We will update this statement on a twice-yearly basis to share our progress. If you would like to discuss DEI at Futureheads please contact team@wearefutureheads.co.uk. (Updated Jan 2024)

<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>We aim to be brave. We won&rsquo;t get it right all the time, but we believe it&apos;s better to say and do something rather than nothing, and to learn from our mistakes.</strong></div>

 <p>                     <strong>                       But we’re now striving to be better and to drive positive                       change. We firmly believe that everyone is welcome at                       Futureheads, and we aim to demonstrate that in everything                       we do.                     </strong>                   </p>                   We’re committed to creating a culture that reflects the                   make-up of society, we believe diversity promotes innovation,                   growth and equality. We are committed to being intentionally                   inclusive by understanding who we have in our culture and how                   we can best add equity to each individual, and contribute                   towards their professional development. We are actively                   helping our clients do the same. We celebrate the difference                   and rich experience that diversity brings, and we commit to                   ensuring that everyone we interact with, both within and                   outside our business, is valued, respected, and treated                   equally, regardless of their background, identity or                   circumstances. We aim to understand every individual’s                   capabilities, and to give them what they need to succeed to                   their fullest potential.

Contact Us

Information

Links

Timesheet Login

Hello, <span>we are Futureheads.</span>

About Us

Recruiting as a <span>force for good.</span>

Being part of something bigger

Come and say hello

Everyone is welcome

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Future Thinkers

Watch from the experts

Stay in the know

Insights

Start your next journey <span>here</span>

Job Search

Job Details

Hello, interested Futureheads!

Join Us

News & Views

News

Looking to hire digital and tech talent?

Register A Role

<p>Register a role with us today; our team will be in touch immediately (or at a time that best suits you).</p>                  <p> Our team of digital recruiters are committed to finding the best talent to meet your hiring needs.</p>                  <p>Please provide us with the below information for us to direct your request to the relevant team.</p>

We are here to support your hiring across the full product life cycle.

Sectors we cover

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Our Solutions

Looking for your next digital or tech role?

Submit CV

Submit Vacancy

We love <span>what we do.</span>

Meet The Team

What people say about me

Meet the team

Testimonials

Latest Insights

News &amp; Views

Latest Opportunities

Register a role

Futureheads in Numbers

Product Designers, this one’s for you.. 🚀<br>I'm looking for Product Designers who have recently worked for a B2B SaaS company.<br>Top lines on the role are:<br>✨Opportunity to have a substantial impact on a complex SaaS product<br> ✨Learn and develop your skills by being part of a great design team<br>✨Work on a product that’s leading that sector <br>✨Clear and visible growth opportunities within the business<br> <br>  <br> 💰Salary: up to £70,000 (depending on experience) + Bonus + Benefits<br> 📍Location: East London, 3 days a week in the office <br>What we're looking for:<br>✅ Recent b2b or complex SaaS experience<br> ✅ Exceptional levels of prototyping and visual craft as opposed to heavy UX and User Research<br> ✅ A minimum of 3 years of industry experience <br> ✅ Portfolios that reflect the above 👆🏻<br>❗Please note, this role does not offer sponsorships and you must be based within commutable distance to London ❗<br /><br /><em><em>We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, so if there is anything we can do to make our recruitment processes better for you and to allow you to show your best self, let us know. We also understand that some people require extra time to complete assessments, require alternative application methods and can also benefit from having interview questions or a guide to the type of questions pre-interview. We are open to any suggestions or requests that you may have and are always looking for creative ways to assess talent. Our commitment to you is that you should always feel safe and secure when you’re working with us. Futureheads is a B Corp™ accredited digital recruitment agency based in London. We specialise in recruiting permanent, contract and freelance digital and tech professionals in creative, data, design, digital marketing, engineering, product, project and programme management, UX and service design jobs.</em></em>

Product Designer - B2B SaaS Platfrom

Calling out all Lead Product Designers 🚀<br><br> I'm looking for a Lead Product Designer who has recently and extensively worked for a cutting-edge/ exciting B2B SaaS company.<br><br> Top lines on the role are:<br><br> ✨Opportunity to have a substantial impact on a complex SaaS product<br>✨A stepping stone into management (you'll be managing 1 mid-level designer)<br>✨They work really closely to their end users which will facilitate your research<br>✨Opportunity to scale what is an already profitable and established business<br> <br>💰Salary: up to £95,000 + Benefits <br>📍Location: East London, 1 day a week in the office <br><br> What we're looking for:<br><br> ✅ Recent b2b or complex SaaS experience<br>✅ Exceptional levels of prototyping and visual craft as opposed to heavy UX and User Research<br>✅ Management experience is nice to have but we're looking for someone that's been mainly hands on in their recent roles <br>✅ Portfolios that reflect the above 👆🏻<br><br> ❗Please note, this role does not offer sponsorships and you must be based within commutable distance to London ❗<br /><br /><em><em>We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, so if there is anything we can do to make our recruitment processes better for you and to allow you to show your best self, let us know. We also understand that some people require extra time to complete assessments, require alternative application methods and can also benefit from having interview questions or a guide to the type of questions pre-interview. We are open to any suggestions or requests that you may have and are always looking for creative ways to assess talent. Our commitment to you is that you should always feel safe and secure when you’re working with us. Futureheads is a B Corp™ accredited digital recruitment agency based in London. We specialise in recruiting permanent, contract and freelance digital and tech professionals in creative, data, design, digital marketing, engineering, product, project and programme management, UX and service design jobs.</em></em>

Lead Product Designer

<p>Matt Pilgrim is an experienced channel and alliances director and is Partner Development Director for the UK business of global digital experience platform provider Episerver. Matt took five minutes to share his thoughts about the impact of Covid-19 to Episerver and the changes they are making as a result.</p>

<p>Matt has perviously held leadership positions at companies including Microsoft, Sitecore, Tealium and now Episerver, and has experience of designing, implementing and managing channel and alliances businesses globally. Episerver are a global software company providing a customer centric digital experience platform. They provide content driven commerce with personalisation and analytics built in, all delivered in a cloud environment.</p>
<p>Matt spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.wearefutureheads.com/tag/ffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.</p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business.</span></li>
</ol>
<p>I think we have a similar story to tell as many businesses at this time. We are a partner-driven business meaning we rely on a network of agencies and system integrators to help us position, sell and implement our solution. Covid-19 has seen a lot of digital projects we were working on being be put on hold while they work through the next few months.</p>
<p>From an operational standpoint, it has been a relatively smooth transition to lockdown working. Episerver has a strong framework in place to support employees and we are a distributed business so remote working was already a key element of our business.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</span></li>
</ol>
<p>There have been a number of changes operationally, mostly centering around morale and employee welfare. The business has gone to great lengths to ensure there are lots of virtual touchpoints for employees. We have creatively moved almost our entire social calendar for employees to online events and introduced specific content to help with working at home such as cookery classes, skills talks, home schooling advice most of which have been supported by the business but run voluntarily by staff. We even ran a red carpet event where people dressed in tuxedo and cocktail dresses, nominating their favourite lockdown movie. We have also increased the frequency of regional and company all hands meetings, this has helped with a feeling of inclusivity around key decisions the business is making.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</span></li>
</ol>
<p>We are definitely taking a different view on how we operate and there will be long-standing changes. We have tried to improve our communications both internally and externally to clients and partners. We are trying to be more considerate than ever of the challenges facing our partners &ndash; trying to notice the pressures that they face that we may not necessarily be exposed to, and I think we are a better business for it.</p>
<p>Episerver has demonstrated this ability to listen by releasing a number of initiatives designed to help our Partners and customers during this time, all under the Covid-19 &lsquo;come back stronger&rsquo; response. We have made all our online training courses for developers and business users of the Episerver platform free until the end of June, we have a content diagnostics tool as part of the platform that we have made available for free to equip resource-stretched content teams with fast, actionable and real-time intelligence on how well content is meeting the needs of visitors. Plus, we have also developed a version of our digital experience platform designed for frontline industries. It&rsquo;s a way for us to work with our partners to provide a website for the companies that need it most right now with really attractive commercial terms but more importantly a quick time to market. We have customers that have built a full website or commerce experience in under two weeks! Full details of our come back stronger response can be found at:&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.episerver.com/trust-center/covid-19-come-back-stronger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.episerver.com/trust-center/covid-19-come-back-stronger/</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Futureheads Five Stories: Matt Pilgrim

<p>Rajeeb Dey MBE is the founder and CEO of Learnerbly, a professional development platform supporting employees to achieve their goals by connecting them to the best development experiences and enabling businesses to engage, develop and retain talent.</p>

<p>Rajeeb is a graduate of the University of Oxford and was appointed as the world&rsquo;s youngest Young Global Leader (at 26) by the World Economic Forum in 2012. Following university, he went on to found Enternships, a portal connecting students and graduates to roles in over 7,000 start-ups and fast-growing businesses for which he was named the &ldquo;02 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year&rdquo; and became the youngest recipient of the Queen&rsquo;s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2013.</p>
<p>Rajeeb is also the Co-Founder of StartUp Britain, a national entrepreneurship campaign launched by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011 and served as Trustee of UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs for over 10 years.</p>
<p>He was appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen&rsquo;s 90th Birthday Honours List in June 2016 for services to Entrepreneurship and recognised as one of the 1,000 Most Influential People in London by The Evening Standard.</p>
<p>Rajeeb spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.wearefutureheads.com/tag/ffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here.</a></p>
<h2>1. Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business?</h2>
<p>Internally, we had to do what many others have had to do, and that was transitioning to full-remote. We&rsquo;re a tech company and already have team members who are remote 100% of the time. The structures were in place already; we just had to expand them to the whole team. Where COVID-19 has really had an impact is externally.</p>
<p>L&amp;D is the only work-related activity that furloughed employees are allowed to engage in, so we created a free version of the Learnerbly platform featuring our curated content. We want to help organisations support their furloughed employees, and this just felt like the right way and the best way we could do that.</p>
<h2>2. How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</h2>
<p>We&rsquo;re spending more time actively communicating with each other, and we try to be as transparent as possible in that communication. To deliver clarity through video calls and messaging, our new primary mediums of communication, we need to make conscientious efforts and have structures in place. One way we do that is by having conversations on public slack channels rather than private messages.</p>
<p>With hiring, our process has become virtual. Our in-house hiring practices were already clear and structured, making the switch relatively easy and streamlined for what questions we ask, why we ask them, and what makes a good answer.</p>
<h2>3. What are your top tips for successfully managing a remote onboarding and/or recruitment process?</h2>
<p>Offer clarity, provide structure, implement social time and make them feel welcome.</p>
<p>Before you do anything, say what you&rsquo;re going to do, whether it&rsquo;s in the form of a &lsquo;first-day agenda&rsquo; email or a stand-up call you should openly communicate as a first step. We also value our&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://linkscan.io/scan/ux/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubm90aW9uLnNvL2xlYXJuZXJibHkvTGVhcm5lcmJseS1zLUVtcGxveWVlLUd1aWRlLTNhMDk2NGVlNjNhYTQ5MGE4NjA2ZmI3YmViZTQyNzIy/570E29765F79BDB328441905F6A34E923AD8D1C00F89236C361BFB8EF16AD7E8?c=1&amp;i=1&amp;docs=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Employee Handbook</a>&nbsp;which is visible to anyone and clearly communicates to prospective applicants and hires our culture and values whether we&rsquo;re onboarding them virtually or traditionally.</p>
<p>Provide structure. Written guides, agendas, and action points drive productivity and keep everyone in the know for what they&rsquo;re supposed to be doing and when they should be doing it.</p>
<p>Implement social time to compensate for what is missing in a virtual work environment. Organise virtual coffees for people and encourage non-work related conversations over video and messaging channels.</p>
<p>In general, with virtual onboardings, it means making an extra effort to ensure new joiners feel welcome. I schedule check-ups with them to get feedback, and we try to continue our onboarding rituals which include taking people out to lunch on their first day. Now we ask people to get food delivered and expense it, as well as the team signing and sending virtual welcome cards rather than giving a physical one.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve long had Empathy Guides that each new joiner fills out to help people get a better insight into their colleagues, how they work and what their interests are, but these guides have become even more important given that we haven&rsquo;t met many of the people who have joined the business over the last two months.</p>
<h2>4. Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</h2>
<p>We&rsquo;re working surprisingly well given the circumstances. We know this is not a regular WFH situation because there are threats to physical and mental-health impacting all of us but that doesn&rsquo;t mean we aren&rsquo;t seeing sustained productivity and employee engagement. Our Officevibe employee engagement score is at an 8.9/10 &mdash; putting us in the top 10% of Officevibe companies. These results in a time of crisis do prompt us to think about our office of the future and reflect on how we will work going forward. We&rsquo;re listening to our team and surveying their attitudes towards returning to physical office space and whether a permanent office for all will even be the best way forward or not. We&rsquo;ll go ahead with what we think is best for everyone.</p>
<h2>5. What advice would you give to anyone in a similar position to you at the moment?</h2>
<p>This too, shall pass. If you&rsquo;re making decisions that are good for your people, then the stability of your business should follow. Make sure you over-communicate during these times as people can feel uncertain and anxious.</p>
<p>The more transparent and compassionate you can be during these difficult times, the more your colleagues will respect and appreciate you fostering a happy and engaging environment. If you can be anything, be kind to yourself and to others as the way you respond as a leader during this challenging period will be a defining moment for how your colleagues perceive you and your employer brand in future.</p>

Futureheads Five Stories – Rajeeb Dey

<p>Mark McDermott is the CEO of ScreenCloud, a global digital signage platform helping over 8,500 businesses communicate meaningful content using screens.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>He is also the co-founder of Codegent, an independent digital product studio based in London, UK and Bangkok, Thailand.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Mark spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found here.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h2><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business?</span></h2>
<p>The world has changed and it&rsquo;s unlikely it will be the same again. It&rsquo;s been tough seeing some of our smaller customers who have been with us since we started ScreenCloud being so badly affected.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the demand for workforce communication tools that help separate what&rsquo;s important from the noise is more important than ever, and we&rsquo;ve pivoted to bring features like &ldquo;Company TV at home&rdquo; quickly to our customers, which have been very well received.</p>
<h2><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</span></h2>
<p>Operationally we&rsquo;ve always worked at least partly remotely, but we have put new initiatives in place to help everyone feel more connected like regular All Hands sessions, &ldquo;ScreenCloud Radio&rdquo; and virtual fitness classes.</p>
<h2><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">What are your top tips for successfully managing a remote recruitment process?</span></h2>
<p>We&rsquo;ve not been recruiting during this period so I don&rsquo;t have much to add here, but it&rsquo;s interesting to read about the challenges and solutions that others have experienced.</p>
<h2><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</span></h2>
<p>It&rsquo;s actually helped to clarify our mission more, around helping workforces to communicate better to their employees using tools that curate and collect what&rsquo;s important, rather than just adding to the noise.</p>
<h2><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">What advice would you give to anyone in a similar position to you at the moment?</span></h2>
<p>Clear your mind. Do what you need to do. If you think &ldquo;what would happen if I fail?&rdquo; and you&nbsp;plant that seed in your mind, then you WILL fail. It&rsquo;s time to go back to basics.&nbsp;People don&rsquo;t want &lsquo;complicated&rsquo; in tough times, they want&nbsp;simple and relatable and a narrative that fits. If the focus of your narrative in boom time is about innovation and the future, reframe it for now;&nbsp;what innovation that you&rsquo;ve done to date is useful for today? You have to be instantly relevant.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Futureheads Five Stories – Mark McDermott

<p>Matt has 20 years experience starting and scaling business through digital media.</p>
<p>As the founder of marketing technology business&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.driftrock.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Driftrock</a>, Matt helps brands like BMW, Honda and The University of Birmingham deliver marketing that people actually want to see, whilst protecting privacy.</p>
<p>Previously, as 3rd employee Matt helped Forward Internet Group scale to over &pound;100 million+ revenue and 500 staff. He also founded top mobile phone comparison site Omio, which merged with uSwitch in 2010 as well as co-founding Forward Labs helping test and grow startups.</p>

<h2>1. In what shape has your business emerged from Covid-19?</h2>
<p>With the new Covid-19 restrictions, we&rsquo;re very much still in the thick of things. We took a hit in April, but thankfully, changes we made have had an overall positive effect on the business and our clients. We&rsquo;ve recovered revenues and now enjoying some growth this quarter.</p>
<p>We feel very privileged with the global situation to be able to resume hiring again to expand our team.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>2. What are the most important and emerging skills to work in the new normal?</h2>
<p>With the ever changing global landscape we&rsquo;ve taken time and researched how we build resilience and agility into our organisation (more on some of those changes below). One of our core principles has always been continuous improvement, but now more than ever, we need to constantly evaluate and adapt to changing circumstances.</p>
<p>Like lots of tech companies we made a decision to close our office, and migrate to becoming a fully remote organisation. This has had a huge knock-on effect on the way we work and the skills we need to thrive in the new normal.</p>
<p>After lots of research, the core skills we&rsquo;ve focused on are a results-driven culture and asynchronous working. As well as being critical skills for distributed teams, these changes have had a big impact on our productivity and focus &ndash; regardless of where we are working.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>3. What changes have you made in operations and hiring that are here to stay, and what will you lose?</h2>
<p>Like many companies in 2020, we&rsquo;ve made more changes to the organisation than in any of our previous 7 years. For the results-driven focus we leveraged the&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.eosworldwide.com/eos-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EOS</a>&nbsp;framework and&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.cio.com/article/3302036/okr-objectives-and-key-results-defined.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OKRs.</a>&nbsp;This has influenced processes across everything we do from the product roadmap to HR processes. We&rsquo;ve made strides to work asynchronously using new collaboration tools and over-communicating where we can in everything we do.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve completely overhauled our hiring, onboarding and ongoing HR processes too in order to do things remotely. This mainly involved more deliberate, planned meetings and connections to integrate and improve relationships across the teams. Whereas previously things happened serendipitously, we&rsquo;ve found it important to work hard on these.</p>
<h2>4. What has been your biggest key learning and how will this prepare you for the future?</h2>
<p>Our biggest learning has been the benefits of focus and a shared vision across the business. Whilst it was important before, we&rsquo;ve seen first hand how being ruthlessly focused has improved our ability to deliver more value for our clients and the company.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s resulted in some features being deprecated, huge improvements to our products and services, and new processes across the board that have been very positive.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>5. What has been the biggest surprise to you?</h2>
<p>During the height of lockdown we onboarded two new teammates remotely, which was a daunting experience.</p>
<p>Thanks to some heroic work by Maryline, our Operations Manager and teammates who are always happy to jump in and help each other out, it&rsquo;s been a good experience overall.</p>
<p>One of our new teammates is having to shield, so we&rsquo;ve never met in person, yet we&rsquo;ve still managed to build bonds together. That said, we can&rsquo;t wait to meet up again as a team in person and celebrate!</p>
<p>To find out more about how Driftrock are helping clients generate more leads and grow their business through social advertising, visit their&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.driftrock.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">site</a>&nbsp;or follow them on&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/driftrock/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">LinkedIn.</a></p>

Futureheads Five Stories – Matt Wheeler

<p>Matthew Bagwell is a fully qualified and practicing Advanced Oxygen Advantage&reg; Breathwork instructor, coaching across elite sports to people in need of specific support addressing physical and psychological conditions including depression and anxiety. He is also an endurance athlete, currently focused on ultra-distance running events.</p>
<p>Matt teaches people all over the world how to use their breath to improve physical and mental resilience, induce deep relaxation, overcome challenges including pandemic anxiety and unlock creative energy. His work is grounded in pragmatic scientific research and personal experience. As he says himself, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not woo woo, it&rsquo;s all science.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>1. What trends have you seen in peoples mental health over 2020?</p>
<p>The headline is increased anxiety. My classes have grown and grown as well as requests for one-to-one tuition &ndash; very often, it&rsquo;s relieving stress that is foremost in their minds. Sadly, I have also had more conversations with people developing early signs of both depression and fatalistic thinking. While this should come as no surprise &ndash; we are all under extraordinary circumstances &ndash; we need to pay attention to long-term wellbeing in LD2.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>2. What are the most important and emerging skills to work in the new normal?</p>
<p>From my perspective, it&rsquo;s about maintaining a balance and not developing new, less positive habits. We don&rsquo;t need to move to work or around the office. We can sit for hours and oftentimes, will be on our computers for hours longer than we would have been pre-pandemic. So we have to develop new healthy habits; take a regular screen break, don&rsquo;t eat and work, see the horizon every day, start work on time (not earlier) and end on time (not later) and spend time on exercise. The new skill here? Obsess about your wellbeing.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>3.&nbsp;If you could change one thing in peoples behaviour, in the new normal, to benefit their health and keep them on track professionally &ndash; what would it be?</p>
<p>To breathe consciously, inhaling and exhaling through the nose only, for ten minutes a day. People can join my free classes on @lovetolearnto to learn how to do this to optimise how they breathe. Changing breathing can help manage anxiety, improve sleep and positively affect how we think.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>4. What has been your biggest key learning and how will this prepare you for the future?</p>
<p>That I had taken personal contact with loved ones and travel for granted. As soon as I can do either (in a way that&rsquo;s sustainable for the planet), I&rsquo;m hugging everyone, everywhere!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>5. What has been the biggest surprise to you?</p>
<p>Great question. For me, just how resilient nature is. With Lockdown One, I was able to closely observe it and celebrate it &lsquo;bouncing back&rsquo;. I think so many people said the same thing, bird song, insects, boundless blackberries, clear skies. There&rsquo;s something to remember and take forward in this. I really hope we do.</p>

Futureheads Five Stories – Matthew Bagwell

<p>Sam Cohen is the COO and co-founder of Lifted, a Care-Tech company that aims to transform later life using tech to revolutionise the care experience for families and Carers.</p>

<p>Sam is a graduate of the London School of Economics with 10+ years&rsquo; experience building scale-up businesses. His career began in Equity Research but he soon followed his passion for tech by joining Wonga and RateSetter to launch new markets &amp; products. His next role was at Yopa, joining the founding team as Operations Director, where he played a central role in supporting the business scale from 40-450 after raising &pound;75m in Series A-D funding.</p>
<p>Sam spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.wearefutureheads.com/tag/ffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here.</a></p>
<h2><strong>1. Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business?</strong></h2>
<p>The logistical challenges overall have been manifold, moving our management of the business and the field online simultaneously. However, everyone has been incredible and more than met the challenge. Family members of clients on Furlough have seen a slight reduction in demand for Hourly care however Live-in inquiries have increased.</p>
<h2><strong>2. How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</strong></h2>
<p>Given our carers go into clients homes we have had to be incredibly diligent in ensuring they have the correct PPE at all times. To ensure this, I have set up a mini-distribution centre at home, posting out PPE parcels daily. Sourcing PPE has become a critical project managed by the Operations team.</p>
<p>In terms of hiring new carers, we have ramped up phone and zoom screening and held 2 training sessions in lockdown, onboarding a dozen carers digitally. We can also conduct risk assessments remotely for certain clients.</p>
<p>We have also had 4 new starters in &lsquo;Remote HQ&rsquo;. For them to understand our culture / lore quicker, we have put together a &lsquo;Lifted Potted History&rsquo; doc with salient moments (pictures, screenshots of archaic s/sheets etc) that captures some of the journey to date.</p>
<h2><strong>3. What are your top tips for successfully managing a remote recruitment process?</strong></h2>
<p>Don&rsquo;t rush and where possible, ask a subject matter expert outside of the organisation to objectively assess the candidates against their protocols. That helps remove any unconscious biases hiring managers have toward their preferred candidates.</p>
<h2><strong>4. Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</strong></h2>
<p>Yes. It has accelerated the need to digitise certain face to face interactions that were previously thought essential. Whilst the act of giving care must remain physical, lots of the upfront work to onboard a client can be done more efficiently remotely.</p>
<p>The process of building rapport and empathy is slightly trickier online, especially when meeting older clients not used to talking to screens. However, through active listening and patience all parties can come away feeling understood and comfortable with aligned expectations.</p>
<p>We are also on the lookout for volunteers with care experience who are minded to make a difference in these turbulent times. Being able to onboard volunteers, therefore, is another tweak to how we will recruit going forward.</p>
<h2><strong>5. What advice would you give to anyone in a similar position to you at the moment?</strong></h2>
<p>Where possible, continue to add top tier talent into the organisation to elevate overall standards. We need to all continue moving forwards as preserving cash is not a strategic goal for early-stage growth companies in itself. Be sensible, hire only when necessary, but really get behind moving things forward in new and creative ways. The time is now!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Futureheads Five Stories: Sam Cohen

From helping shape the London-UX market from the early days, to running and sponsoring some of the most well-known UX networking events – our reputation holds in our ability to match top-tier UX practitioners into opportunities. 

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>From helping shape the London-UX market from the early days, to running and sponsoring some of the most well-known UX networking events – our reputation holds in our ability to match top-tier UX practitioners into opportunities. </p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes practitioners with skills across:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>User Research</li>
      <li>Interaction Design​</li>
      <li>​UX Design</li>
      <li>Information Architecture</li>
      <li>​Service Design​</li>
      <li>Content Design</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

UX & Service Design

With positions across agencies, brands, start-ups and tech companies, we work with Creatives delivering new brands, campaigns and integrated experiences. From hiring freelance Creative Teams to your first in-house Copywriter, we’ve got it covered. 

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>With positions across agencies, brands, start-ups and tech companies, we work with Creatives delivering new brands, campaigns and integrated experiences. From hiring freelance Creative Teams to your first in-house Copywriter, we’ve got it covered.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network include professionals in:</h5> 
    <ul>
      <li>Motion Graphics & Video Editing</li>
      <li>Branding</li>
      <li>Copywriting</li>
      <li>Art Direction</li>
      <li>Illustration</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Creative

The complexities of AI and Machine learning, as well as the focus on data integrity, means hiring professionals with compliance, system integration and advanced analytics skills can be challenging. Our team is on hand to help with your Data recruitment needs.

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>The complexities of AI and Machine learning, as well as the focus on data integrity, means hiring professionals with compliance, system integration and advanced analytics skills can be challenging. Our team is on hand to help with your Data recruitment needs.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes professionals in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Data Engineering</li>
      <li>Data Science</li>
      <li>​Data Analytics</li>
      <li>Business Intelligence</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Data

Part of our founding offering; since 2009 we have been part of the growth and evolution of the Design market in the UK – With a comprehensive network across all majors skill-sets we have consistently helped businesses hire world-class Design talent. 

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>Part of our founding offering; since 2009 we have been part of the growth and evolution of the Design market in the UK – With a comprehensive network across all majors skill-sets we have consistently helped businesses hire world-class Design talent.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5> Our network includes Designers with skills in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Digital Product (UX/UI) Design</li>
      <li>User Interface (UI) Design</li>
      <li>​Visual Design</li>
      <li>Digital Design</li>
      <li>Marketing Design</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Design

We know that the world of Digital Marketing moves at a quick pace. Digital Devices, Digital Platforms, Digital Media, Digital Data, And Digital Technology never stops. This is why our teams are on hand to support these changing landscapes and are always ahead of the curve.

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>We know that the world of Digital Marketing moves at a quick pace. Digital Devices, Digital Platforms, Digital Media, Digital Data, And Digital Technology never stops. This is why our teams are on hand to support these changing landscapes and are always ahead of the curve.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes professionals in</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)</li>
      <li>Pay-per-Click</li>
      <li>Social Media Marketing</li>
      <li>Content Marketing</li>
      <li>Email Marketing</li>
      <li>Mobile Marketing</li>
      <li>Marketing Analytics</li>
      <li>Affiliate Marketing</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Digital Marketing

Our niche is technical experts who specialise in IT and digital projects, across multiple platforms and technology stacks. Come and talk to us about all things engineering, from entry to CTO-Level.

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>Our niche is technical experts who specialise in IT and digital projects, across multiple platforms and technology stacks. Come and talk to us about all things engineering, from entry to CTO-Level.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes professionals across:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Front-end</li>
      <li>​Server-side​</li>
      <li>​Full-stack​</li>
      <li>Native Mobile​​</li>
      <li>Technical Architecture​​</li>
      <li>Solution Architecture​​</li>
      <li>Testing</li>
      <li>QA​​</li>
      <li>DevOps</li>
      <li>SRE</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Engineering

From recruiting your first Product Owner to hiring your next experienced Product Managers, our recruiters have developed a specialist network in the design and tech space. They have trusted experts in sourcing and delivering both permanent and contract professionals in the field.

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>From recruiting your first Product Owner to hiring your next experienced Product Managers, our recruiters have developed a specialist network in the design and tech space. They are trusted experts in sourcing and delivering both permanent and contract professionals in the field.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Chief Product Officers (CPO)</li>
      <li>VP's of Product Management​</li>
      <li>Directors of Product Management</li>
      <li>Product Managers​​</li>
      <li>Product Owners</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Product

With a deep understanding of what is required from Project Managers and Programme Managers in the Digital and Tech space, we can help you find the talent to help you deliver better budget controls, communication, and reporting, to help you find ways to introduce new processes tools and technology that can support more efficient work delivery.

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>With a deep understanding of what is required from Project Managers and Programme Managers in the Digital and Tech space, we can help you find the talent to help you deliver better budget controls, communication, and reporting, to help you find ways to introduce new processes tools and technology that can support more efficient work delivery. </p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Digital Project Managers</li>
      <li>Programme Managers</li>
      <li>Engineering Project Managers</li>
      <li>Software/IT Project Managers</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Project & Programme Management

Toby Thwaites

<p>Toby joined Futureheads in 2011 as a Resourcer and one of the business's original recruits.</p>
<p>He now oversees all sales initiatives across the Futureheads business. Toby leads the Senior Sales management team in order to deliver an efficient, first-class experience to our clients and candidates.</p>
<p>When not at work, Toby loves countryside living with his partner and Labrador (Olive), good food, nurturing his garden, and going on new adventures.&nbsp;</p>

Joseph Cardone

<p>Joseph is a UI and Product Design Senior Consultant for Futureheads.</p>
<p>He has a background in Sales and previously worked for companies such as Tesla and JIVR.&nbsp;As part of the Design Team at Futureheads Joseph works across a broad range of clients from small start-ups, consultancies/agencies and big brands. His main focus is working with permanent UI &amp; Product Designers.</p>
<p>Outside of work, Joseph is a DJ and Music Producer. He's been doing that for over 15 years. He's also a salsa dancer and loves to cook Italian food.&nbsp;</p>

Sectors we cover

UX & Service Design

Latest UX & Service Design Jobs

Meet the UX & Service Design Team

Latest UX & Service Design News