A Manchester-based child development app has appointed Andrew West-Moore as its new head of product.
With extensive experience in product management at Rentalcars.com, Booking.com, Zühlke and UKFast/ANS, West-Moore brings a wealth of experience in user focus to the award-winning My First Five Years.
The app empowers parents by helping them understand their child’s unique development journey throughout the crucial first five years of life.
The appointment follows the announcement this year that they’d raised £1.4 million from GMCA and five high net worth individuals.
West-Moore said: “As a parent, I remember too well the early days of uncertainty and guilt while leaning on grandparents and friends for advice.
“As my son has grown, nursery and school have brought age-assessed stages with tick boxes full of anxiety-inducing expectations.
“I was really drawn to how the app and its community supports the unique journey of my son and reduces the parenting peer pressure, while enabling us to understand his journey at a much deeper level.
“I am excited that this great product is at the very heart of the team and I’m looking forward to supporting the parents we make it for.”
Founded by Alistair Bryce-Clegg and Jennie Johnson MBE, My First Five Years is a trusted source of information for parents and carers.
It can track a child’s journey across six streams of development, supported by thousands of activities and interactions, with access to a supportive community of fellow parents.
Johnson said: “We are delighted to welcome Andrew to the team. His expertise will allow to us to tailor our app to our users more responsively than ever before, to ensure the best possible experience for parents as they support their children on their unique learning journey.”
Originally developed with the award-winning team at Apadmi, West-Moore will continue the My First Five Years vision, leading a new in-house team based in Manchester to accelerate and refine the user journey.
West-Moore said: “Apadmi have done an amazing job which we now need to reinforce with an internal team. It feels incredibly exciting to be working on this feel-good app with an amazing team behind it, to shape the future generation of children.”
West-Moore will start as head of product at My First Five Years in May 2022.