I empower designers to deliver impactful product experiences and develop in their careers.

I was a design manager at Thriva and Farewill, Series A scaleups in London.

At Thriva, I led the CRD (Content Research Design) team of 7 and line managed up to 6 designers and researchers at different levels.

As a manager, I help to:

  • Support my direct reports by caring genuinely, listening actively and through coaching, pairing and mentoring. I like the way that Daniel Pink puts it – that we’re motivated by autonomy, mastery and purpose.

  • Support and grow a diverse design team, helping set up rituals, tools, practices and an equitable working environment.

  • Collaborate with cross-functional product leads and drive product impact by bringing a design perspective, building connections across teams, driving strategy and developing ways of working.

Empathy is Tom’s superpower. It’s really the basis of what makes him an amazing manager, facilitator and communicator.

I do feel like I can come and talk to Tom about anything, he provides a safe space to talk about thing openly and honestly. From my first week, he made sure to make time to speak to me about my mental and physical health issues and trying to think about ways he can help.

Tom’s always asking the right questions to get us moving forward. It seems that he has excellent working relationships with other parts of the business and always offers to go out and get the answers we need to enable us to move forward.

I’ve really appreciated when Tom has pushed me to be more tactical about how I work - by breaking down projects into tasks, setting time-bound goals, and being ruthless about scope. I always come out feeling so much more clear and motivated about what I’m working on.

       – 360 feedback from colleagues, May 2021