Product Design Leader · 12 years · B2B SaaS, AI, Developer Tools

Adam
Males.

Design leader with 12 years on complex B2B SaaS products. Led design on two company-defining initiatives: Matillion's VM-to-SaaS platform transition and Algolia's agentic UX direction. Comfortable building teams, influencing exec-level decisions, and staying hands on in the work. Most engaged where the problems are genuinely hard and the product has to ship.

adammales@me.com linkedin.com/in/adam-males England, United Kingdom
Algolia Mar 2025 – Present

Staff Product Designer

B2B SaaS · AI search & developer tooling · Remote

  • Led design of AskAI, Algolia's agentic search product inside DocSearch. Reframed the launch from speed-to-ship to adoption risk, leading to a guided in-product setup that drove 86 completed setups, 26.7% completion, and zero configuration-related support tickets in the first 30 days. Pattern later reused in Agent Studio.
  • Defined Algolia's approach to agentic UX across design patterns, guardrails, and interaction models for LLM-driven experiences.
  • Led research and design on platform onboarding across eight product areas, presenting findings to the CPO and CTO. Surfaced three platform-wide patterns now being used as diagnostic questions across product teams.
  • Stay hands on in Figma daily, partner with PM and engineering leads on scope and direction.
Matillion Jan 2023 – Mar 2025

Group Product Designer

B2B SaaS · Data integration & ETL platform · Remote

  • Led design on Matillion's VM-to-SaaS platform transition, a company-defining initiative that improved adoption and retention on a technically demanding ETL product.
  • Shipped the AI Copilot, reducing learning curve and lifting daily productivity for data engineers working on complex pipelines.
  • Built and led the design team, setting levelling, hiring bar, and review practice.
  • Unified three fragmented tools into a single product surface, which became the primary working environment for customers.
Zencargo Mar 2019 – Jan 2023

Lead Product Designer

B2B SaaS · Supply chain visibility · London / Remote

  • Directed design on the core supply chain visibility platform, reframing the data model around cargo rather than shipments. Established the foundation later used for Zencargo's digital twin direction.
  • Set the product's trust principle: data confidence over apparent visibility. Distinguished what is confirmed, expected, and uncertain so users could act without false certainty in a high-consequence environment.
  • Managed a team of designers; introduced a cross-team review mechanism that reduced rework and ownership conflict on shared product surfaces.
  • Ran research, journey mapping, and stakeholder alignment across PM, engineering, and domain experts.
Intu Jun 2018 – Mar 2019

Senior UX Designer

B2C · Retail & e-commerce platform · London

  • Redesigned search across multiple domains, increasing usability and engagement through research-informed information architecture.
  • Ran user testing, interviews, and guerrilla testing to validate decisions rapidly.
  • Improved navigation and taxonomy using card sorting and tree testing, reducing friction platform-wide.
Swoon Apr 2014 – Jun 2018

UX & UI Designer

B2C · Furniture e-commerce · London

  • Redesigned the product page with fabric selection functionality informed by data analytics, with a focus on improving conversion.
  • Managed a team of 3 designers across imagery, marketing, and branding alongside core design work.
  • Delivered campaigns for major publications and large-scale London Underground advertisements.

Domains

  • B2B SaaS & data products
  • AI-assisted experiences
  • Design systems
  • E-commerce & consumer
  • Supply chain & logistics

Capabilities

  • Design leadership and team building
  • Product strategy and direction
  • AI and agentic product design
  • Stakeholder influence at exec level
  • User research and synthesis
  • Systems thinking and prototyping

Tools

  • Figma — primary
  • Prototyping & interaction
  • Design system tooling
  • Analytics-informed design

Education

York St. John University

BA, Art & Design · 2:1 · 2005–2008