Looks like you have JavaScript disabled. For the full Twine experience, you will need to re-enable it.

I’m Nicolas Mahlunge, a Senior Digital Product Designer with 8+ years’ experience turning messy, complex problems into clear, usable products. I work across 0-to-1 launches and scaling platforms, with a focus on clarity, usability, and long-term value—balancing visual craft, product thinking, and systems design across web, iOS, Android, and emerging interface contexts. My background spans startups, scale-ups, and enterprise teams, including The Times, John Lewis Partnership, the Financial Times, COP28, and Citibank. I enjoy shaping product direction, building design systems that can scale quickly, and aligning stakeholders through research synthesis, usability testing, and data-informed iteration. Outside of design, I’m a published photographer and a doodler, which strongly influences how I approach narrative, composition, and visual decision-making.…I’m Nicolas Mahlunge, a Senior Digital Product Designer with 8+ years’ experience turning messy, complex problems into clear, usable products. I work across 0-to-1 launches and scaling platforms, with a focus on clarity, usability, and long-term value—balancing visual craft, product thinking, and systems design across web, iOS, Android, and emerging interface contexts. My background spans startups, scale-ups, and enterprise teams, including The Times, John Lewis Partnership, the Financial Times, COP28, and Citibank. I enjoy shaping product direction, building design systems that can scale quickly, and aligning stakeholders through research synthesis, usability testing, and data-informed iteration. Outside of design, I’m a published photographer and a doodler, which strongly influences how I approach narrative, composition, and visual decision-making.

Nicolas Mahlunge

UI Designer, Product Designer, UX Designer





I’m Nicolas Mahlunge, a Senior Digital Product Designer with 8+ years’ experience turning messy, complex problems into clear, usable products. I work across 0-to-1 launches and scaling platforms, with a focus on clarity, usability, and long-term value—balancing visual craft, product thinking, and systems design across web, iOS, Android, and emerging interface contexts. My background spans startups, scale-ups, and enterprise teams, including The Times, John Lewis Partnership, the Financial Times, COP28, and Citibank. I enjoy shaping product direction, building design systems that can scale quickly, and aligning stakeholders through research synthesis, usability testing, and data-informed iteration. Outside of design, I’m a published photographer and a doodler, which strongly influences how I approach narrative, composition, and visual decision-making.…I’m Nicolas Mahlunge, a Senior Digital Product Designer with 8+ years’ experience turning messy, complex problems into clear, usable products. I work across 0-to-1 launches and scaling platforms, with a focus on clarity, usability, and long-term value—balancing visual craft, product thinking, and systems design across web, iOS, Android, and emerging interface contexts. My background spans startups, scale-ups, and enterprise teams, including The Times, John Lewis Partnership, the Financial Times, COP28, and Citibank. I enjoy shaping product direction, building design systems that can scale quickly, and aligning stakeholders through research synthesis, usability testing, and data-informed iteration. Outside of design, I’m a published photographer and a doodler, which strongly influences how I approach narrative, composition, and visual decision-making.

Next availability:

September 28, 2026

London, United Kingdom

I’m Nicolas Mahlunge, a Senior Digital Product Designer with 8+ years’ experience turning messy, complex problems into clear, usable products. I work across 0-to-1 launches and scaling platforms, with a focus on clarity, usability, and long-term value—balancing visual craft, product thinking, and systems design across web, iOS, Android, and emerging interface contexts.

My background spans startups, scale-ups, and enterprise teams, including The Times, John Lewis Partnership, the Financial Times, COP28, and Citibank. I enjoy shaping product direction, building design systems that can scale quickly, and aligning stakeholders through research synthesis, usability testing, and data-informed iteration. Outside of design, I’m a published photographer and a doodler, which strongly influences how I approach narrative, composition, and visual decision-making.

Skills

Experience Level

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Intermediate

Language

English

Fluent

Work Experience

Brand and Lead Product Designer at Stealth startup / Viget

February 1, 2026 - June 30, 2026

Led brand and product design for an invite-only fintech platform from identity through to a build-ready iOS design system. Defined the visual language, product direction, and iOS design system despite no prior brand/design precedent. Designed core screens end-to-end, including motion concepts for a key interaction, and set a high craft standard for the first release. Coordinated a timezone-split workflow with a second designer while maintaining quality under compressed, multi-stakeholder timelines. Balanced simultaneous brand and product decisions with direct founder involvement.

Product Designer at The Times

April 1, 2025 - January 31, 2026

Primary designer across Times Travel & Holidays, owning discovery, booking, and commercial layers across web and app. Delivered structural improvements to destination and country discovery to reduce reliance on editorial funnels, enabling more organic access paths that support SEO and long-term content value. Designed and iterated booking flows, search patterns, and system states for cruises, holidays, and partner integrations with differing data models and user expectations. Introduced new homepage ad formats and commercial inventory while protecting editorial trust through close collaboration with editorial, product, and engineering. Contributed patterns and components back into the core Times design system.

Senior Product Designer at Butternut Box

October 1, 2024 - November 30, 2024

Reworked the content blog into a performance-led acquisition funnel and improved checkout, including express payment journeys. Increased conversion from blog readers to customers by 22% versus a 10% goal.

Creative Designer at Great State

January 1, 2024 - February 28, 2025

Delivered digital design work across enterprise automotive platforms and community-focused public services. Rolled out a modular digital rebrand and design system for Cox Automotive to support consistency across marketing and product touchpoints, including scalable component libraries and brand guidelines. Designed UI for the INEOS Grenadier launch, creating the brand experience for a vehicle that didn’t physically exist yet; results included a 455% increase in conversion to purchase, 75,000 reservations in 12 hours, and 12 vehicles reserved per minute at peak. Built an accessibility-first website for RHP to WCAG AAA standard, prioritising clarity and rapid access to information for elderly residents and users with accessibility needs, while balancing brand expression with strict WCAG requirements.

Senior Product Designer (UI-focused) at COP28

October 1, 2023 - August 31, 2023

Owned the design system for the official COP28 digital estate (apps and portals serving 500,000+ attendees across staff, visitor, and accessibility contexts). Built and maintained a shared design system spanning three applications with different user needs under a single visual identity. Made design-system decisions that needed to scale immediately for launch-day traffic without post-launch iteration. Supported cross-platform experiences throughout the event lifecycle, contributing to 57,000+ app downloads, 3M page views, and a 5-star app rating.

Senior Product Designer at John Lewis Partnership

June 1, 2023 - August 31, 2023

Redesigned checkout and authentication flows across web and app, incorporating express pay and up-sell components, and rebuilt sign-up around post-checkout account creation and a two-screen flow. Increased sign-ups by 18% without rising cart abandonment. Led early design exploration of a cross-brand loyalty scheme spanning John Lewis and Waitrose, introducing components that respected both brand identities within a shared design system and gained senior stakeholder approval for further development.

Senior Product Designer at The Financial Times

October 1, 2022 - September 30, 2022

Sole designer responsible for building a cross-platform UI design system based on partner frameworks. Conducted research and journey mapping to improve consistency across Android and iOS.

Senior Product Designer at Condé Nast

December 1, 2021 - April 30, 2021

Conducted discovery to merge two food brands into a single subscription model, including research, information architecture, user flows, and prelaunch wireframes.

Senior UI Designer at Publicis Sapient

October 1, 2021 - April 30, 2022

Contributed to Ernst & Young’s enterprise design system and led discovery for a loyalty programme, facilitating workshops and user testing across two engagements.

Product Designer at W12 Studios

January 1, 2020 - December 31, 2021

Built digital tools for Citibank (make a trade workflows, design system, and watchlist feature) and supported Verizon (TV streaming personalisation discovery and workshops).