I've spent most of my career in environments where design had real influence but hadn't yet figured out how to use it. The structural work of building that out is the part I find most meaningful: the processes, the shared language, the relationships that make good decisions possible.
Design leadership is mostly about creating the conditions for continuous discovery. That means removing ambiguity before it becomes a blocker, building enough psychological safety that problems surface early, and holding a quality bar while knowing when to release it. It also means translating between what the business thinks it needs and what design can actually offer, which are rarely the same thing.
I don't view management as a layer above design. It's design at a different scale: aligning people, process, and direction so that the team can do work they couldn't do without that alignment. Some of the best design outcomes I've seen are those where someone has been able to boldly and confidently act on insights because of conditions I set.
Some examples at Intruder include lobbying for outcome-focused squads, building a metrics framework that changed how the company made product decisions, and months advocating for experimentation as a means to validate ideas, resulting in a 30-minute test that delivered a 37% improvement in customer activation. At Newsflare, it meant building a product team from the ground up, coaching junior colleagues to act with confidence and discernment, and mapping a proposal for the future direction of the department that was adopted after I left.
The durable core of design work is research, facilitation, systems thinking, and opportunity framing. Those are not things being compressed by AI or trends. They're worth investing in.
I'm sceptical of design that starts with solutions. The most valuable thing a designer can do in most organisations is slow the conversation down long enough to make sure the right problem is being solved. That's not always a comfortable position to hold, particularly in fast-moving companies where leadership wants answers quickly and the pressure is to ship. I've learned to navigate that tension rather than avoid it: sometimes you earn the space for discovery by demonstrating its value through small, fast experiments rather than asking for permission upfront. The onboarding project at Intruder was exactly that. A 30-minute test bought credibility that months of advocacy hadn't.
I came to design through making, and I still think of myself as someone who makes things. But the thing I'm making now is usually the context around the work rather than the work itself: the research practice, the decision framework, the feedback loop, the team structure. When I do get my hands dirty on product work, the instincts that made me a good designer are still there. I just apply them differently.
At Intruder I managed three senior product designers, two of whom I coached and promoted into lead roles. I also recruited a brand and campaigns designer who extended the team's range into territory we'd previously outsourced or gone without.
The thing I've learned about developing designers is that the most impactful coaching isn't about craft. It's about helping people see the system they're operating in, understand what the business actually needs from them, and build the confidence to operate beyond their job description. Two of the designers I managed went from executing briefs to leading cross-functional initiatives, and that shift happened through ongoing conversation, not a training programme.
At Newsflare I built the in-house design team from scratch and coached junior colleagues while simultaneously building the product process around them. The growth work there was inseparable from the people work because the team's capability determined what the company could attempt.
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Keith has a great ability to understand both the technical side and the commercial side of things, which is not that common. He was very good at framing problems clearly and bringing the right level of evidence to support decisions, without overcomplicating things.
Working with him didn't just improve the design, it genuinely made the product better for every user type. He had a strong influence on decisions, even when he wasn't directly responsible for them, and always in a very collaborative and respectful way.
Keith and Naomi came to the senior leadership team and said this isn't working, and because of them we had that discussion. I sat down with Keith and we tried to work out the key drivers. This really for me is about understanding at a top level whether all of the levers and components are moving in the right direction.
Keith is an excellent people manager. He is a thoughtful, caring, inspirational, and conscientious leader. Who is not afraid to speak up for his and his team's beliefs. Keith's input into People/HR projects I was working on led to adjustments that ultimately improved our working culture.
The projects I worked on with Keith had a material impact on the performance of the business. As a designer and product manager, Keith always approached problems collaboratively and with an eagerness to find creative solutions. Importantly, Keith also helped grow the culture of data-driven decision-making.
Keith is a highly skilled and focused product manager. He approaches every challenge with patience and understanding. He has been invaluable when it comes to learning, understanding and improving our user experience. He is great at working with the wider business to bridge the gap between the tech and product teams and the commercial teams.
