William Barraclough

Director of Design

Design Leaders Community

Here at Design Leaders, we recognise the crucial need for a community where design leaders at the highest level can come together, connect, and magnify their impact. A space where you can forge meaningful connections, exchange profound insights, and actively shape the future of design leadership.

Founding Member

evoke

As Director of Product Design at Evoke (parent to William Hill, 888, & Mr Green), I created the group’s product design strategy through a period of rapid platform transformation and seamless multi-brand integration. I scaled and led a diverse 35+ team spanning product design, UX research, content, and design operations across five countries, building a unified culture that accelerated innovation and delivery.

I architected and launched Helix, a groundbreaking multi-brand design system that boosted design-to-engineering efficiency by over 150%, enabling consistent, high-quality experiences across web, mobile, and retail channels. Collaborating closely with senior product, technology, and compliance leaders, I translated complex business strategy into clear, actionable design roadmaps, established measurable success metrics, and drove seamless execution. I proactively embedded robust governance, regulatory, and accessibility frameworks—ensuring our products consistently exceed the highest standards required to thrive in fast-moving, regulated industries.

Championing cross-functional collaboration, I leverage AI tools for productivity gains and mentored emerging leaders, embedding structured career growth and high-performance pathways.

Impact:

- Delivered 30+ end-to-end product features, boosting user engagement & customer lifetime value.

- Directed the rollout of William Hill’s new cross-platform brand & visual system, raising usability scores and brand equity.

- Pioneered the group’s first AI-powered content design assistant, shaping our approach to AI-enabled UX.

- Led our group design strategy for Ai Positive Play creating safer gambling tools to enable customers play and protect player life time value revenues.

- Embedded responsible design and safer play practices into onboarding, supporting industry-leading player protection.

- Drove measurable improvements in team morale, retention, and capability through transparent, values-led leadership.

Director of Product Design

The Lovie Awards

The mission of The Lovie Awards is to recognise the unique and resonant nature of the European Internet community across culture, technology and business. We believe that by elevating the best digital innovations from Europe, we can inspire a better internet, globally.

Judge

Fifty

We are on a mission to provide design leaders with a space to expand their support network, the tools to drive change in the design industry and contribute to designing a better world.

Tide

At Tide, a UK fintech serving over 450,000 SME members and 8% of the market, I was brought in to build and scale the design function to support rapid growth. I grew a multidisciplinary team of 35+ across product design, research, content, and brand, embedding design at the core to drive acquisition, engagement, and brand impact.

Key responsibilities:

• Defined and led the global design strategy across product, marketing, and brand, ensuring alignment with business goals and customer needs.
• Provided creative direction for all external channels, collaborating with marketing, agencies, and leadership to deliver high-impact campaigns.
• Partnered with product and business leads to embed design deeply in product strategy and delivery.
• Established a user research function to uncover member needs, validate propositions, and guide iterative product improvements.
• Advanced design maturity by introducing experience principles, new ways of working, and fostering design thinking across product, engineering, and design teams.

Key achievements:

• Scaled the design, marketing, and brand teams from 3 to 35+ within 18 months, creating UX Research and DesignOps capabilities.
• Launched Tide’s first design system, Portal, uniting product, marketing, and brand with a consistent experience language and brand framework—accelerating delivery and cross-team collaboration.
• Led Tide’s first nationwide advertising campaigns (TV, OOH, social), winning two awards and increasing brand awareness by 40% in 18 months.
• Directed a global rebrand implemented in-house across product and marketing touch-points.
Increased membership by 8% during the pandemic through enhanced customer experience and brand visibility.
•Reduced external agency dependency, cutting production costs by 65%.
• Designed 15+ product features, including an industry-first company formation integration, driving over 97,000 new signups in 12 months.

Global Director of Design

RVU  is an international portfolio of consumer brands employing over 900 people, operating across finance, marketplaces, insurance and property tech, serving more than 35 million customers. An offshoot of the US-based Red Ventures in Charlotte, USA. I joined as employee number two in Europe, responsible for design leadership across the portfolio including Zoopla, Bankrate UK, uSwitch and Money.co.uk. I provided strategic consultancy to external clients on scaling products, brands and teams for growth and market reach across EMEA.

Creative Director

Zoopla is the UK’s second-largest property website, founded in 2007, with revenues over £70 million and 650+ UK employees. The platform offers property listings, market data and local information for homebuyers.

I led product design following Red Ventures’ acquisition of Zoopla’s parent company. I defined and executed a strategy aligning product, brand and marketing to scale user experience rapidly. Within six months of implementation, Zoopla won Apple’s ‘App of the Day’ and saw strong customer growth across sales and rental markets. This success was driven by a data-informed design approach that increased conversions and lead quality.

Head of Product Design

CSSDA

Judging panelist 2017/18

Brunswick Creative Campaigns and Content

Director of Design – Founded and scaled the design and UX studio from the ground up, growing the team from 3 to 35 over 3.5 years while partnering closely with film and brand teams across the group. Delivered a 400% revenue increase from year one, expanding an international client base.

During my tenure, the agency achieved 4th place in Design Week’s Top 100 Agencies and ranked 8th among UK digital agencies.

Design Director

Betfair

Principal Visual Designer responsible for leading a multi-discipline design team across four international locations - London,
San Francisco, Romania & Portugal. We worked across consumer platforms researching, designing and evolving the product.

I was also responsible for the rebranding of Betfair and aligning the product to the new direction globally across all verticals.

Principal Product Designer (Ui)

Lead visual designer working across the digital product portfolio, developing innovative design solutions, mentoring designers, working on UI, marketing & video projects.

Lead Product Designer

A transformative hands on design leader recognised for scaling world-class teams and launching pioneering digital products across fintech, gaming, and tech platforms. Specialising in bridging ambitious business strategy with user-centric innovation, I deliver measurable impact—leading 70+ feature launches, multi-million user rebrands, and award-winning creative campaigns that consistently drive double-digit growth and market leadership.

Expert at navigating complex transformation, multi-brand integrations, and high-velocity growth, I build robust design cultures: growing cross-functional teams to 35+, rolling out global design systems that boost delivery velocity, and embedding AI, CX, and regulatory governance into every process for peak commercial value. My leadership delivers proven results in regulated environments, from fintech to gaming, reducing costs, increasing retention, and driving customer engagement at scale.

Passionate about shaping the future of design, I mentor emerging leaders, champion inclusion, and create empowered organisations where innovation and accountability fuel enduring business success. Thriving in fast-paced, high-growth environments, I unlock consistent performance transforming creative vision into market-leading products and strategic business outcomes.

Design Leadership Forum Member

Our mission is to advance the practice of design leadership by fostering a community where the world’s best can learn from one another. We strive to make the Forum inclusive and relevant to those confronting the challenges of leading design teams.

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