I turn design functions
into business
assets

Design Leader · 30 years · Sony Music, Deutsche Bank, Aegon, Iddink Group, Alef Education

Based in Abu Dhabi · Irish citizen · EU work rights · Fluent Dutch

I started as a designer and never lost the craft instinct. What changed over three decades is where I direct it: towards the systems, decisions, and team structures that make design matter at an organisational level. I have led design in music, banking, insurance, government services, and EdTech. Today I run 17 people across three teams and eight nationalities, owning design and product operations for a platform serving over a million learners. I am ready to bring that experience to a European organisation that wants design to operate as a strategic function, not a finishing service.

See the work View my LinkedIn profile

Selected Work

Four projects that show how I think about design leadership: finding the real problem, building the right team, and making the outcome stick.

01

Strategic Discovery for a 2M+ User Platform

Iddink Group (Sanoma Learning) · Netherlands · 2018–2022

Magister held 80% of the Dutch secondary education market. By the time I arrived, that had dropped to 60% and the 14-year-old codebase had no modernisation path. I led a top-task research programme that revealed 95% of daily usage concentrated in just 6–10 tasks. That finding became the foundation of a phased business case I presented to the board of directors.

Outcome: Board approved a three-year roadmap after three years of inaction. €3M+ development investment secured. Market share stabilised.
What mattered: Six interviews unlocked more investment than years of feature requests. The board needed evidence, not enthusiasm.
Read full case study
02

Building AI Capability Across 40 People

Alef Education · 2023–present

The organisation had no AI literacy and no integration strategy. I built a training programme from scratch: a five-level prompting framework, hands-on workshops for the international team, research synthesis workflows, and automation tooling. The programme changed how teams make decisions, not just which tools they use.

Outcome: 40+ colleagues trained. Research synthesis reduced from days to hours. Manual workflows cut by over 60%.
What mattered: Teaching people to think with AI at the start of a task, not reach for it as a last resort.
Read full case study
03

Design System & Product Operations

Alef Education · 2022–present

Sixty-plus templates with no governance. Product decisions made without structured user feedback. I consolidated the design system to 22 reusable components and built a feedback analytics dashboard connecting Usersnap qualitative data to Amplitude quantitative patterns. Two sides of the same problem: building the infrastructure that lets a design org operate at scale.

Outcome: £200K annual savings. 40% faster production. Decision-making reduced from 10 days to 3.
What mattered: The discipline to cut 60 templates to 22. And connecting the data nobody was connecting.
Read full case study
04

Building a Cross-Cultural Design Organisation

Alef Education · 2022–present

Sixteen people across six nationalities and twelve markets. This is not a project case study. It is the story of building a team where critique is normal, growth is expected, and people choose to stay. I invested in structured certifications, adapted communication for cultural context, and built the rituals that create psychological safety through predictability.

Outcome: Zero attrition over 18 months. Multiple junior-to-mid promotions. Design earned a seat at the product table.
What mattered: People stay where they are growing. That is the retention strategy.
Read full case study

30+ Years, Four Countries

Thirty years. Four countries. Each role added a layer to how I think about design leadership.

Sony Music Europe
Design Lead
1992–2005
Music · Netherlands
Cinnamon Interactive
Lead UX/UI Designer
2005–2014
Government · Netherlands
Freelance
UX/UI Designer
2014–2018
incl. Deutsche Bank (BE), Aegon
Iddink Group
Senior UX Designer
2018–2022
EdTech · Netherlands
Alef Education
Head of Design
2022–present
EdTech · Abu Dhabi
Organisations I have worked with
aegon sanoma

What Colleagues Say

Testimonials from Philip Chesney and Edwin Persoon are included in their respective case studies: Design System & Product Operations and Magister.

How I Work

I trained in the tradition of the Swiss International Typographic Style and Spiekermann’s typographic principles. That foundation shapes how I think about every system I build: clarity is a functional requirement, not a stylistic preference.

Systems over surfaces

I build design systems, operational processes, and team structures that outlast any single project or person. When I leave an organisation, things should be easier to run than when I arrived. That is the measure.

Clarity enables autonomy

I lead multicultural teams by setting clear goals and creating genuine space for critique. My current team spans eight nationalities. They do not need close management. They need context, honest feedback, and trust that their decisions will be respected.

Evidence before opinion

I present to boards with research, not concept decks. When a product needed a new direction, I started with what users actually did. Opinion earns its seat at the table; it does not automatically occupy it.

AI as an organisational capability

I have integrated AI into design workflows, built training programmes for cross-functional teams, and seen what changes when people learn to think with AI rather than simply deploy it. The value is not in the tool. It is in the decision-making shift that follows.

Credentials & Writing

Professional Development

  • UX Management Certification — Nielsen Norman Group
  • Strategic Design Leadership Masterclass — TU Delft (96% distinction)
  • Design Sprint Certification — AJ&Smart
  • Information Architecture & Facilitating UX Workshops — Nielsen Norman Group
  • Top 10% distinction across multiple UX courses — Interaction Design Foundation

Speaking & Teaching

  • Active LinkedIn contributor on AI integration, design systems, and leadership — publishing 3–4 posts weekly, consistent readership among European design leaders
  • Guest Lecturer — The Hague University of Applied Sciences, design strategy and professional practice

Senior design leadership roles in Europe.

Available for Head of Design, Director of Design, and VP of Design roles with European organisations. I work best in complex environments where design has room to grow from a delivery function into a strategic one.

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LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/doncrowley

Irish citizen with full EU work rights · Fluent Dutch · Property in the Netherlands
Currently based in Abu Dhabi, UAE · Available for relocation or remote