
  • Introduced atomic UX research, jobs-to-be-done, a UI guild, a new design system, design sprints and a workshop culture.
  • Led a new CRM launch, an iOS app, and consolidation of the product suite into a single platform.
2020 — 2021

Head of UX

Moteefe · London

B2B print on demand platform (now Mayzing)

  • Designed and launched H&M Men's 'MadeByMe' apparel customisation tool (Disney, Star Wars, Marvel licences).
  • Led discovery for an end-to-end replatform of the buyer experience (50M annual visitors); moved the team to Figma and the Knox design system.
2018 — 2020

Principal Product Designer

Dixons Carphone · London

Large retail business, ecommerce for white goods

  • Instigated the design system now used across the company; £10M a year from a product redesign.
  • Designed 3 white-label omnichannel products: in-store consultation tablet, desktop call-centre solution and mobile web app.
2010 — 2018

Head of Design, Simplify Digital

2014 — 2018

Rebuilt the team; >£10M annual revenue. Launched Ziggy (acquired by Synchronoss) and Voltz (1M+ users, 4★). Promoted from Design Lead.

Senior Designer, Weber Shandwick & Hill & Knowlton

2010 — 2014

Concepts and campaigns for Microsoft, HP, Intel, Samsung, P&G, Pepsi, Aviva and The Royal Society; concert visuals for Primal Scream's Screamadelica tour with Jim Lambie.

Design Lead (contract), Lyst

2010

Designed the UX/UI and built the front-end at launch. Exited in 2025 for $150M.