Sam Marks

Design Leadership

Design Leadership for Product, AI and Growth

I help organizations create competitive advantage through strategic design leadership, aligning business strategy, product innovation, and AI capabilities to deliver meaningful customer and business outcomes.

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20+ years product design leadershipStrategic design leadershipProduct strategy & innovationUX DirectorAI product design & human-centered AIEnterprise SaaS & platform productsDesign systems & design opsTeam leadership, coaching & mentoringOrganizational transformationCustomer experience strategyCross-functional leadershipFractional design leadership

I've led strategic design and product initiatives that align customer needs, business goals, and emerging technologies to drive growth and transformation across organizations including:

Cannes Lions
Coca-Cola
Indeed
Tottenham Hotspur
Vodafone
UAL
The Electoral Commission
Standard Life

01What I help with

Three ways I create impact

Product strategy, fractional leadership, and AI product design for teams that need senior direction.

Product & UX Strategy

Turning complexity into clear product direction, better customer experiences, and stronger product outcomes.

  • Product vision, strategy, and roadmap alignment
  • Customer and workforce experience strategy
  • Outcome-focused prioritisation and decision-making
  • Cross-functional stakeholder alignment
  • Identifying and embedding AI across products, services, and workflows
  • Designing AI-powered experiences that create customer and business value

03Leadership impact

Beyond visual design

Evidence of leadership across teams, products, and organisations.

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Teams led

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Products shipped

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Designers mentored

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Design systems scaled

04Testimonials

What leaders say

I worked alongside Sam at Indeed Flex, where he led design across many genuinely varied briefs — a SaaS rebrand, our AI agent for clients, complex reporting dashboards, and a hybrid prototyping tool to support the revenue team. That breadth is notable because Sam handled each with the same steady, considered approach rather than treating them in the order of prestige.

Sam uses naturally high emotional intelligence in a role that demands it. Design leaders sit in difficult territory — between product, engineering, and commercial stakeholders who rarely want the same thing at the same time. Sam navigated that without drama, adapting his style to whoever he was in the room with and keeping the work moving.

Read full testimonial

Andrew Pendrick

Head of Product, JUSTPARK

Looking for senior design leadership?

Whether you need a full-time design leader or fractional support, I can help you shape better products, teams, and AI experiences.