Lead Product Designer and UX leader, working contract-based across the UK and embedded with product and engineering teams. From print and brand to AI-native design — thirty years of judgment, applied to modern tools.
About
I'm Leon Govier — a Lead Product Designer and UX leader with thirty years in digital, the last decade focused on fintech, specialist lending and B2B SaaS.
Print & Brand
Where it started
Press-ready artwork, brand identity, the discipline of getting it right before it ships
Web & Development
Learning to build
HTML, CSS, Flash — designing and building in the same breath for the first time
UX & Interaction
Following the user
Research, wireframes, usability — design stopped being about how it looks
Product Leadership
Leading the room
Design systems, squads, strategy — owning outcomes not just deliverables
AI-Native Design
Where I am now
Claude, MCP, code-first — thirty years of judgement, modern tooling
I work contract-based across the UK, embedded with product and engineering teams at Lead, Head of Product Design, and Technical Product Manager level. I've built UX functions from zero, led design systems adopted across enterprise platforms, and shipped AI-native products solo in four weeks. The range is deliberate — I move between strategy and execution because the best design leaders do both.
My workflow has shifted. I design in Figma, prototype in code, and use Claude and MCP to take layouts directly to production React components without fidelity loss. What used to take months takes weeks. That's not a shortcut — it's thirty years of judgement applied to better tools.
The work runs through fintech and regulated environments — mortgage calculators, broker CRMs, conversational quote engines, income verification platforms, design systems spanning four audience platforms at once. Complex products with real constraints, where design decisions have commercial consequences. That's where I'm most useful.
Skills
Thirty years in digital, the last decade focused on product design leadership across fintech, SaaS and regulated environments — from discovery and research through to shipped, production-ready products.
How I build and lead design teams — establishing the culture, process and operating model that lets designers do their best work.
Experience
Approach
How I connect design decisions to business outcomes — from shaping roadmaps and defining success through to facilitating discovery and keeping scope honest.
The sectors and product types I know deeply enough that domain expertise replaces research time — I understand the constraints before the brief lands.
How I close the gap between what's designed and what ships — using AI-assisted pipelines that take Figma layouts to production components without fidelity loss.
Qualifications
Process
How I work inside product and engineering teams — from sprint planning and backlog refinement through to stakeholder reviews and regulated release cycles.
The full stack I use to design, build and ship — from component libraries and design systems through to deployment pipelines and production environments.
From early wireframes to polished, production-ready components. The tools I use to design, prototype and build at every fidelity.
Product design leadership across fintech, SaaS and regulated environments — from discovery through to shipped.
Designing AI-enabled products where the model is a first-class part of the experience.
Feedback received
Recommendations gathered over the years from the people on the other side of the work — chief officers, product directors, design leads and engineers. Different companies, different briefs, but the themes recur: clarity under pressure, design that holds up after launch, and someone equally at home in a stakeholder room or deep in the detail. Their words, not mine.
Leon has led a wide range of transformation initiatives across systems, process and governance. He combines genuine diligence with strong product judgement and a clear solution-orientated mindset. He is equally comfortable rolling up his sleeves to resolve detail-level issues as he is operating in senior forums, where he communicates with clarity and confidence.
Leon is a driving force for change with the ability to translate business requirements into best in class UX. A passion for excellence is abundantly clear which, when aligned to his collaborative approach, outputs always exceed expectations. Leon is comfortable working to tight deadlines within high change environments applying the principles of agile implementation.
It pains me to say this because I want to keep Leon all to myself, but I cannot recommend him enough. A calm, composed influence within the team, bringing structure to the UX design process, and the end product — what can I say. There's no hipster, trendy stuff here; this is solid, well thought out design where everything serves a purpose.
Leon has a passion and dedication for his work which I have seldom seen or experienced in other colleagues. A track record for consistent high quality delivery against demanding timescales and always looking to innovate. A leader and role model for his team in the field of UX, always challenging them to learn new skills. Never afraid to speak his mind and challenge the status quo, but always focused on delivery.
Leon worked on the design of a web-app which was being rearchitected to run as a Single Page Application. Leon's focus extended well past the pure UI into the user journeys, and overall UX, culminating in a much cleaner, much more user-friendly application. His approach of working directly with the end users to understand their pain points allowed us to focus on what was important to them, aiding adoption and resulting in a product that runs on over 90% of devices.
Leon brought a wide range of UX and UI Design experience to TrakCel and over the term of a short contract was able to quickly engage with the team and went beyond expectations in delivering benefit to the design of the product and influence to the future direction of UX, design and development in the organisation. The experience, team-orientation and urgency that Leon brings to his work would be a welcome addition in any product team.
Leon came into Hills to head up the visual design team. He performed exceptionally in hiring and managing the team, while delivering the high quality of work the business needed. At the same time he built strong relationships across the business and worked effectively with a wide range of stakeholders and peers. He would be an asset to any digital business.
Leon provides me with nothing but support and guidance when I need it. He passes down his wealth of User Experience and Design knowledge for which I will be grateful. His management skills are very good and has built a culture where my colleagues and I can thrive. I wouldn't hesitate giving Leon my full recommendation to anyone.
I have worked with Leon directly, he supported me on product launches; he has essentially dressed the shop window for the company. To this end, Leon has been spectacular. I quickly learned to be less prescriptive and let Leon's experience and creative flair provide relevant, current and workable solutions. Leon has always provided forward looking solutions which extend beyond the current project.
Leon was instrumental to our ability to deliver a high quality product to the market. He first identified gaps in existing UX processes, then provided an end-to-end solution to improve understanding of business requirements and communicating final designs to development teams. His expertise in UI/UX is self-evident, and on top of this he is an excellent collaborator, communicator, organised, and does what he says.
I had the pleasure of working with Leon at CWT, where he significantly improved our UX-to-development handoff. By implementing a Material UI design system and driving full adoption across design and engineering, he brought consistency, clarity, and scalability to our workflow. This streamlined delivery, reduced rework, and improved collaboration between teams. Leon's ability to align design with real-world implementation had a clear and lasting impact on how we build products.
Leon is a great addition to any team and I couldn't recommend him enough. During a short-term contract, he successfully designed and delivered a high-quality customer portal that put our customer's needs at the forefront, and improved our design to developer handoff process. Leon brings with him a wealth of UX and UI experience which he is always happy to share.
