Will Bays

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My most recent role was as Senior Product Manager at Poppins Agency which I joined in June 2021. The company was still only a year old at that point and as such was at a pivotal point in the growth of the company. My responsibilities were largely autonomous taking the lead in discovery, developing and end to end delivery of myriad digital products and direct development of client relationships and account management. The nature of my past experience set me up perfectly to work in this way as I have been the centre of product teams in the past and building trust with stakeholders has given me the experience and skill set for ownership of these products and relationships.

During my time at Poppins I worked on both ideation, scoping, design and building new products and their end to end delivery and also working directly with clients in a retainer capacity to collaborate on ongoing improvements and developing existing products. In both examples I was concerned with understanding business objectives/KPIs/OKRs, discovery and project planning which then became developing product roadmaps in the longer term.

An emphasis on user testing, data analysis and insights into UX and UI is a big part of my successes at Poppins and I am keen to continue to work in that way in my next role. Examples of some of the products I was working on at Poppins include a wide range of websites including digital publishing, ecommerce, search aggregation tools, business directory and portals but I am particularly proud of the apps I worked on which I would love to discuss in more detail. Other responsibilities include assisting with client pitches, mentoring juniors and interviewing, hiring and instructing third party development teams.

Before Poppins I was only at DMG Media for a short time during which I was responsible for road map management and feature prioritisation for the development of the publishing app The Knowledge. I was also charged with advising, requirement gathering, stakeholder management and coordination of the choice of CMS for The New Scientist for digital and print content which was a recent acquisition for the Mail Group.

In my previous role as Head of Digital Operations at The Stylist Group (TSG), I played a pivotal role in driving the digital arm of the company and achieving growth in various digital products. Over 5 years, I led a team that for example delivered an 72% increase in digital revenue in 2019 and doubling monthly unique users year on year, reaching 2.8 million in total.

Some notable accomplishments include:

- Delivered 259% increase in US Unique Users and 177% onsite in 2019 for Stylist in

the US.

- Achieved 125% increase in pageviews (including Apple News) and 175% onsite

growth.

- Led the successful ideation, development, and launch of the My Stylist members

area, resulting in increased engagement, personalised content, and event ticket

sales.

One of my key strengths lies in my ability to prioritise user feedback and leverage data analysis to drive product improvements. By writing user stories, A/B testing features and continuous iteration, I enhanced our products and aligned them with user needs and expectations. This approach, coupled with my expertise in UX/UI, enabled us to achieve significant growth.

In addition to my hands-on experience in project management and product development, I have proven skills in team building and scaling operations on a limited budget. During my tenure at TSG, I nurtured a team of talented individuals, growing the digital team from two developers to 12 in the team in total. I am adept at identifying and recruiting ambitious individuals and proud to have helped foster junior members’ professional growth. As project manager I successfully implemented Agile methodologies, including Scrum sprints and Kanban, to streamline project workflows and ensure efficient delivery

Furthermore, I possess strong financial acumen and budget management capabilities. I took responsibility for managing the budget control system, forecasting resources for new projects, and effectively negotiating third-party contracts. Through strategic cost monitoring and contract renegotiations, I reduced the departmental budget by 77% without compromising output or personnel.

Please see my CV for details but I have been working building and managing digital teams and products for over 8 years and was previously a teacher and a lawyer. 

Masters degree in Legal Practice

Legal Practice Course

LLB Bachelor  of Laws