Steve James
Senior Product Leader | B2B SaaS | Fintech | Market Intelligence
Senior Product Leader with 15+ years’ experience driving product strategy and delivering commercially impactful solutions across SaaS, fintech and market intelligence. Skilled in AI-enabled product capabilities, market and behavioural analysis and cross-functional leadership. Known for aligning stakeholders and enabling teams to deliver meaningful business value with clarity and focus.
Core Competencies
Product Strategy and Vision Customer and Commercial Value Delivery AI-enabled Product Solutions Behavioural Analytics Discovery and Validation Roadmap Governance Data-Informed Decision-Making Cross-Domain Alignment C-Suite Stakeholder Engagement Outcome-focused Delivery Leadership Coaching and Mentoring Portfolio and Prioritisation Rigor
Professional Experience
Head of Product Management – Content Solutions Third Bridge Group Ltd
Third Bridge Group Ltd
Operated in a hybrid leadership and IC role, remaining directly involved in discovery, design, technical decision-making and rollout planning for high-impact initiatives, rather than functioning solely as a people manager.
Responsibilities
- Lead the strategy, vision and execution for Third Bridge’s Content Solutions business across Web, Mobile and Data products.
- Manage four Senior Product Managers and guide four cross-functional squads responsible for content creation, discovery, engagement and client experience.
- Shape multi-year product strategy and ensure that roadmaps deliver measurable commercial and client value.
- Drive the integration of AI-enabled capabilities including LLM-powered research workflows, recommendations and workflow automation.
- Partner closely with senior leadership to align business priorities, shape investment decisions and communicate progress, risks and outcomes.
- Strengthen the organisation’s product practice through structured discovery, operational clarity, design collaboration and data-informed ways of working.
Key Achievements
- Delivered Third Bridge’s first suite of AI-enabled discovery and analysis features, significantly improving client research efficiency and platform value.
- Established evaluation frameworks for AI search accuracy, hallucination risk mitigation and compliance assurance.
- Launched iOS and Android apps and subsequent updates, materially improving stability and increasing client retention.
- Increased search engagement and time-on-platform through behaviour-led discovery improvements.
- Introduced behavioural analytics frameworks that surfaced actionable insights for roadmap decision-making.
- Strengthened roadmap governance, cross-domain alignment and executive communication, improving trust and predictability.
Senior Product Manager – Common Platform Services Third Bridge Group Ltd
Third Bridge Group Ltd
Responsibilities
- Owned strategy and roadmap for Third Bridge’s shared platform, API ecosystem and data services powering all user-facing products.
- Defined governance for service reliability, backlog health and dependency management across multiple teams and domains.
- Built foundational capabilities to support scalable future development, including AI-driven product features.
Key Achievements
- Improved development velocity through reusable service architecture.
- Introduced SLOs that reduced production incidents.
- Reduced operational backlog through structured dependency management and roadmap alignment.
Agile Transformation Lead (Product Operating Model) London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG)
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG)
Brought into the transformation team specifically due to Product Management expertise, with a remit to ensure product competencies, discovery practices and outcome-focused ways of working were deeply embedded into LSEG’s new operating model.
Responsibilities
- Defined the Product Operating Model for Product Managers, Product Owners and Business Analysts across five divisions.
- Ensured product discovery, prioritisation, user insight and value articulation became core pillars of LSEG’s scaled delivery model.
- Coached Business Analysts, Product Owners and Product Managers to elevate their strategic capabilities and alignment with product principles.
- Partnered with senior leaders to embed outcome-led planning, psychological safety and cross-functional collaboration across global teams.
Key Achievements
- Introduced OKR-based quarterly planning, improving transparency and throughput.
- Strengthened cross-team collaboration and alignment during the Refinitiv–LSEG integration.
- Established communities of practice that improved consistency and raised the standard of product and analysis work.
Lead Product Owner & Business Analyst Manager – Risk & Compliance Refinitiv
Refinitiv
Responsibilities
- Owned the end-to-end product delivery and roadmap for the Risk Technology World-Check suite and associated KYC/AML products.
- Led product discovery activities across multiple squads, translating market problems, regulatory changes and client insights into clear product opportunities.
- Defined multi-year product opportunities grounded in client value, commercial goals and compliance obligations.
- Managed and coached six Product Owners, strengthening their capability in prioritisation, strategy translation and outcome-focused delivery.
- Partnered with Proposition, Sales, Customer Success and Compliance teams to shape product direction and ensure strong alignment with revenue strategy.
- Established portfolio-level governance and reporting, ensuring clarity on priorities, value, risks and decision-making for senior stakeholders.
Key Achievements
- Delivered significant enhancements across the World-Check portfolio, improving data quality, consistency and usability for high-value financial clients.
- Increased roadmap predictability and cross-team alignment by introducing clearer strategic planning and transparent prioritisation.
- Improved auditability and data accuracy of World-Check One by 30%, strengthening client confidence and reducing operational risk.
- Built a more outcomes-driven culture by aligning Product Owners to measurable KPIs, business goals and value-based prioritisation frameworks.
- Provided leadership continuity during corporate transitions, ensuring the portfolio maintained strategic alignment despite substantial organisational change.
Senior Business Analyst – Risk & Legal Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters
Responsibilities
- Delivered analysis and roadmap definition for risk and legal products including World-Check One and Regulatory Intelligence.
- Established value-based prioritisation, requirements traceability and governance frameworks.
- Collaborated with global stakeholders to align regulatory, technical and market needs.
Key Achievements
- Delivered Regulatory Intelligence 2.0 to global users.
- Led zero to 1 delivery of a self-service regulatory data feed solution that reduced client onboarding time by 40%, enabling faster revenue realisation.
- Improved data accuracy and auditability of World-Check One by 30%.
Business Analyst North Highland Managed Services
North Highland Managed Services
Responsibilities
- Led requirements and scope definition for Royal Mail’s Parcels Transformation Programme, delivering the first release on time.
- Created a centralised requirements catalogue reducing approval cycle time by 25%.
- Supported Sainsbury’s BI transformation for 250+ users, improving reporting accuracy.
Agile Business Analyst (QBCC) | Business Analyst (Network Rail) Earlier Career
Earlier Career
Responsibilities
- QBCC (2011–2014): Agile Business Analyst supporting digital transformation and national licensing programmes.
- Network Rail (2006–2009): Business Analyst and Data Quality Specialist delivering process improvements that reduced operational defects by 30% and improved data accuracy by 25%.
Education & Certifications
BSc Computer Science (In-Progress) University of the People, USA
University of the People, USA
Product & Agile Professional Certifications
Professional Certifications
- AI Agents & LLM Foundations Certified PM (Product Compass)
- SAFe Agile Product Manager
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) & Scrum Master (CSM)
- Agile Analysis Certification (IIBA)
- Six Sigma Green Belt & PRINCE2 Foundation