# Matt Willis > PhD, Head of Product at Agility Robotics. Collaborative design thinker and strategist. Expert in Human Robot Interaction. AI/ML Product Leader. I build products that bring value to the world. Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/mattwillis I am driven by creating great products that bring value to the world. I believe that collaboration breeds innovation, and that great ideas should be shared. As an experienced Product, Strategy and Design leader, I bring together people from multiple disciplines to design, build and launch digital products to the world. I have a PhD in Human Computer Interaction and I currently work at SoftBank Robotics where I create great experiences for robots and automation products and services. When not building great digital products, I am flying drones, helping to make robots more human, learning to speak French or riding anything with two wheels. ## Work Experience ### Head of Product @ Agility Robotics Jan 2025 – Present | United States As Head of Product, I lead the product management and design functions for Digit, one of the world’s most advanced deployed humanoid robots. In my role, I am responsible for product vision, strategy, and customer-facing definition, translating complex enterprise workflows into scalable humanoid automation. My work focuses on bringing bipedal robotics out of the lab and into real operational environments across manufacturing, warehousing, eCommerce, and logistics in the US market. I work closely with engineering, safety, operations, and go-to-market teams, as well as directly with customers, to ensure product direction aligns with deployment realities and supports the operating models required to scale humanoid robotics in production settings. ### Head of Product @ Third Wave Automation Jan 2021 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco Bay Area As Director of Product, I led the product organization at Third Wave Automation, spanning product management, design, front-end development, and data analytics, with responsibility for both strategy and execution. In this role, I owned the product vision, roadmap, and delivery for autonomous forklift systems, remote operator platforms, and supporting software services deployed in production warehouse environments. I led cross-functional product, design, and engineering teams, working closely with operations and commercial stakeholders to translate autonomous vehicle technology into scalable material handling solutions. My work focused on enabling reliable, fleet-scale deployment through human-in-the-loop autonomy, strong human–machine interaction design, and operating models that supported customer adoption in safety-critical environments. ### Head of Product, Design and Engineering @ SoftBank Robotics America Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area As the Head of Product, I lead the product, design and engineering capabilities at Softbank robotics America. In my role I am responsible for product vision, strategy and execution across all of Softbank Robotics America’s digital products and services. With products spanning robotics, education and automation products alongside the associated platform services, my team defines, designs and delivers products and services that bring real value to the world through automation. Example products Lead: Humanoid robotics, cleaning robotics, global cloud service platform and an education platform. ### Head of Product Design @ SoftBank Robotics America Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 As the Head of Product Design at SoftBank Robotics I lead a multi-disciplinary team in creating valuable, human centered experiences for SoftBanks robots. With a focus on Human Centered Design and Lean Product Methodologies, I aim to bring both user and business value in the products we create. ### Design and HRI Strategy Lead @ SoftBank Robotics America Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 As the Design and HRI Lead at SoftBank Robotics I lead the team in creating valuable experiences for SoftBanks robots. With a focus on Human Centered Design Methodologies, I aim to bring both user and business value in the products we create. ### Lead UX Designer @ SoftBank Robotics America Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 As the Lead UX Designer at SoftBank Robotics America, I am helping to guide the team in creating great experiences for SoftBank's robots. With a focus on human-centered design methodologies, I look to provide both user and business value in the applications and interactions we develop for SoftBank's robots and help to define the future of robot interaction in this new and exciting space. ### Head of Product @ ustwo Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | Sydney As Head of Product for ustwo Sydney, I led a talented team of designers, engineers and strategists to deliver world class digital products that bring real value to their users. Working across multiple industries and with some of Australia's biggest brands we applied agile and lean methodologies to build digital products that provided real user and business value. In my role as one of two members of the Sydney leadership team, I helped to build the newest of the four ustwo studios. My role spanned the leadership of the product design and development teams, helping to define our market offering and driving new business development opportunities in Sydney. During this time, I supported the studio in growing from 4 to 30 people and was involved in successfully creating a number of strategic opportunities for the studio. Products built and launched under my leadership include: Consumer experiences, SaaS products, finance products, telecommunications and more. ### Lead Product Designer (UX and Research) @ ustwo Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 | Sydney As the lead User Experience designer for ustwo Sydney, my role was to lead the UX and UX research aspects of our projects, and develop our own product development and research methodologies in how we approach product design. As a new studio, I supported the growth of the studio and was involved in a number of large business development opportunities that saw us going from 4 people to 12 in the space of 12 months. ### Director @ Emoti Jan 2009 – Jan 2017 | Sydney Emoti is a UX research, design and strategy consulting company focused on partnering with the worlds best brands to help them being their products to the market. ### National Manager - Product Design @ Alive Mobile Group Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 | Sydney ### Mobile Business Designer @ Alive Mobile Group Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 ### UX Research Lead, Project Manager & Developer. @ Bilue Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 ### Post Doctoral Researcher @ University of the Sunshine Coast Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 ### PhD Student - Human Computer Interaction @ University of the Sunshine Coast Jan 2008 – Jan 2011 ### Researcher @ University of the Sunshine Coast Jan 2008 – Jan 2011 ### Lecturer in Design and Multimedia @ University of Newcastle Jan 2006 – Jan 2007 ## Education ### Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science, HCI University of the Sunshine Coast ### Bachelor of Information Science (Hons) University of Newcastle ### Bachelor of Information Science University of Newcastle ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/matt-willis-phd --- Source: https://flows.cv/mattwillis JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/mattwillis/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13