JAY MACDONALD
PRODUCT LEAD
I am a dynamic Product leader with 15+ years of Agile product management and delivery experience across multiple industries including Financial Services, Consumer Products and Telecommunications. I have extensive experience in confidently inspiring, leading and scaling teams of various sizes and disciplines.
I have a proven track record of successfully defining and owning product strategy and vision, creating strategic and tactical roadmaps and delivering value for both customer and business. I'm a hands-on leader who loves leading teams alongside delivering business value aligned to our goals.
A passionate voice of the customer who serves to understand customer needs and translate them into products or features which add value to their lives and help them achieve their goals.
MY VIDEO BIO
MY NEXT ROLE
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Product Lead, Product Director or Head of Product
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Preferably financial services, asset management or payments related field
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Contract or permanent
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London (Hybrid), Cambridge or fully remote preferred
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Immediately available
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MY EXPERIENCE
ABBEYGATE CONSULTING
Since being made redundant from Vanguard in November 2024, I have completed consultancy engagements with two organisations delivering the following -
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Full product discovery including market analysis and customer research
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Delivered a new product vision and strategy to align the organisation around key goals and outcomes
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​Implemented a new prioritisation framework to support quicker and more effective decision making
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Launched a 'Now/Next/Later' roadmap to ensure visibility of key business priorities
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Supported business case creation for two new potential business lines
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Created organisational efficiencies of up to 50% in core tasks through the first use of AI solutions.
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Read more about this work by clicking on the Case Study button below.
Role
Client Experience Product Lead (June 2022 - Nov 2024)
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Summary
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​Led a team of 6 PMs across Attract, Onboarding, Transfers, Core Platform & Mobile App​
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​Led key initiatives aligned to OKRs ranging from growth to operational efficiency
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Key Achievements
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Spearheaded the delivery of the first Mobile App for UK Personal Investor Clients - 170k downloads in first 4 weeks
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Delivered a new Transfers vision and strategy - reduced Onboarding journeys from 24 to 5
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Implemented contextual help in the Transfers journey - reduced STP rejections due to data mismatch by 82%
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​Implemented new digital journeys including Client Profiling and Cookie Consent
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Delivered a repeatable target operating model for third party integrations
Role
Product Director (July 2018 - June 2022)
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Summary
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Promoted from Payments Product Owner to Product Director
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Built and scaled the Product Owner function from 1 to 21 FTEs after Vocalink's acquisition by Mastercard
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​Responsible for products across the portfolio including real-time payments, bulk & proxy, UI, Access & Data services
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Key Achievements
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Led incubated team to build a next generation successor to Faster Payments
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Launched products into new markets - Launched in US, Peru, Philippines, Saudi, Thailand & Singapore
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Scaled and structured the Product team aligned to new builds and live markets
BT/EE
Role
Digital Product Owner/Manager (March 2016 - July 2018)
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Summary
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Product Owner for EE's Help & Support site for our 21.2m B2C clients
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Owned product roadmap and delivered a new self-serve strategy
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Led multiple squads onshore & offshore to deliver content and functional changes to the site​
Key Achievements
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Led 'Help Transformation' programme including MVP site - +30% uplift in our key OKR of Helpful Score
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Launched new digital journey for Repair - reduced repair related contact by 50%
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Managed high priority product launches including iPhone, Apple Music and BT Sport collaborations
CANON EUROPE
Role
Digital Product Owner (January 2012 - February 2016)
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Summary
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Led Help & Support web experience strategy for 24 websites across EMEA in 16 languages
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Led full stack squads to deliver content changes and new functionality​
Key Achievements
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Managed the end to end MVP delivery of a new B2B self-serve portal - reduced contact for a single use case by 50%
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Delivered a new B2C Help & Support website experience
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Improved CSAT by minimum of 12% each year exceeding targets
100 MARATHON CLUB
I've been the Website Manager for the 100 Marathon Club since 2022. I have end to end responsibility for our public website, logged-in membership area and club shop designed to service our 850+ members.
I'm responsible for creating new content including SEO alongside delivering new functionality in collaboration with our vendors. I also maintain the UK's largest race event listing page.
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