Skip to content
JOHN GUTCHLUMIA

Experience

Building products, businesses and the teams behind them.

More than twelve years building products, reshaping organisations and leading complex change across FTSE 100 businesses, international portfolios and founder-led ventures.

Explore the career Start a conversation

12+

years leading product and transformation

£18m

fintech budget managed over three years

85

people in the fintech team built and led at Etc

8

international markets launched

Leadership proposition

Direction, ownership and enough detail to make it real.

Executive product strategy and portfolio prioritisation

Digital and AI transformation grounded in commercial outcomes

Customer journeys, platforms, data and workflow modernisation

Organisation design, executive alignment and delivery recovery

Venture building, partnerships and product-led growth

Hands-on prototyping, software development and practical AI

Executive career

Built across products, platforms and transformation.

Livensa Living brand and property experience montage
2025–PresentSenior Product Director (Contract)

Livensa Living

Create one digital experience from two established brands.

Leading a team of ten following the combination of Nido and Livensa, setting the product strategy and roadmap for property discovery, search and booking. Connecting the new website to consolidated property, CRM, content and data systems, while helping the leadership team build a customer-focused product and technology organisation.

Impact

The programme is in build and testing, with launch planned for October 2026. It addresses booking friction, fragmented data and support demand; customer and commercial improvements will be measured after launch.

  • Product direction agreed with executives and investors
  • Team setup, leadership coaching and product ways of working
  • AI-assisted research synthesis and engineering delivery
BT Tap to Pay product design montage
2022–2025Fintech Director

Etc at BT Group

Create new businesses using BT's capabilities.

Co-created Etc, BT's innovation and incubation unit, with two other leaders. Shaped its strategy, verticals and organisation, brought existing teams together and led recruitment. Built and led its fintech vertical, overseeing BT Pay's cloud platform and the SME proposition BT Tap to Pay.

BT Pay was built to replace the legacy payments stack across BT, EE and Plusnet, within a group handling approximately £15bn in annual customer payments. Separately, research with small businesses led to Tap to Pay: accepting payments on a phone, supported by BT's brand and network.

Impact

BT Pay was live in multiple business areas at departure, with rollout continuing. BT Tap to Pay launched in eight months and processed approximately £1.5m in payments over eight months.

  • Built and led an 85-person fintech team
  • Managed an £18m budget over three years
  • Secured board approval for BT Pay's build-versus-buy case
Vodafone connected product interface and device montage
2019–2022Head of Product, Vodafone Smart Tech

Vodafone

Turn connectivity into products people actually want.

Helped establish Vodafone's in-house connected-products business, moving from third-party devices to products designed and delivered end to end. Led tracking and transport, including Curve, with ownership of product direction and design sign-off across hardware, apps, platforms and accessories.

Impact

Launched the Curve portfolio across eight international markets. Involved country teams throughout the build so local customer needs shaped the products and created support for launch.

  • Curve GPS tracker, Bike Light and Pet Tracker
  • Product, industrial design and engineering partner leadership
  • Red Dot, iF Design and GLOMO recognition
Hive connected home product and hardware design montage
2014–2019Head of Product, Hive

Hive

Build connected-home products around real customer needs.

Brought experience from customers' homes into Hive's product development, spanning the thermostat, app, installation and support experience. Led the thermostat's adaptation for US heating and cooling systems, then headed the diagnostics portfolio, including boiler monitoring and leak detection.

Impact

Delivered the US thermostat launch across five states and created the training approach for a rollout to 10,000 British Gas engineers. The diagnostics products reached 150,000 Hive Leak and 80,000 Boiler IQ customers.

  • Product leadership from customer research through manufacture and launch
  • Integrated an acquired team into the diagnostics portfolio
  • Named inventor on connected-home design patents

2025–Present

Founder & Product Advisor, Lumia Group.

Lumia combines product leadership, consulting and hands-on building. The work includes supporting CI&T with client propositions, fractional product leadership and creating software through Lumia Studio.

  • Product strategy and new propositions
  • Fractional CPO and executive support
  • Teams, operating models and delivery
  • Hands-on software and venture building

Startup & venture work

Still close enough to the work to build at speed.

Hands-on design, prototyping and software development alongside senior product leadership. These examples distinguish John’s direct builds, work with co-founders and delivery with specialist partners, using AI across development, marketing and operations.

SolarTyle product and operations dashboard montage
AI-assisted product development

Equity holder | Product and AI advisor

SolarTyle

The business needed better control of pricing, quote revisions and pipeline visibility. John personally built its quoting and forecasting software and worked with a specialist engineering partner to deliver the roof configurator connected to its website.

Both products are live and used by the business and its customers, supporting internal quoting and customer-facing roof planning.

Pik Club sports prediction app interface montage
AI-assisted product development

Co-founder

PikClub

Turned a golf sweepstake run through spreadsheets and group chats into a sports prediction app. John developed the idea and formats with his co-founder, then personally designed the UX and UI, built the app and backend, and published it to the Apple and Google Play app stores.

Live with more than 300 users, including paying subscribers, supporting private competitions across multiple sports and game formats.

Foremates golf product interface montage
AI-assisted product development

Co-founder & Chief Product Officer

Foremates

John co-originated the idea and leads product strategy within a four-founder team. His contribution spans the roadmap, features, customer and competitor research, code, marketing and communications, using AI to accelerate product development, campaigns and operating processes.

Launched with more than 250 users in the first eight weeks, including paying subscribers, with no marketing spend.

Recognition

Work recognised beyond the organisation.

Awards, patents and speaking connected to products and transformations delivered across the career.

Red Dot Design winneriF Design — CurveMWC GLOMO winnerConnected-home patentsMoney20/20 speakerFinTech Magazine

What happens next

A role, a mandate or a difficult product decision.

Start a conversation Explore Lumia Studio