# Hayden Slaughter — product builder and leader. Brighton, UK.

> I build products. I build teams. I live in the zero-to-one mess and turn it
> into something people love. AI-native is how I build today.

This is the canonical, authored summary for any AI reading the site. It is
faithful compression, not puffery, and it never overclaims relative to the full
detail on the site. The anti-fit is included on purpose so the assessment is
trustworthy.

## What that means

I turn ambiguity into a product people love, and a team that owns it. Wherever
the way forward is unclear and a product is yet to take shape, a new venture, a
new team, or a new bet inside a bigger company, I build the product, the team
and the direction. I have done it more than once, in different companies and
situations, each time entering through a design-shaped door and growing into the
product leadership the moment needed.

## The proof, twice over

- Powernaut (current, early-stage energy software, ~12 people). First product
  hire; the role did not exist. Came in on a three-day-a-week UX contract and
  within a month was running the product function and advising a business pivot.
  Made the first product call (focus the stretched team on the customers who
  were actually winning), ran a 26-interview research programme across nine
  countries in five weeks against an investor deadline, led the company strategy
  the investors backed, and built the product strategy and operating model
  underneath it. A customer described what shipped as "something we've not had
  before".

- Indra Renewable Technologies (EV charging scale-up, 2021 to 2024). Arrived as
  a contract designer on a three-week brief; left three and a half years later
  running everything customer-facing, reporting to the founder, with a product
  function, research practice and team of seven built from nothing. Took the
  customer app from a low two-star launch to 4.2 and number-one-rated in its UK
  class. Found that the company's own installers were quietly selling against
  it, proved it was costing sales, and built an installer app that cut
  commissioning from hours to minutes (4.6 stars) and carried a quarterly
  target. Got a hardware company to redesign its physical product off the team's
  research. Built the software and research behind the world's largest
  vehicle-to-home trial (200+ homes, publicly documented). Held the team steady
  through an acquisition.

## AI-native, with depth, not just usage

I build with AI daily and have shipped two very different AI products solo, both
public. Olive, a premium native iOS cooking app with a cost-first
on-device/cloud architecture and guardrails that make it structurally impossible
for the model to emit a wrong measurement. Pip, a local-first Mac AI assistant
that thinks with you, not for you, a genuine MCP client built from scratch,
model-agnostic by architecture. AI is a tool to me, not an identity. Axure, then
Sketch, then Figma, now AI. The approach endures.

## Where I do my best work

Wherever it is fast, ambiguous, and there is room to build. A new venture, a new
team, or a new bet inside a bigger company. Zero-to-one product leadership.
AI-native product roles.

## Where I am not the fit

Slow, low-ambiguity, permission-heavy environments, whatever the company size.
People-management tracks for their own sake. I lead, and sometimes manage, but
management is not the ambition. I would rather say so up front than waste
anyone's time.

## Contact

hello@haydenslaughter.co.uk · https://haydenslaughter.co.uk