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Robert Whelan

Robert Whelan

Head of User Interface Development

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location of Robert WhelanGreater Dublin

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  • Timeline

  • About me

    Product design director still learning after all these years!

  • Education

    • University College Dublin

      -
      BSc Computer Science, Mathematics

      Activities and Societies: Designing computer games was a passion. Did my fourth year project on eLearning systems, and developed my own CBT system that allowed the construction of eLearning materials. This idea later became the basis for the company WBT systems.

    • Dublin City University

      -
      MSc User Experience

      Activities and Societies: Did a research masters on the topic of User Experience.

  • Experience

    • Nua

      Aug 1999 - Feb 2001
      Head of User Interface Development

      Managed an 18 strong team of UXers, UI designers, copywriters and front end developers to develop websites for top international brands.

    • Shope Centre Ltd

      Mar 2001 - Jul 2006
      Chief Technology Officer

      Initially hired as CTO for this eCommerce startup, I also took over operations management also in 2004. Direct reports included technology, product, design and UX, customer support, marketing, online operations, development.

    • Pocket Kings

      Jul 2006 - Nov 2007
      Product Manager

      Responsibilities included internationalisation, game development, web admin and support systems for Full Tilt Poker.

    • MUZU™

      Jan 2008 - Jun 2008
      Consulting

      Product, user experience and technology partnerships.

    • Flutter Entertainment Plc

      Jul 2008 - Nov 2013
      Product Design Architect

      Responsible for the user experience of our online and mobile sports betting and gaming products.

    • Verizon Connect

      Dec 2013 - Nov 2015
      Head of Product Design

      After initially Product Managing the Fleetmatics Work product to market, I was asked to step up to establish a company wide Product Design function. Reporting into the VP of Product, I was responsible for product design across the whole product set, managing a multi-disciplinary team of product designers across Europe and the US. Product Design work closely with Product Marketing and Technical Product Management as part of the overall Product Management group to establish, conceptualise and manage the product roadmaps and evolve our User Centric process. Show less

    • Guidewire Software

      Nov 2016 - Apr 2020
      Senior Product Design Manager

      Guidewire provides state of the art web based software to the largest insurance companies in the world. Reporting to our Global VP UX, I managed multiple design and research teams in Dublin and Krakow, responsible for Digital, international markets, design systems, SaaS platform and accessibility.

    • Jiggle Media

      Apr 2020 - Oct 2021
      Consultant - Director of UX - Hertz

      My company Jiggle Media specialises in Product Design, UX, and multi-media production including film-making, music production and film scoring. During this period I acted as Director of User Experience for Hertz.

    • IBM

      Oct 2021 - now

      I’m responsible for the design of our PLG initiatives for our Digital Labour portfolio including watsonx Assistant and watsonx Orchestrate. These are key products within our Data & AI division. The products focus on leveraging state of the art business automation and generative AI. I liaise with teams on three continents to bring this vision to life and drive adoption and engagement. Design Manager working on Process Mining and Business Automation utilising IBM’s Watson machine learning platform. I’m also Head of Studio for our Ireland studio of 40 AI designers working on a range of products from healthcare, cybersecurity, cloud tools and business automation.

      • Product Growth Design - Digital Labour and AI

        Jan 2024 - now

      • Head of Studio, Design Manager

        Oct 2021 - now

  • Licenses & Certifications