Tom Scott

Thank you for looking at my LinkedIn! 

For the TL;DR folks:

I help companies build leadership teams to preserve and build their legacy. Want to meet or know more? https://linktr.ee/tomscottt

Longer version: 

I am a two-time founder. I sold my first company, Fearless, in 2023 after growing it from £0 to 10m in 4 years. In that time, some companies I've worked with (in many capacities) include BP, London Stock Exchange, Klarna, Skyscanner, Wise, Miro, Toyota, Google Ventures, Handshake, Fantasy, Jio, Attio, and Gravity Sketch. 

Now, I'm building Verified. We are an executive search company building the teams of tomorrow. 

Companies globally trust us to build world-class teams that have a lasting impact on their enterprises.

With our executive search and board advisory services, we build high-performance design and engineering teams for clients ranging from FTSE 100 companies to VC/PE portfolio companies, placing their senior teams.

I believe I've been put in this world to help others realise their purpose by finding great work and enabling companies to support them. 

My credentials:

- Advisory to global CEOs and VCs on building design teams.
- Public speaker on all things talent, design and building companies.
- Most followed design recruiter on social media
- Built my own design agency, so I understand design well.
- Interviewed the world’s best leaders on various topics.

Outside of work, I am a man of God, a devoted father and an Olympic weightlifter. Glory to God! 

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomscottt

Co-Founder & CCO

A list of REMOTE Design roles in Europe: 

1. Canonical - Visual Designer (EMEA remote)
2. GitHub - Senior Product Designer (Spain remote)
3. BJAK - Senior Motion Designer (UK remote)
4. ThriveCart - Product Designer (UK/EU remote)
5. SmartRecruiters - Senior Product Designer (France remote) 
6. HubSpot - Senior Product Designer (Ireland remote) 
7. Mozilla - Creative Lead (UK remote) 
8. Addepar - Senior Product Designer (UK remote) 
9. Consensys - Design Director (EMEA remote) 
10. Contentsquare - Staff Product Designer (UK/Italy/Germany/Spain remote)
11. Vivid - Senior Product Designer (EU remote) 
12 Kraken - Senior Product Designer (EMEA remote) 
13. Smartsheet - Senior Product Designer (Bulgaria remote) 
14. Hostaway - Senior Product Designer (EMEA remote) 
15. GitLab - Staff Product Designer (EMEA remote) 
16. Protex AI - Brand & Digital Designer (Hungary remote) 
17. LastPass - Product Designer (Hungary remote) 
18. Mediafly - Midweight Designer (UK remote) 
19. Metalab - Design Lead (Global remote) 
20. Prolific - Lead Product Designer (UK remote) 

Even though there is a lot of push to go back to 3-4 days in the office, there are still a ton of companies offering remote options which I know is vital for so many people. I hope this list helps! I'll continue to post remote roles. 

All links to jobs in the the comments. Happy Monday!

1x Exit. Building my 2nd company: Verified. Design and Exec Recruiting.

A real issue for design teams when hiring:

Some design teams are so far ahead, prototyping with newer AI tools and, in general, ways of working, that it’s difficult to find designers who have done this and meet every requirement. 

This is why we need to hire on potential, not just polished portfolios. 99.9% of the time, the perfect designer just does not exist. 

This is why hiring more interns and early-stage designers would be great, as they are often far ahead with AI understanding and the newer ways of working in design, as it’s all they’ve known.

I've been hiring designers for 10 years this year. 

What started as me needing a job has turned into a labour of love. 

I still love: 

- The buzz of taking on a new client brief.  
- Seeing someone you place get a 30k pay rise. 
- Help a company build a genuine world-class team. 
- Someone change their LinkedIn to the new company. 
- See someone you place becoming your hiring manager.

We're building a new design team in London from scratch for a client, and getting feedback that we've built an interesting team full of great design talent, and everyone is settling in well, is truly rewarding. Nothing beats that. 

Here's to another 10 years.

“We need more designers who wear hats" 

This is the best comment from a CEO recently.

In all seriousness, though, more companies than ever want to hire designers for deep, hard-earned product and interface design skills and are obsessed with their craft (not just visuals), sweat the details, and live and breathe making highly crafted products. No politics, just building.

Bonus points if they wear a hat and smoke a cigar when designing.

A list of live design leadership roles in EUROPE: 

1. PandaDoc - Design Director (EU remote)
2. Bolt - Head of Product Design (Tallinn) 
3. duvo.ai - Head of Design (Prague) 
4. Preply - Creative Brand Director (London/Barcelona) 
5. the LEGO Group - Global Creative Director, Masterbrand (Copenhagen) 
6. Sinch - Director, Product Design (Stockholm) 
7. iChoosr - Head of Product and Design (Amsterdam) 
8. Text - VP of Product Design (EU remote) 
9. AKQA - Product Design Director (London) 
10. Kraken - Product Design Director, Growth (EU remote) 
11. Zoopla - Head of Product Design (London) 
12. HSBC - Head of Product Design (London)
13. OpenTable - Director, Product Design (London) 
14. Nothing - Director of Software Product Design (London) 
15. Vinted - Area Director of Design (Berlin) 
16. The Trade Desk - Creative Director (London) 
17. Pattern® - Creative Director (London) 
18. SS&C Technologies - Product Director, UX & Design (London/Essex) 
19. King - Creative Director (Barcelona) 
20. Rapid7 - Director, Product Design (Belfast) 

All job links are in the comments. I hope this helps!

A live list of design INTERN jobs: 

1. Robinhood - Product Design Intern (NYC)
2. Cloudflare - Product Design Intern (Austin, TX)
3. Anduril Industries - Product Design Intern (Costa Mesa) 
4. Stripe - Product Design Intern (Toronto) 
5. Waymo - Digital Product Design Intern (Warsaw) 
6. Cresta - Design Intern (Toronto)
7. Agoda - Product Design Intern (Bangkok) 
8. Datadog - Product Design Intern (Madrid) 
9. GoFundMe - Product Design Intern (SF) 
10. GitHub - Product Design Intern (US remote) 
11. Microsoft - Product Design Intern (Dublin)
12. Diligent - Product Design Intern (Hungary) 
13. Notion - UX Research Intern (NYC) 
14. Tencent - Game User Research Intern (London) 
15. MongoDB - UX Research Intern (Dublin) 
16. Xometry - UX Research Intern (Waltham, Massachusetts) 
17. Picnic Technologies - Visual Design Intern (Amsterdam) 
18. Edenspiekermann - Digital Product Design Intern (Berlin) 
19. BYBORRE - Visual Design and Branding Intern (Amsterdam)
20. Revolut - Product Design Intern (Europe wide) 

We need to do what we can to help the next generation of designers, so the more intern programmes the better in my opinion. You can't beat learning from people on the job. 

I hope this helps!

Design hiring in 2025 had similar issues: 

- Many companies ran into the same problems. They needed “Super IC” unicorn designers, did not know what top designers actually earn, ran long, outdated interview processes, and were too slow and too vague when selling and closing.

- Many companies tried to hire without a clear view of what they actually wanted. 

- Hiring top-tier designers is not about volume. It’s about being targeted, intentional, knowing what you want and and being willing to pay for it.

Design hiring in 2026 looks like it will be busier than ever. 

I'm here for it.

The design hiring market has been wild. I’ve spoken about this from a candidate’s point of view. There’s a huge juxtaposition, and it’s not getting be

Open article: The playbook to hiring designers in 2026 by Tom Scott • 9 min read

I used to spend hours scrolling Dribbble back in the day. I found SO many world-class designers, a lot of them I still I work with today. 

Where is the design community these days?

I miss when Dribbble was good. Read.cv was the nearest thing before it got shut down. 

It seems like we have X where designers are posting cool things and Substack is growing. We need a place again for a great design community.

Hiring designers is constantly evolving, so it's important to share what I am observing to help people find great work. 

I thought I would put together a list of reasons I’ve seen candidates not pass recent interviews at a range of companies. 

TL;DR:

1. Not enough real product work
2. Weak craft
3. No product sense
4. Incoherent storytelling
5. Tied to old playbooks
6. Low ownership signal
7. Lack of technical depth
8. Not thinking like a product designer
9. Slow pace
10. Not enough experience in AI tools

If anyone has any additions to this, I would love to hear! Let's share and learn.

Open article: 10 reasons designers do not pass interview processes by verifiedinsider.substack.com

10 reasons designers do not pass interview processes

Most of the proposals for Hatch Conference have been from outside of Europe, mainly the US. 

Europe's start-up scene and the level of design quality is incredible at the moment, but we need to be better at talking about ourselves more. We need to share the work. 

Hatch is an incredible opportunity built for European Designers. 

The call ends February 15th. I know most submissions will come in the last 24 hours, but let's not wait. 

I've had a lot of messages about people wanting to submit proposals, do it. 

Help Damian Martone find the best facilitators and speakers in Europe, tagging them here so they apply.

10 observations on how to attract and hire great designers: 

(From working and interviewing world-class design teams) 

1. They seek to understand the market first
2. Spend time crafting hiring materials
3. Double down on top of the funnel
4. They don’t get on a call unless they are excited
5. Test for the right signals
6. Test for craft early in the process 
7. Focus on live work
8. High agency is a must
9. Everyone leads through the work
10. They double down on storytelling

Open article: How to attract and hire great designers in 2026 by verifiedinsider.substack.com

How to attract and hire great designers in 2026

Quicken

Product Design

Balto Energy

• Led the creation of Balto’s minimum viable product for their solar sales tool.
• Developed a brand kit and launched the website within the first 3 months.
• Initiated and designed the brand identity and foundational design system.

Design Director

Guile

• Recruited and managed a team of 3 designers through the MVP launch of the mobile app and website.

• Created a mobile design system and established a cross-functional review process among teams.

• Developed a system for design, conducting user interviews, reviews, and collaborating with engineering.

• Focused on exceptional design and craftsmanship for the app and website, targeting a launch in six months.

Product Design Director

OurX

• Created design and guideline updates for OurX’s shopping cart and checkout processes.

Daylight Computer Co.

• Delivered video and brand design services for multiple fundraising pitch projects.

Brand Design Director

Tend

• Built and managed the design team to 4 from scratch. Three designers were assigned distinct user paths, alongside a content designer to maintain uniformity in language, voice, and workflow.

• Aligned member experiences and Tend’s business objectives with the design team’s duties and progress, creating a crucial hiring roadmap while ensuring consistency throughout product development.

• Partnered with the CTO to develop Tend’s design system, resulting in significant time savings in development.

• Delivered an extensive array of new features and processes early on, featuring Rio, the AI-powered chatbot that streamlined complex banking tasks for Tend’s members.

Director, Product Design

Athena

• Developed the first communication app for Athena on IOS 
• Offered guidance and creative direction for Athena’s first branding initiative.

Product & Brand Design Director

Pendulum Therapeutics

• Provided designs and direction for several print and web campaign pitches during Pendulum’s rebranding initiative.

Brand & Web Design

As You Like It

• Developed print and social media promotional materials for each As You Like It performance event.
• Spearheaded the development of the website, organized promotional event components for ticket sales, and produced each podcast episode.
• Transformed the organization’s growth into record sales by establishing a record label brand kit highlighting its inaugural releases.

Zume Inc.

• Hired and led a team of 25 designers across four disciplines: product, content, brand, and industrial design.

• Advocated for improvements in vision, processes, and resources, aiming to educate and promote design thinking among cross-functional leaders and stakeholders. These efforts led to innovative approaches that reduced design and tech debt by 40%.

• Cultivated transparent, data-driven design management, hiring, and review frameworks with a
keen focus on team productivity, skills, and career growth, which improved candidate experience responses and retention rates (+90%, the highest in the organization).

• Instrumental in building cross-functional pods, improving collaboration and research to create
better, faster, data-informed work.

• Spearheaded the introduction of the Zume Inc. brand and its product lineup, which encompassed program divisions, guidelines, a website, tracking tools, a design system, marketing materials, and a cohesive design language to integrate Zume’s offerings.

• Directed the rebranding of Zume Pizza’s product platform within 3 months, collaborating with a
team of 5. Enabled expansion from 2 to 14 new markets (a 600% increase) through campaigns that attracted thousands of new and returning customers.

Director Of Design

An inquisitive, compassionate design leader with over two decades of experience, including eight years in design management, guiding and developing diverse teams of up to 25 individuals. My background encompasses roles in both in-house teams and agencies within small and large organizations. My experience in product and brand design has shaped a distinctive viewpoint on the significance of efficient, adaptable processes, empathetic design leadership, and high-quality design.

I am dedicated to building and leading diverse teams while fostering career growth and cultivating a culture of collaboration, creativity, and inclusivity. I have overseen and mentored designers and writers throughout the entire product lifecycle, including research, ideation, launch, and testing phases. Moreover, I have developed and implemented design systems, processes, and best practices to ensure high-craft design and alignment with business goals. I continuously explore innovative approaches to broaden the possibilities for creating unique, user-friendly, and engaging experiences for everyone.

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The Battle

Tom Scott

Brendan Finlayson

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taplio

The Battle

Tom Scott

Brendan Finlayson

Followers

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Tom Scott's LinkedIn Performance

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