Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Product Designer

Company: DC Thomson (Findmypast)

Location: Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, or London, UK

Job Type: Full-Time, Permanent

Category: Product Design / UX/UI

Date Posted: April 16, 2026

Experience Level: 5-10 Years (Mid-Senior Level)

Remote Status: Hybrid (1 day per month in London office)

🚀 Role Summary

• Drive end-to-end product design processes, from initial discovery and user research through to the delivery of polished, production-ready solutions.

• Shape intuitive, scalable, and user-centered experiences across web and app platforms, focusing on full user journeys rather than isolated screens.

• Collaborate closely with Product Managers, Engineers, Data Analysts, and Researchers to contribute significantly to product direction and strategy.

• Leverage qualitative and quantitative insights to inform design decisions, hypothesize outcomes, and measure the impact on key product metrics like activation, engagement, and retention.

• Contribute to and evolve the company's design system, ensuring consistency, scalability, and efficient implementation of design patterns across the product suite.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a mid-to-senior level Product Designer, evidenced by the emphasis on owning work end-to-end, contributing to product direction, and the expectation of mentoring other designers. The hybrid model, requiring only one day per month in the London office, indicates a significant degree of remote flexibility while maintaining team cohesion.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Define and refine design problems, translating complex business objectives into clear, actionable design tasks and user flows.

• Take ownership of design challenges across various problem spaces, including user acquisition, onboarding, subscription models, content experiences, and core research workflows.

• Design and iterate on user interfaces and interactions for both customer-facing (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) products, ensuring a consistent and scalable user experience.

• Actively participate in product strategy discussions, providing design perspective to shape the future roadmap and prioritize initiatives.

• Utilize data analytics, user research findings, and A/B testing results to validate design hypotheses and optimize user journeys for improved conversion and retention rates.

• Explore and present multiple design solutions, effectively balancing the need for speed and iteration with the importance of long-term product coherence and brand consistency.

• Directly contribute to enhancing key business outcomes such as user activation, ongoing engagement, and customer retention through strategic design interventions.

• Contribute to the development and maintenance of the design system, championing its use and ensuring adherence to established guidelines for scalable and consistent design.

• Foster a strong design culture by openly sharing work, actively participating in feedback sessions, and mentoring junior designers.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities outline a comprehensive product design lifecycle ownership. The emphasis on B2C, B2B, and shared systems suggests a need for a designer who can manage complexity and maintain consistency across diverse product offerings. The inclusion of "AI tools" in both responsibilities and skills indicates a forward-looking approach to design technology adoption.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

Experience:

• 5-10 years of professional experience in digital product design, with a strong focus on UX/UI, interaction design, and visual design.

Required Skills:

• End-to-End Product Design: Demonstrated ability to manage the entire design process, from initial problem definition and user research to final delivery and post-launch analysis.

• User Research & Data Analysis: Proficiency in employing qualitative (user interviews, usability testing) and quantitative (analytics, A/B testing) methods to inform design decisions and validate hypotheses.

• Interaction & Visual Design: Strong skills in creating intuitive user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity visual designs with a keen eye for detail and usability.

• Design Systems: Experience in contributing to, or working within, established design systems, understanding principles of scalability, consistency, and component-based design.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Proven ability to work effectively with Product Managers, Engineers, Data Analysts, and other stakeholders in a collaborative team environment.

• AI Tools in Design: Familiarity and practical application of AI tools within design workflows to enhance efficiency, explore concepts, or improve user experiences.

• Product Strategy & Thinking: Ability to understand and contribute to product strategy, balancing user needs with business goals and commercial outcomes (e.g., activation, engagement, retention).

Preferred Skills:

• Experience designing for subscription-based models, data-rich content platforms, or SaaS products.

• Familiarity with working across both B2C and B2B product environments, or on platform-based products serving multiple user personas.

• Experience in a SaaS or platform-based business context.

• Understanding of emerging technologies and their potential application in enhancing user experiences.

📝 Enhancement Note: The experience requirements align with a mid-to-senior level designer, emphasizing autonomy and strategic contribution. The "AI tools" requirement is a specific modern skill that candidates should be prepared to showcase.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• End-to-End Case Studies: Present detailed case studies showcasing 2-3 projects that demonstrate your full product design process, from problem identification and user research to final design solutions and post-launch impact.

• Problem Definition & Solution Exploration: Clearly articulate the design challenges faced, the research methods used to understand them, and the rationale behind the explored solution directions.

• Impact & Metrics: Quantify the impact of your design work on key business and user metrics (e.g., activation rates, engagement levels, conversion improvements, retention increases).

• Design System Contribution: Include examples of how you have contributed to or utilized a design system, showcasing your understanding of consistency, scalability, and component usage.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Highlight instances where you collaborated effectively with Product, Engineering, or other teams, demonstrating your ability to integrate design into the broader product development lifecycle.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Be prepared to discuss how you approach mapping and optimizing user flows and entire user journeys.

• Implementation & Automation: Detail your experience working with development teams to ensure accurate implementation of designs and any approaches to streamline design-to-development handoffs.

• Measurement & Analysis: Articulate how you measure the success of your designs post-launch and use data to drive further iterations and improvements.

📝 Enhancement Note: A strong portfolio is critical for this role, as it will be the primary method for assessing end-to-end design capabilities and strategic thinking. The focus on metrics and cross-functional collaboration suggests a need for a portfolio that demonstrates business acumen and teamwork.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: £50,000 - £75,000 per annum (estimated)

Explanation: Based on industry benchmarks for experienced Product Designers (5-10 years) in the UK, particularly in hybrid or remote-friendly roles within established companies. London-based roles often command a premium, but the hybrid nature and availability of other office locations suggest a range that reflects the broader UK market while acknowledging the London component. This range also aligns with the seniority implied by the responsibilities.

Benefits:

• Hybrid Working Model: Flexibility to work remotely with minimal in-office requirements (1 day per month in London).

• Pension Scheme: Comprehensive company pension plan with employer contributions.

• Health & Wellbeing: Access to health and wellbeing programs, potentially including private medical insurance or wellness stipends.

• Generous Annual Leave: Competitive paid time off allowance, plus public holidays.

• Professional Development: Opportunities for continuous learning, training, and conference attendance, particularly related to design, AI, and product strategy.

• Employee Assistance Program: Confidential support services for personal and professional challenges.

• Life Assurance: Coverage to provide financial support for dependents.

Working Hours: Approximately 37.5 hours per week, with flexibility offered around core working hours to accommodate personal needs and optimal productivity.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is an estimate based on typical market rates for this experience level and location. Specific benefits can vary, but these are common offerings for full-time permanent roles in the UK tech/media sector.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Media & Publishing, Genealogy & Family History, Digital Services. DC Thomson is a diversified media company with a long history, and Findmypast is its prominent genealogy and family history platform, leveraging vast historical data.

Company Size: DC Thomson is a large, established organization, employing over 1,000 people across various divisions. Findmypast operates as a significant part of this larger entity.

Founded: DC Thomson was founded in 1905. Findmypast has been operating as a digital service for many years, evolving significantly with technology.

Team Structure:

• The Product Designer will be part of the Findmypast design team, reporting to a Design Manager.

• This team likely comprises other Product Designers, UX Researchers, and potentially UI Specialists.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Product Development: The company emphasizes using data and research to inform product decisions and measure outcomes, aligning with common GTM and operations strategies.

• User-Centric Design: A core tenet is understanding and serving user needs, particularly in the context of discovering and sharing family stories.

• Agile & Iterative Processes: Design work is expected to be integrated into agile development cycles, involving continuous feedback, iteration, and refinement.

Company Website: https://www.dcthomson.co.uk/, https://www.findmypast.co.uk/

📝 Enhancement Note: DC Thomson's long history suggests a stable yet evolving company. Findmypast's focus on data-rich products and user discovery provides a unique context for a product designer, blending content, technology, and user engagement.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is for a Product Designer with 5-10 years of experience, typically considered a Mid-Level to Senior Designer. They are expected to operate with a significant degree of autonomy, contribute to strategic product discussions, and potentially mentor others. The scope includes end-to-end ownership of complex design problems.

Reporting Structure: The Product Designer reports to a Design Manager within the Findmypast division. They will work closely with Product Managers and Engineering Leads on a day-to-day basis, forming part of cross-functional product teams.

Operations Impact: The Product Designer's work will have a direct impact on critical business metrics such as user acquisition, activation, engagement, and retention. By creating intuitive and rewarding user experiences, they will drive customer satisfaction, subscription value, and ultimately, revenue growth for Findmypast. Their design decisions will shape how users interact with complex data and discover personal histories.

Growth Opportunities:

• Design Leadership: Potential to grow into a Lead Product Designer role, taking on more strategic responsibilities, managing larger design initiatives, or leading a specific product area.

• Specialization: Opportunity to deepen expertise in specific areas like user research, interaction design, information architecture, or AI-driven design solutions.

• Mentorship: Develop leadership skills by mentoring junior designers, contributing to the growth of the design team.

• Cross-functional Mobility: Gain exposure to product management, engineering, or data science through close collaboration, potentially opening doors to related career paths.

• Industry Expertise: Become a subject matter expert in the genealogy and family history domain, understanding its unique user needs and data challenges.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role offers a clear path for career progression within product design, with opportunities for leadership and specialization. The impact on core business metrics highlights the strategic importance of the design function.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Hybrid with options for multiple UK office hubs (Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, London). The role requires minimal in-office presence, primarily for collaborative sessions or team meetings (1 day per month in London).

Office Location(s):

• Aberdeen, Scotland

• Dundee, Scotland

• Glasgow, Scotland Workspace Context:

• Flexible & Remote-First: The primary work environment is remote, allowing for focused individual work and flexibility.

• Collaborative Hubs: The physical office locations offer spaces for in-person collaboration, team building, and strategic alignment when needed.

• Technology Enabled: Expect access to modern design tools and collaboration platforms essential for remote and hybrid work.

Work Schedule: The standard working hours are approximately 37.5 hours per week. While there's a core expectation, the hybrid and remote nature often allows for flexibility in daily scheduling to manage personal commitments and optimize productivity, as long as deadlines and collaboration needs are met.

📝 Enhancement Note: The distributed office locations and hybrid model cater to a wide range of candidates across the UK, emphasizing flexibility while maintaining connectivity through periodic in-person meetings.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A review of your CV and cover letter, with a focus on relevant experience and alignment with the role's core requirements.

• Portfolio Presentation (Round 1): A dedicated session where you'll present 1-2 key case studies from your portfolio. Expect to walk through your design process, decision-making, challenges, and outcomes. This is where your end-to-end design thinking will be assessed.

• Hiring Manager/Design Manager Interview (Round 2): A deeper dive into your experience, skills, and approach to product design. Questions will likely focus on your problem-solving abilities, collaboration style, and understanding of user-centered design principles.

• Cross-functional Team Interview (Round 3): An opportunity to meet with potential colleagues from Product, Engineering, or Data. This assesses your ability to collaborate, communicate effectively, and integrate into the team's workflow. You might be asked to discuss how you handle feedback or navigate differing opinions.

• Final Interview (Optional): May involve senior leadership or a final assessment of cultural fit and strategic alignment.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate Strategically: Select projects that best showcase end-to-end ownership, strategic thinking, and impact on business goals. Tailor your selection to highlight experience relevant to data-rich products, subscriptions, or B2C/B2B scenarios.

• Tell a Story: Structure each case study as a narrative: the problem, your process, your solutions, and the results. Clearly explain why you made certain decisions.

• Quantify Impact: Use data and metrics wherever possible to demonstrate the effectiveness of your designs. If exact numbers aren't available, discuss hypotheses and expected outcomes.

• Highlight Collaboration: Show how you worked with others, how you incorporated feedback, and how you navigated trade-offs.

• Demonstrate Process: Be ready to discuss your methods for user research, ideation, prototyping, and iteration.

Challenge Preparation:

• Design Exercise: Be prepared for a take-home design challenge or a live whiteboarding session. This will likely involve solving a problem similar to those Findmypast faces (e.g., improving a research workflow, enhancing subscription value).

• Focus on Process: Demonstrate your thought process during the exercise. Explain your assumptions, research approach, and how you'd arrive at a solution, even if time is limited.

• Consider Business Goals: Always tie your design decisions back to user needs and business objectives (activation, engagement, retention).

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is structured to evaluate not only design skills but also strategic thinking, collaboration, and cultural fit. A well-prepared portfolio that tells a compelling story of impact is crucial.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (highly probable, given industry trends), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop).

• Collaboration: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Confluence.

• User Research & Testing: UserTesting.com, Maze, Hotjar, Google Analytics, Mixpanel.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Web Analytics: Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics.

• Product Analytics: Mixpanel, Amplitude, Pendo.

• Data Visualization: Tableau, Power BI (or internal dashboards).

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly used by Product Designers, understanding CRM (e.g., Salesforce) and marketing automation platforms can provide context for user segmentation and lifecycle marketing, impacting design.

• Integration Tools: Awareness of how designs integrate with backend systems and APIs is beneficial.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in modern design and prototyping tools like Figma is essential. Familiarity with analytics platforms is key for data-informed design, and an understanding of AI tools is explicitly mentioned as a requirement.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• User-Centricity: A deep commitment to understanding and solving user problems, ensuring that design decisions prioritize the user experience and deliver real value.

• Collaboration & Teamwork: A strong emphasis on working effectively across disciplines, valuing diverse perspectives, and achieving outcomes through collective effort.

• Data-Informed Decision-Making: Utilizing research, analytics, and evidence to guide design choices, test hypotheses, and measure impact, rather than relying solely on intuition.

• Curiosity & Continuous Learning: An open mindset towards exploring new technologies (including AI), methodologies, and industry trends to drive innovation and personal growth.

• Ownership & Accountability: Taking responsibility for design challenges from inception to completion, ensuring quality and driving initiatives to successful resolution.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: Designs are not created in a vacuum; expect active participation in product team rituals, seeking input from and providing clear communication to Product, Engineering, and Data.

• Feedback-Rich Environment: Openness to giving and receiving constructive feedback on designs, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and shared learning.

• Knowledge Sharing: Encouragement to share insights, best practices, and learnings across the design team and broader organization to elevate collective expertise.

📝 Enhancement Note: The stated values suggest a collaborative, data-driven, and user-focused environment where designers are empowered to take ownership and continuously learn.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Balancing Complexity and Simplicity: Designing intuitive user experiences for complex, data-rich products like genealogy databases, where users have varying levels of technical proficiency and research goals.

• Cross-Product Consistency: Ensuring a cohesive and scalable user experience across distinct B2C and B2B products, as well as shared platform components.

• Integrating AI Effectively: Identifying and implementing AI-driven features that genuinely enhance the user experience and provide tangible value, rather than being superficial additions.

• Navigating Ambiguity: Working in evolving problem spaces where clear requirements may not always be present, requiring initiative to define problems and explore solutions.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Advanced Design Skills: Opportunities to deepen expertise in areas such as predictive design, AI integration in UX, information architecture for complex datasets, or advanced prototyping techniques.

• Product Strategy Acumen: Develop a stronger understanding of business models, subscription strategies, and market dynamics within the family history and media sectors.

• Mentorship Programs: Formal or informal opportunities to mentor junior designers or be mentored by senior leaders within DC Thomson.

• Industry Conferences & Training: Access to relevant design, UX, and technology conferences, workshops, and online courses to stay current with industry best practices and emerging trends.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges highlight the unique nature of designing for genealogy and data-intensive platforms, while the growth opportunities point towards continuous professional development in both design craft and strategic business understanding.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you had to define a vague design problem. What was your process, and what was the outcome?" (Focus on your problem-definition methodology, research, and iterative approach.)

• "How do you balance user needs with business objectives like activation and retention in your designs?" (Prepare an example from your portfolio that illustrates this balance and how you measured success.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about the family history domain and Findmypast specifically?" (Research the company's mission, user base, and market position.)

• "How do you contribute to a positive and collaborative design culture?" (Share examples of how you give and receive feedback, mentor others, or share knowledge.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, clearly state the problem, your role, the process (research, ideation, design, testing), the solution, and the impact (quantified if possible).

• Be Ready for Deep Dives: Expect questions about specific design choices, trade-offs you made, and alternative solutions you considered.

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Use visuals (wireframes, mockups, prototypes) effectively to illustrate your points.

• Connect to Findmypast: Where possible, draw parallels between your experience and the challenges Findmypast faces.

📝 Enhancement Note: Preparation should focus on demonstrating strategic thinking, a robust design process, collaborative skills, and a genuine interest in the Findmypast product and its users.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided Workable link, including your CV and a cover letter.

• Portfolio Customization: Select and refine 2-3 of your strongest end-to-end product design case studies that align with the requirements – particularly focusing on data-rich products, user journeys, and measurable impact. Ensure your portfolio is easily accessible (e.g., via a link).

• Resume Optimization: Tailor your resume to highlight experience in end-to-end product design, user research, interaction/visual design, design systems, and cross-functional collaboration. Use keywords from the job description (e.g., activation, engagement, retention, AI tools).

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your design process, rationale, and the impact of your work. Prepare to discuss specific examples of how you've used data and research to inform decisions and collaborated with engineering and product teams.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research DC Thomson and Findmypast. Understand their mission, target audience, current products, and any recent news or strategic initiatives to demonstrate genuine interest and cultural fit.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.