I’m Sam — a design lead working across financial products, design systems and AI-native ways of building software.
I’m currently at OakNorth Bank, leading design systems, AI and financial automation across our product line. Before that I led design at Monite and Kriya through two acquisitions, with a career that has moved between product design, brand, motion and creative direction.
I’m English, grew up across Asia and the Middle East, spent most of my twenties in Canada, and now live in London. The accent is still figuring itself out.
Oh, and I'm also building Sensei, an AI-native UX engine to score and improve websites.
I do my best work somewhere between the big picture and the details — defining how a product should work and feel, thinking in systems, and frequently getting into the codebase to make ideas real. I believe craft is difficult to lead from a distance.
'Enable, don't dictate'
In the era of the designer-builder, leadership means building the tools and AI-native processes that remove bottlenecks and leave more room for judgement. I care about autonomy without ambiguity — space to play, with a clear bar for quality.
'Push that PR'
I value high agency, and try to build teams that operate the same way — redesign the flow, fix the interaction, build the tool, prototype in code, and take ownership through to production.
When I tell people I’m a product designer, they ask if I build chairs.