Eugene Joe🇨🇦

About Eugene Joe

Director of Product Design at MLSE

I’m a Director of Product Design working at the intersection of design leadership, product strategy, and AI-native workflows. I currently lead Product Design at MLSE Digital Labs, where design is expected to drive clarity, velocity, and business results.

I help designers and leaders evolve from strong executors into trusted decision-makers. Sessions focus on portfolio depth, product thinking, leadership readiness, and using AI as a practical force multiplier rather than a buzzword.

Common session goals include:

Positioning yourself for senior or leadership roles

Turning design work into a compelling business narrative

Navigating stakeholder complexity with confidence

Building modern workflows that scale with AI

Strengthening your portfolio and resume for real hiring conversations

Career coaching to define direction, set goals, and build momentum

My style is calm, direct, and structured. Sessions are designed to create momentum and clarity quickly. If you want experienced perspective grounded in real delivery and modern product realities, this is where you’ll get the most value.

Expertise

Sessions with Eugene Joe

• Mentorship Session (30 min): General mentorship
• Interview Coaching (60 min): Do you feel lost or don't know where to start when it comes to interviewing for your next role? Are you unsure of how to navigate the current difficult job market? Learn how to set yourself up for success and crush your next interview. This 60-minute session is tailored to help tackle the challenges you may face and overcome any blockers you struggle with.
• Design Leadership - 101 (60 min): Design Leadership 101 is for senior designers and new managers who are stepping into leadership and want clarity on what the role actually demands. This isn’t about titles or abstract leadership theory. It’s about the real shift that happens when your impact is no longer defined by the work you ship, but by the teams you enable and the decisions you make. We’ll focus on how design leadership works in practice. Setting direction without micromanaging. Building trust and accountability. Giving feedback that drives growth. Aligning design work to business outcomes. You’ll learn how to lead through influence, navigate ambiguity, and make better calls as scope, pressure, and expectations increase. Across four bi-weekly sessions, we’ll work through real situations you’re likely facing right now. Managing up. Supporting underperforming or high-potential designers. Scaling design quality. Transitioning your mindset from execution to ownership. You’ll leave with practical frameworks, sharper judgment, and a clearer point of view on the kind of design leader you want to be.
• AI Design Workflows (60 min): AI Design Workflows is a practical coaching series for designers who want to integrate AI into their daily work in a way that actually improves speed, quality, and decision-making. This isn’t a tools tour or a prompt library. It’s about building a workflow that holds up under real constraints. Tight timelines. Ambiguous problems. High expectations. We’ll focus on how AI fits into the design process end to end. Research synthesis, ideation, concept exploration, UX writing, design execution, and stakeholder communication. More importantly, we’ll cover where AI helps, where it hurts, and how to maintain strong design judgment instead of outsourcing thinking. Across four weekly sessions, we’ll work through real examples from your current work. You’ll learn how to design faster without cutting corners, use AI as a force multiplier instead of a crutch, and build workflows you can actually defend to partners and leadership. You’ll leave with a clear mental model for AI-assisted design, repeatable workflows you can adapt to your team, and the confidence to lead with AI instead of reacting to it.
• Build a High-Impact Design Portfolio with AI (60 min): This is a hands-on portfolio engagement for designers who want to build or elevate a portfolio using AI as a force multiplier, not a shortcut. Across multiple sessions, we’ll define what your portfolio needs to do for your career, then design and build it with clarity, narrative strength, and production quality. AI tools will be used intentionally to accelerate research, structure, writing, and iteration while keeping your thinking and craft front and center. What we’ll cover across sessions: - Portfolio strategy tied to your target roles, companies, or clients - Case study selection and positioning (what to show, what to cut, and why) - Clear story frameworks for problem, decision-making, and impact - Using AI to accelerate outlining, writing, critique, and iteration - Visual hierarchy, layout, and narrative flow reviewers actually scan - Live teardown and refinement of real case studies - Final polish for interviews, client conversations, or senior-level reviews Outcome You’ll leave with a portfolio that is intentional, credible, and defensible, one that clearly communicates how you think, what you ship, and the impact you create.

What mentees say

“Eugene was great to chat with. He shared excellent advice on taking my portfolio to the next level and showed me practical ways to use AI to strengthen my creative workflow. The session was insightful, actionable, and full of ideas I can apply right away. Highly recommend booking a session with him.”

“Great portfolio review! He provided some excellent critiques and we had a fascinating discussion on the impact of AI in the design world. Very practical advice and easy to talk to.”

“I had an incredible session with my mentor, who provided thorough feedback on my website and case studies, helping them stand out. Their amazing communication and problem-solving skills, coupled with deep subject knowledge, motivated me to improve my work significantly. While my overall experience met expectations, I highly recommend booking with this”