As a Design Strategy Manager, I connect web architecture to grander organizational missions, delivering clarity from chaos, and ensuring design is indispensable in delivering stellar customer experiences.
Leadership and Experience
Mangement & Operations
With over a decade of envisioning and implementing visions, goals, and growth, I thrive on creating operational environments of excellence so people can do their best work.
Service & System Design
I capture and analyze complex end-to-end touchpoint journeys while taking into account the systems that try to deliver experiences, as well as accounting for the diversity and fallibility of humans looking to achieve goals.
UX Strategy & Information Architecture
The future of UX is changing; we don't just deliver wireframes anymore. I ensure web experiences are intuitive, personal, and global. I help bring clarity and show paths forward using established – or, when needed – made-up methods.
DesignOps and Services
Drawing on practices from project management, organizational behavior, business strategy, structure, and systems, I've developed five Core DesignOps Patterns that enable stunning work from teams, transition IC’s into senior roles, and track impact on business.
Build Foundations
Know who you are so you can lead with clarity and make stronger decisions. Define a simple, practical design vision that aligns with business goals. Find purpose in your work to stay engaged, resilient, and motivated.
Planning
Strategy keeps the team focused on what matters most as priorities shift. Structure provides a shared roadmap that guides how work is organized and executed. Systems create the repeatable processes that enable collaboration, consistency, and scale.
Culture is everything
Design teams make greater impact when their goals are clear, measurable, and directly tied to business strategy.
Enable Work
Build the systems, culture, and support designers need to do their best work. Strong Design Operations provide the clarity, tools, and processes that enable high‑quality execution at scale. Growing and developing the team means attracting diverse talent and investing in continuous learning, mentorship, and leadership development.
Make Impact
Design teams make greater impact when their goals are clear, measurable, and directly tied to business strategy. By defining what good design looks like and connecting outcomes to real business value, teams can consistently deliver stronger results. As organizations mature in their design practices, they build alignment, improve execution, and elevate design’s influence in strategic decision‑making.
Work Summaries
(if you go no further, you will understand how I work and what I deliver)
Know Yourself
Understand who you are, what you stand for, and how you work. When you are clear about your strengths and values, you make better decisions and create stronger partnerships.
Find Purpose
Purpose at work is not the same as purpose in life. But when you find something that resonates—something that feels meaningful—work becomes easier, more bearable, and often enjoyable.
Create Vision
Define a design vision that is clear, practical, and connected to business goals. When people understand the “why,” they move with purpose and alignment.
Strategy
Stay aligned with shifting business priorities and market conditions. Strategy gives direction. It helps you decide what matters now, what matters later, and what does not matter at all.
Structure
Build a clear structure and roadmap that shows where you are going and why. Structure creates shared understanding. It helps teams see the work ahead, sequence decisions, and move in the same direction.
Systems
Create systems that support collaboration, diverse disciplines, and organizational scale. Systems make work repeatable, predictable, and easier for people to succeed in.
Design Operations
Create systems and practices that enable the design team to deliver high‑quality work at scale. Ensure the team has clarity, tools, processes, and support aligned with the broader business strategy.
Grow the Team
Use design, clarity of vision, and a strong culture to attract and hire top talent from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. Build a recruiting experience that reflects the professionalism and values of the team.
Develop People
Commit to continuous learning and skill development. Invest in upskilling, mentorship, and leadership development to grow the next generation of leaders from within the team.
Goals
Create clear, measurable goals that connect design work directly to business strategy. When the team understands what success looks like — and why it matters — they make better decisions and deliver stronger outcomes.
Design Performance
Define what “good” looks like. Establish standards for quality, effectiveness, and execution. Connect design outcomes to business impact, whether through improved customer experience, reduced friction, increased conversions, operational efficiency, or better decision‑making across teams.
Design Maturity
Continuously raise the maturity of design across the organization. Build repeatable practices, improve cross‑functional alignment, and strengthen the influence of design in strategic conversations. Mature design organizations communicate clearly, execute consistently, and show measurable value.
Culture Building
Do Good
Embrace authenticity, find opportunities for less experienced folks to shine, build the next generation, support your community if possible
Make Some Noise
Encourage your people to get out there with personal projects, mentoring, speaking engagements, ventures
What people say about me when I leave the room.
“In life, it’s rare to come across someone with as much passion and empathy as Alex, and it’s even rarer to have those qualities in a manager. Alex’s ability to look at the bigger picture - to see what others may not, I saw this unique quality play out in meetings, workshops, and 1:1s in so many ways, but most important for me was the way in which Alex used this skill to foster a team environment that emphasized open-mindedness, growth, and learning.”
Paige Singer / Product Designer @ The Bouqs
“Alex’s collaborative approach made the team feel we could overcome anything. His killer discipline makes his multifaceted role as a partner look easy. He’s is a highly cultured, intellectual, and resourceful leader who on a daily basis, wore the hats of militant project manager, chief design thinker, and calculated business developer.”
Adam John Cooper / Creative Director & Brand Strategist
“Alex Smailes is an outstanding UX designer with particular strengths in design thinking, interaction design, sketching, and prototyping. He is also a natural team leader, with an ability to inspire others to strive for shared goals while managing projects with a steady hand.”
Julian Scaff / Associate Professor at ArtCenter College of Design, Interaction Designer & Futurist
Skills + Tools
