Philip Hillman, Design & Product Leader

Philip Hillman

Design & Product Leader

Building and directing high-performing design organizations for global giants like Google and Amazon.

I leverage AI to transform both how we design and how users interact with products, systems, and services, driving measurable commercial impact across FinTech, AdTech, and E-commerce.

Zurich, Switzerland www.philiphillman.com

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Major Brand Contributions

  • Google
  • Amazon
  • Barclays
  • Accenture
  • Tesco
  • Credit Suisse
  • Cognizant
  • NatWest

My Domain Experience

Delivering Bar-Raising Product Experiences Across Complex Global Sectors

  • Global E-commerce & Logistics @ Amazon, Tesco

    Delivering cohesive experiences across Responsive Web and Native Mobile for global consumers. Critical User Journeys: refining search and discovery, structuring recommendations for relevance, streamlining checkout for higher conversion, and visualizing the fulfillment lifecycle for total transparency.

  • AdTech & Programmatic @ Google, Amazon, Mediaocean

    Delivering sophisticated trading experiences that support advertisers in the creation, buying, and measurement of ad campaigns. Critical User Journeys: leveraging Gen AI for asset creation, configuring algorithmic targeting strategies, visualizing market liquidity, and executing real-time optimizations to maximize ROI.

  • FinTech & Capital Markets @ Credit Suisse, BBVA, NatWest, RBS

    Delivering high-performance experiences across Institutional Trading Terminals and Retail Banking Apps. Critical User Journeys: monitoring real-time market signals, executing high-frequency trades with precision, visualizing portfolio risk exposure, and ensuring compliance without hindering velocity.

  • Marketing Intelligence (MarTech) @ Coca-Cola, Mastercard, Red Bull

    Delivering actionable insights across Retail Analytics Platforms for global brands. Critical User Journeys: consolidating fragmented data to measure omnichannel behavior, driving customer-centric merchandising strategies, visualizing promotional ROI, and enabling evidence-based strategic planning.

  • Enterprise Content & Collaboration (ECM) @ Alfresco, Workshare

    Delivering secure productivity across Cloud Content Platforms and Desktop Suites. Critical User Journeys: streamlining document ingestion, enabling real-time co-authoring, managing complex version control, and enforcing rigid audit trails for regulatory compliance.

  • Human Capital Management (HCM) @ Credit Suisse, Wolters Kluwer, NorthgateArinso

    Delivering consumer-grade experiences across Employee Portals and HR Ecosystems. Critical User Journeys: streamlining talent acquisition and onboarding, simplifying benefits and payroll, navigating learning paths, and completing compliance protocols with minimal friction.

My Leadership Principles

Cultivating Cultures of Ownership, Trust, and Agility

  • Outcomes Over Outputs

    I foster a culture of end-to-end ownership where every designer is measured by commercial impact, not deliverable volume. I challenge the team to move beyond simply shipping artifacts to accepting full responsibility for the outcome. I prioritize value over activity.

  • Aligned Autonomy

    Scale and velocity require trust. I define the strategic intent by clearly setting the "Why" and the "What" and empower the team to determine the "How." Through distributed decision-making, I enable the team to navigate ambiguity without waiting for permission. I remove top-down bottlenecks to move fast.

  • Unified Execution

    Innovation fails in isolation. I structure organizations where Design, Product, and Engineering operate as a single synchronized unit. By aligning incentives and shared metrics, I eliminate friction and ensure every discipline amplifies the others. I replace functional silos with shared ownership.

  • Operational Excellence

    Creativity requires deep work. I leverage Generative AI and DesignOps to automate routine production and standardize workflows. This protects the team's focus, ensuring they direct their energy where it matters most: strategic innovation and creative execution.

My Core Competencies

The Strategic Levers Behind High-Velocity Product Execution

Leadership

  • Design leadership
  • Product leadership
  • Team building & scaling
  • Cross-functional leadership
  • Executive stakeholder management
  • Design governance
  • Organisational design

Strategy

  • Design strategy
  • Product strategy
  • Strategic planning
  • Roadmapping
  • OKRs
  • Programme management
  • Resource planning

People & Organisation

  • People management
  • Hiring & recruitment
  • Workforce planning
  • Capacity planning
  • Demand forecasting
  • Performance management
  • Talent development
  • Coaching & mentoring
  • Role definition & levelling

Craft & Methods

  • Service design
  • Service blueprinting
  • User experience (UX)
  • Native AI product design
  • Augmented AI product design
  • UX research
  • Systems thinking
  • Workshop facilitation
  • Rapid prototyping
  • Vibe coding
  • Experimentation & A/B testing

Professional Experience

  • Google UX Manager Sep 2021 - Jun 2026 Zurich, Switzerland
  • Credit Suisse Acquired by UBS Head of UX Research & Design Sep 2017 - Sep 2021 Zurich, Switzerland
  • Tesco UX Design Lead & Manager Oct 2016 - Sep 2017 London, UK
  • Amazon Senior UX Design Lead & Manager Jan 2016 - Sep 2016 London, UK
  • Accenture Product Manager Feb 2015 - Dec 2015 London, UK

Prior experience (1999–2015) includes leadership and design roles at: RBS · Cognizant · Alfresco · Barclays · Mediaocean · Wolters Kluwer

My Insights

Thoughts on UX Leadership, Product Strategy, and Emerging Technology

View all articles

Leadership Mentorship & Advisory

I provide specialized coaching for designers and product managers looking to break into management or navigate the transition from IC to Leader. My sessions focus on career strategy, building influence, and the mindset shift required to move from designing features to leading teams.

Request Mentorship on ADPList

Sessions are released on a limited monthly basis to ensure deep focus on each mentee's challenges.

Session Focus Areas

  • Breaking into management from IC roles
  • Building strategic influence & executive presence
  • Navigating organizational politics
  • Developing your leadership identity
  • Scaling yourself as a leader

Verified Mentee Impact

  • Unanimous 5.0
  • Top Strength: Strategic Problem Solving
  • Style: Amazing communicator & Motivational

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common questions about my work, background, and approach.

Who is Philip Hillman?

Philip Hillman is a British Design & Product Leader based in Zurich, Switzerland, and formerly UX Manager at Google. He has over 25 years in user experience (UX) and product design, and more than 12 years leading design organisations. This profile refers to Philip Hillman in the design and product leadership field, not others who share this name.

What is Philip Hillman known for?

Philip Hillman is known for building design functions from the ground up and bringing structure and rigour to established ones, at companies including Google, Amazon and Credit Suisse. At Credit Suisse he founded the bank's first in-house UX function, growing it from zero to seventeen and designing its entire operating model.

What is Philip Hillman's expertise?

Philip Hillman specialises in product and design strategy and in service design. He is a strong advocate of evidence-driven decision-making, and therefore of investing in research and experimentation. He works fluently from business strategy through to hands-on delivery, and has experience of complex, regulated and self-generative platforms.

What is Philip Hillman's experience with service design?

Service blueprinting is one of Philip Hillman's signature strengths. He introduced it, a service design method, within UK Government (HMRC), Tesco and Credit Suisse, aligning large cross-functional teams in complex problem spaces. The method maps both the customer-facing experience and the back-stage people, systems and processes that deliver it. He presented on the approach at Data Mashup, Barbican, London (2017).

What is Philip Hillman's approach to technical systems?

Philip Hillman is comfortable working with complex technical systems. He uses tools such as BPMN to work directly with engineers and architects, translating technical realities into better user experiences. This fluency lets him bridge design and engineering and improve products others might treat as purely technical.

When did Philip Hillman first design AI-powered products?

Philip Hillman has designed AI-powered experiences for over fifteen years. Early on, in financial services, he designed platforms that used predictive AI. At Barclays this could flag risky or fraudulent activity to protect customers and the bank, and at RBS it guided and warned traders, helping them trade more effectively and with fewer errors by drawing on patterns and trends. In retail, at Amazon and Tesco, he designed experiences powered by machine learning that recommended products and optimised toward commercial goals.

What are the latest AI-powered products that Philip Hillman designed?

At Credit Suisse, Philip Hillman's team designed and supported a website chatbot, improving its responses and routing prospective customers. Most recently at Google, he led design for products powered by generative AI, and worked with the shift toward agentic AI. This gave him a deep understanding of how users adopt AI features, perceive them, and where their concerns lie.

How does Philip Hillman use AI in his work?

Philip Hillman uses AI to compress the loop from idea to tested artefact, putting vibe-coded prototypes in front of users in hours. The value is speed of learning: reaching users sooner means better decisions on real evidence. He also uses AI to accelerate research synthesis and routine planning, allocation and reporting, freeing his time for higher-value work.

What AI tools does Philip Hillman use?

Philip Hillman works hands-on with a range of AI tools, including Gemini, Claude, Google Antigravity and Lovable, and he continually explores new and emerging tools and platforms as they appear.

What are Philip Hillman's leadership principles?

Philip Hillman's leadership is grounded in outcomes over outputs (measuring commercial impact, not activity), aligned autonomy (empowering teams with clear strategic intent), unified execution (working closely across design, product and engineering), and operational excellence (bringing structure, prioritisation and the smart use of AI to how design work gets done).

What companies has Philip Hillman worked for?

Philip Hillman has held senior roles at Google (UX Manager, 2021 to 2026), Credit Suisse (Head of UX Research & Design, 2017 to 2021), Tesco (2016 to 2017), Amazon (2016) and Accenture (2015), with earlier roles at organisations including Cognizant, Barclays, RBS and Alfresco.

What industries has Philip Hillman worked in?

Philip Hillman has deep domain experience across financial services and capital markets, adtech, e-commerce and retail, government, insurance and legal. In enterprise software he has worked on productivity and collaboration tools, content and document management, and human capital management and self-service HR systems.

Where is Philip Hillman based?

Philip Hillman is based in Zurich, Switzerland, where he has lived since 2017 and is a permanent resident.

What languages does Philip Hillman speak?

Philip Hillman is British and a native English speaker.

How can I learn more about Philip Hillman?

You can learn more about Philip Hillman on his official website, www.philiphillman.com, on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/philip-hillman, and through his writing on Medium at philiphillman.medium.com. His official website has the latest information and news.

How can I contact Philip Hillman?

You can contact Philip Hillman via email at hello@philiphillman.com or through his LinkedIn profile.

Let's Connect

I'm always open to discussing UX leadership opportunities, speaking engagements, or advisory roles.

Zurich, Switzerland