Andy Birds has joined Manchester-based digital transformation agency Sputnik Digital as product and innovation director.
During nine years at Thoughtworks, he held a variety of senior product roles, including a contract to develop an organisation-wide customer experience programme at Auto Trader.
He also helped to organise the ProductTank Manchester Meet-up.
“After over 9 incredible years at Thoughtworks, I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Sputnik Digital as product & innovation director,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
“My time at Thoughtworks has been one of the most rewarding chapters of my career — I’ve had the privilege of working with brilliant colleagues, clients, and communities across the world, helping organisations shape product strategy, build digital capability, and deliver truly impactful experiences.
“I’ve learned a huge amount from the people around me — thank you to everyone who’s challenged, inspired, and collaborated with me along the way.”
Sputnik Digital, led by founder and MD Andy Nicol and CTO Jim Larking, blends strategic product, UX and engineering leadership with a focus on high-performance, scalable digital solutions.
Its portfolio includes building digital platforms for GoCompare – which enhanced customer experience and performance at scale – alongside projects for other national brands and innovative startups.
“We help ambitious organisations imagine, design, and deliver the next generation of digital experiences,” said Birds.
“While we work across industries, we have deep expertise in financial services — particularly loan and insurance quote and buy journeys — working with brands such as GoCompare, Swinton, Hastings, Devitt, and Fluent Money.
“Over the past few months, we’ve been experimenting and building some exciting things — including Hollr, a personalised video service that makes it effortless to create thousands of unique, data-driven customer videos; and Invntry, a GenAI that scans photos, automatically builds an itemised inventory with estimated values for insurers and brokers.”
“These are just the start of a series of AI-enabled propositions we’re developing — combining product thinking, design craft, and precision engineering to move ideas from concept to commercial reality.”