Confidential briefing
Confidence: High
Tom
Prepared for your Design Leadership Discovery
What stands out
Ownership kept surfacing as the defining characteristic in how Tom describes their work: consistently describes work where the decision sat with them.
It matters here because decision making happens close to delivery teams — the same ground, reached from the other direction.
Recommended next step
Meet Tom
Suggested first conversation:
- What ownership actually looks like inside your delivery teams.
- Which leadership behaviours bring out their best work.
- How the work here connects to something they'd care about.
You've not met before.
What we've learned
Ownership
Tom keeps returning to this without being asked: consistently describes work where the decision sat with them.
Raised unprompted more than once, with different examples behind it.
Leadership
Works best where leadership is close to the work rather than above it. It has shaped what Tom has moved towards, not just what they say.
Revisited deliberately, and Tom did not soften it.
Mission
When Tom describes work they were proud of, it is nearly always this: repeatedly prioritises meaningful financial services impact.
Heard across separate conversations months apart, described the same way each time.
Why we're confident
Later conversations strengthened rather than altered what we believed about Tom and ownership — the examples got more specific, not vaguer.
- Ownership, leadership and mission each read the same way from Tom's side and from yours, separately.
No prior relationship — the reasoning carries this on its own.
Worth discussing first
- What ownership actually looks like inside your delivery teams.
- Which leadership behaviours bring out their best work.
- How the work here connects to something they'd care about.
- How decisions get made, and where they get written down.
- What would make the first year successful here.
Context
Where they are today
Tom is currently an UX Researcher, based in Reading, United Kingdom. Their employer is theirs to share once you've both agreed to talk.
Where they've operated
Mostly financial services, insurance and education.
Tom has moved from Brand Designer to UX Researcher over 18 years — widening responsibility rather than lateral moves. Not looking, but would take the right conversation. Status: not yet connected.