Product Designer (12-month FTC)

Our Technology team continues to go from strength to strength, playing a vital role in firm‑wide innovation and strategy. Far from being a support function, Technology is integral to the firms growth agenda, backed by strong leadership engagement and sustained investment. The Role The Product Designer is responsible for shaping high‑quality, user‑centred digital products and services from early discovery through to tested, build‑ready solutions. Working in the Technology Research & Development team, this role combines deep user research, interaction design and product thinking to ensure that new ideas are grounded in real user needs, validated early, and translated into experiences that are intuitive, effective and scalable. The role will work across ambiguous, high‑value opportunities for lawyers, business services and operational teams, helping the firm identify the right problems to solve and the most effective ways to solve them. This includes leading research activity, designing experiments and prototypes, and partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Data and Architecture to move from insight to measurable outcomes. The Product Designer will play a critical role in improving how the firm designs both new/internal products, and enhances existing SaaS‑based products, through bringing clarity to complexity, reducing friction in high‑stakes work, and championing evidence‑led, inclusive design practice across the Product and Technology function. Duties And Responsibilities Product research and user understanding * Plan and conduct qualitative and quantitative research to deeply understand user needs, workflows and pain points across Legal & Business teams. * Apply appropriate research techniques (interviews, contextual inquiry, journey mapping, surveys, usability testing) to build empathy and insight in a professional services context. * Synthesise research into clear problem statements, opportunity areas and design principles that inform product direction and strategy. * Bring user evidence into prioritisation and decision‑making, ensuring teams are solving meaningful problems with sufficient confidence. * Continuously validate assumptions throughout discovery, pilot and delivery—not just at the start of a project. Design high quality user experiences * Design intuitive, accessible and trustworthy user experiences that reflect the needs of legal professionals and the firms standards. * Produce high‑quality design artefacts including user flows, wireframes, prototypes, interaction models and service blueprints where appropriate. * Design for clarity, accessibility, trust and reduced cognitive load, recognising the time‑sensitive and high‑consequence nature of legal and professional work. * Balance user needs with technical constraints, operational realities and delivery timelines to create solutions that are both desirable and feasible. * Ensure designs are sufficiently detailed and validated to support efficient implementation by engineers, including low‑code teams. Shape experiments, confirm hypotheses and deliver product outcomes * Work with Product Managers and engineers to define hypotheses, learning goals, success measures and decision criteria for pilots and prototypes. * Use prototypes and lightweight experiments to test risky assumptions early and reduce delivery risk before scaling investment. * Evaluate pilot outcomes using qualitative and quantitative evidence, and translate learning into clear recommendations on iteration, adoption or scale‑up. * Help teams distinguish between signal and noise, and make disciplined decisions based on evidence. Be a cross‑functional trusted partner * Operate as a core partner to Product and Engineering, contributing to problem framing, prioritisation, solution shaping and delivery decisions. * Collaborate closely with Data, Platforms, Architecture and subject matter experts to ensure end‑to‑end solutions are coherent, practical and scalable. * Facilitate productive conversations across business and technical stakeholders, using design artefacts and research insight to create alignment. * Communicate design rationale clearly, constructively and credibly with stakeholders at different levels of seniority. Champion user‑centred thinking and innovation culture * Act as a champion for user‑centred design and evidence‑led decision‑making across the wider Product function. * Contribute reusable patterns, principles and standards that improve consistency and quality across pilots and products, creating the design playbook for Tech. * Advocate for inclusive and accessible design and help teams build confidence in modern product discovery and design methods. * Support a culture of practical experimentation, where ideas are tested early, learning is valued, and outcomes matter more than outputs. Essential – Skills/Experience * Proven experience as a Product Designer, UX Designer or Service Designer (or similar role) combining product research and interaction design. * Strong capability in planning and conducting user research and translating insight into actionable design direction. * Excellent interaction design skills, with experience creating flows, wireframes and prototypes for complex products, tools or workflows. * Strong product thinking: able to frame problems well, test assumptions, prioritise effectively and connect design work to user and business outcomes. * Ability to design in ambiguity, move between strategic thinking and hands‑on design execution, and make progress with incomplete information. * Experience designing digital products or tools that support complex workflows or professional users. * Strong collaboration skills, with experience working alongside engineers, product managers and domain experts. * Excellent communication skills, able to present research findings and design rationale clearly and credibly. Desirable * Experience working in professional services, legal, or other regulated environments. * Familiarity with low‑code platforms, automation tooling or designing for implementation in constrained technical environments. * Experience designing internal products, workflow tools, operational systems or automation‑enabled experiences. * Experience contributing to early‑stage pilots, prototypes or R&D initiatives. * Experience with service design, systems thinking or designing across multiple touchpoints and teams. * Experience using product and behavioural metrics alongside qualitative research to evaluate success and inform iteration. * Experience contributing to design systems, UX standards or reusable patterns. J-18808-Ljbffr