My Venn Diagram of Specialities: Academic Rigor Meets Startup Speed
TL;DR I combine academic expertise (MA/PhD in digital media and human behavior) with hands-on product research and service design, leading diverse projects from reward ecosystems to research programs that consistently deliver measurable impact. I specialize in Research (Product & People), Architecture (Program & Process), and Design (Service & UI), with proven success in building scalable systems and mentoring cross-functional teams.
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Ever try and explain what you do, only to either oversimplify or overcommplicate? The end result is people thinking you are a simpleton who has no talent or that you are esoteric and convoluted. Or worse yet: you just don’t know how to talk about your skillset.
I’ve amassed a rich set of tools in the past decade plus. My combination draws on MA and PhD fieldwork in digital media and human behaviour, consultant and in-house research and service design, and building coaching and discovery programs. Along the way I’ve also continually tinkered and tweaked whenever required, scaling each and every process that I could.
Here’s some examples to illustrate each area of my expertise:
Research: Product & People
Product
Designing the Wattpad Reward Ecosystem: Coin Wallet Feature
TL;DR Led team of 4 on Strategic Research to design Wattpad’s Coin Wallet feature; 75% adoption rate in one quarter. Over two months, I guided our team - 1 Senior Designer, 1 Senior Product Manager, 1 Associate Designer, and me - on strategic discovery and exploration research. Beginning with competitor research and testing, we mapped and tracked comparable reward ecosystems to prototype and design a Coin Wallet feature. More than 30 staff contributed - Product, Engineering, Design, Research - from Discovery to Launch.
People
Mentoring Cross-Functional Partners: A Case Study with Product Managers
TL;DR Reached 100% Product Manager participation in monthly de-risk coaching sessions by uncovering their needs and meeting them with the information required for their professional success.
Architecture: Program & Processes
Program
Documentation as a Trust-Building Tool: A Strategic Approach to Change Management & Program Adoption
TL;DR By mapping different user journeys and creating tailored pathways for various experience levels, I turned documentation from a barrier into an enabler of VoC program adoption: Scaled from 30 to 200 annual sessions; Doubled staff participation (40% to 80%); Slashed no-show rates (50% to 5%); Condensed 100+ pages into 21 actionable pages; and Built a curated research panel of 5,000 users, including 200 “power users” for urgent needs.
Process
TL;DR_Stop gambling with participant recruitment. Through smart screening methods, cross-functional partnerships, and strategic incentives, I’ve developed a practical framework that ensures you’re always talking to the right customers, gathering high-signal insights, and driving measurable business growth. There’s even immediate action items you can implement today.
Design: Service & User Interface
Service
Ontario Centre for Workforce Innovation (OCWI)’s Shared Apprenticeship Model
TL;DR. Suggests the ways shared apprenticeship (between a funder and an employer) offers a modern approach for skilled trades training, for employment success beyond program participation.
UI
I Built a Website in 21 Days: Documenting My Design, Accessibility, and Programming Language Journey
TL;DR Connecting experience design, basic programming for web development, and accessibility audits, this piece does two things: 1) it shows how I learned to build my own website – with HTML, CSS, and Markdown shorthand – illustrating my comfort and adaptability with learning new technologies, and 2) my documentation procedures for coaching, onboarding, and operationalizing.