Design leadership for platforms where scale, complexity, & quality impact the business.
I’m Tom Smith, Senior Director of Design at Condé Nast, responsible for a global publishing platform used by over 4,000 editors across 25 brands, 60 sites, and 20 markets.
What I doI work where product, platform, and organisation start to break down. I bring structure, clarity and direction to complex environments.
Establishing clear ownership across fragmented systems
Defining standards that actually hold under pressure
Raising front-end quality as a business concern, not a finishing step
Turning platforms into systems that scale across brands, teams, and markets
A platform needs to work as hard for the business as the teams building it.
Where I have impactI focus on strengthening platform foundations, establishing ownership, raising front-end quality, and driving growth.
PERFORMANCE
84% faster page response times from 1.6s to 250ms across core platform experiences
SYSTEM THINKING
14x increase in engagement via syndication, scaling content reach from 35.8k to 494k minutes
RELIABILITY
75% reduction in system errors by removing fragmentation and introducing shared standards
COMMERCIAL
5–15% uplift in commerce CTR driven by more consistent and optimised front-end experiences
ENGAGEMENT
+30% increase in time spent across flagship brands through improved front-end quality
COST SAVING
$800k+ in cost savings through platform optimisation and tooling decisions
Selected work
Where I’ve led through complexity and scale in real environments.
Condé Nast
Scaling quality across a global publishing platform
Aviva
Simplifying complexity across a global digital estate
How I operateI’m deliberate about how and where I operate, especially in complex environments where drift and ambiguity are common.
Intervention vs. Delegation
I’m deliberate about where I intervene and where I delegate.
I step in when direction drifts, value slows, or complexity compounds.
Speed to market
I sequence work so teams can ship early without compromising quality.
When something isn’t working, I simplify or reset rather than push through.
Managing expectations and opinion
I remove ambiguity by grounding decisions in user needs, data, and technical reality.
Where alignment breaks down, I make trade-offs visible and move forward.
Making standards stick
Standards only work if they hold under pressure.
I make them practical, measurable, and difficult to ignore.
About meI’ve spent over 20 years leading design through growth, change, and platform complexity.
My work sits at the intersection of systems, experience, and organisation, where scale has exposed gaps.
I’m most effective in environments where scale exposes gaps in structure, ownership, and quality.
I’ve led teams through restructuring and built design functions from the ground up.
I partner closely with Product and Engineering leadership to deliver measurable business outcomes.
I value clarity, accountability, and high standards.
I expect teams to deliver, and I create the conditions for them to do it well.
Why work with meI’m most effective where platform complexity starts to impact delivery, quality, and business performance.
I focus on:
Bringing structure to fragmented product or platform ecosystems
Raising the quality bar across teams, tooling, and front-end experience
Aligning design, product, and engineering around a clear direction
Turning platforms into scalable systems that support growth
Stabilising delivery and maintaining quality through organisational change