Canada

UX Design

Product Design

Customer Experience (CX)

UX Testing

UX Research

Certificate

B. Comm

ECOM

Ryan Short

Principal

Quantitative research

Product strategy

Qualitative research

Communication

Collaboration

Problem-solving

Empathy

Presentation skills

Leadership

Design systems

User research

UserTesting

Adobe XD

Axure

Figma

Lucidchart

Adobe Creative Suite

Confluence

Sketch

Balsamiq

InVision

Trello

UserZoom

Adobe Illustrator

Miro

Optimal Workshop

SurveyMonkey

Mural

Stakeholder management

Time management

Team player

Organisation skills

Customer service

Conflict resolution

Critical-thinking

Project management

Public Speaking

Information architecture

Market research

Usability Testing

Product roadmap

Introduce yourself, define mentoring expectations and goals. Learn and grow together.

General mentorship

Making remote and globally distributed teams work for you and your needs.

Working remotely

Learn essential burnout prevention techniques and replenish physical and emotional energy.

Managing burnout

Strategies for maximizing your design internship or co-op program.

Getting the most out of my internship

Tips for transitioning into a new role or company.

Changing roles

How to think about design career paths and what progression looks like for designers?

Design career path

Learn the career path and progression for product managers.

Product management career path

Get actionable feedback on your resume or portfolio.

Resume and portfolio review

Practice HR, technical and behavioural interviews with mentors.

Practice mock interviews

Talk to people who've broken into the tech industry and learn their stories.

Breaking into tech

Learn the best ways to answer technical interview questions with frameworks

Acing technical interview questions

How to set up the team for success by defining and measuring team's performance.

Choosing metrics and team goals

Best practices for running productive design critiques.

Running effective design critiques

How to define and execute a successful launch and managing stakeholders expectations. (eg. MVP)

Launching new products or features

Methods of prototyping and solution validation. When to use which kind of prototype (eg. Webflow, Notion, etc)

Prototyping methods and tips

Manage team expectations and get the most out of your meetings.

Running effective meetings

Identify and define potential product problems and generating possible solutions.

Identifying problems vs solutions

Learn how to properly present your work and share ideas and opinions.

Presenting your work with impact

Tips on how to work and collaborate with designers.

Working with designers

How to work with team members with different skill sets but towards a common goal?

Working cross-functionally

Methods and models of exploring, deciding and delivering design.

Building a design process

Managing being the only designer at your company and working with non-designers.

Being the only designer

Explore different generative and evaluative research techniques. User research synthesis and presentation.

Conducting good user research

Ways and resources to improve your design skills.

Improving design skills

Navigating the working relationship with PM's and engineers as a designer.

Working with product and engineering

How to create personas, and leverage them in design.

Creating and leveraging user personas

Ways to provide constructive feedback to team members.

Giving effective feedback

How to define an ambitious product vision and how to best communicate it to stakeholders?

Creating a product vision

Tips on how to work and collaborate with engineers and developers.

Working with engineers

Best practices for documenting projects, epics, and stories

Writing product requirement documents

How to conduct interviews, what to ask, and how to analyze your results? (eg. user interview)

Conducting effective customer interviews

I'm Ryan Short, a Fractional User Experience Director and Contract UX Designer specializing in design thinking, operational thinking, and team building. I am passionate about creating exceptional digital experiences that captivate users and drive business growth.

With extensive experience in UX design, I collaborate with cross-functional teams to gain deep insights into user needs and translate them into intuitive designs. I craft seamless user journeys, conduct thorough user research, and utilize data-driven insights to inform design decisions.

I possess a keen understanding of operational thinking methodologies, optimizing processes, streamlining workflows, and delivering exceptional results within tight timelines and resource constraints.

Team building and leadership are core to my professional journey. I build and lead high-performing teams, fostering collaboration and innovation to empower team members to deliver outstanding results. I create a culture of continuous learning, open communication, and a commitment to excellence.

Highlights of my expertise:

Fractional User Experience Director: Providing strategic guidance and leadership, aligning UX initiatives with business objectives, and delivering user-centric design solutions.

Contract UX Designer: Creating intuitive interfaces, conducting comprehensive user research, and implementing best practices to enhance user satisfaction and engagement.

Design Thinking Advocate: Tackling complex challenges, empathizing with users, and generating innovative solutions that meet user needs and align with business goals.

Operational Thinking Specialist: Integrating operational thinking into UX design, optimizing workflows, streamlining processes, and improving project efficiency within constraints.

Team Building & Leadership: Building and leading diverse teams, fostering collaboration, nurturing talent, and inspiring creativity to consistently deliver exceptional UX solutions.

As the Head of User Experience at Sonnet, I lead a team of diverse experts in user experience disciplines, including Interaction Design, User Research, Visual Design and Strategy.

In this role, I was responsible for:

• Developing a framework for research, design, and strategy, which involves creating a Design Operations practice.

• Collaborating cross-functionally with leaders from product management, operations, and other disciplines to ensure a seamless and cohesive experience design process, and high-quality deliverables that are ready for execution.

• Supporting the career growth of current employees by creating growth and development plans for the team, strategically planning and hiring for emerging skills to mature the strategy and design team's capabilities.

• Assisting in creating a set of customer journeys to establish a multi-year roadmap to address client and employee experience challenges, identify opportunities across various business lines, and establish an ecosystem for client engagement.

• Overseeing the delivery of web and mobile projects for different business units of Sonnet and Economical Insurance, in partnership with Digital Solutions and Product teams.

• Acting as a trusted advisor to business leadership and demonstrating exemplary leadership skills in design and technology.

• Providing daily guidance, direction, and leadership to both the User Experience and product teams to create high-performing, engaged, and inclusive teams.

In my role as the Director of Research and Strategy at The Co-Operators, I collaborated with a team of strategists and researchers to ensure an outstanding omni-channel user experience.

My responsibilities included:

•	Developing a research, design, and strategy framework.

•	Assisting in the creation of a multi-year roadmap that tackled client and employee experience challenges, identified opportunities across various business lines, and established an ecosystem for client engagement.

•	Overseeing the UX Research and Strategy deliverables of responsive web projects for different business units of The Co-Operators in partnership with Product teams.

•	Providing daily guidance, direction, and leadership to both the User Experience and product teams to create high performing, engaged, and inclusive teams.

In my position as Director of Experience Design at Bounteous, I lead a global team of User Experience Designers and Strategists to create exceptional user experiences for clients across various industries, including eCommerce and Consumer Packaged Goods.

My responsibilities included:

• Collaborating with three other Directors of Experience Design to build an experience design practice that encompasses user experience and visual design, as well as a Design Operations practice.

• Identifying and accurately scoping design projects by assessing the level of effort required, design teams involved, and expected impacts on customers and employees.

• Leading my team in articulating a vision and evaluating design approaches while considering cost, value, and feasibility to the end customer.

• Supporting a culture of rapid iteration to solve design problems based on qualitative and quantitative data.

• Remaining a thought leader across the organization, staying informed of the latest experience design trends, and ensuring alignment across the organization to deliver an excellent customer experience.

Root. is an open ecosystem that enables the curation of customer and employee experiences by providing clients with the ability to shape products, services and processes using techs ("AnyTechs"). We built the ecosystem with the passion that an open framework is a path forward. 

As part of the Root team, I've had the opportunity to work alongside senior leadership to develop the overall product vision, UX roadmap and design systems for both the client and admin application.

As an Online Instructor at Brainstation, I facilitated the User Experience Design course. My responsibilities included providing instruction, creating lesson plans, evaluating student progress, and providing feedback to enhance their learning experience.

Aucti is a digital auction platform designed for the sports and entertainment market to drive fan engagement and raise funds.

Coming to stadiums and arenas in April 2021.

During my time as a Senior Experience Designer at Havas, I led the strategic digital experience design for a financial institution client. In addition to mentoring and collaborating with product owners and directors to establish experience best practices, I was responsible for the following:

• Defining features and experiences using existing and innovative patterns.
• Developing high-fidelity prototypes of products.
• Creating and conducting tests to evaluate client interactions with prototypes.
• Implementing a visual style that aligned with other products.
• Ensuring the quality of user experience throughout the design and development process.

As the Founder and CEO of Detour UX, a Digital Strategy and User Experience Design consultancy specialized in eCommerce, Financial, and Healthcare design, I oversaw the following responsibilities:

• Developed a research, design, and strategy framework in a startup environment and built a team from 1 individual to over 12 full-time staff and 10 contractors across three major Canadian cities.

• Assisted in creating a multi-year roadmap for various clients to address client and employee experience challenges, identify opportunities across various business lines, and establish an ecosystem for client engagement.

• Oversaw the delivery of web and mobile projects across two main offices in Ottawa and Toronto while also delivering projects in British Columbia and the United States.

• Served as a trusted advisor to business leadership, demonstrating exemplary leadership skills in design and technology.

• Provided company direction and leadership across both full-time staff and contractors on a variety of projects throughout North America.

Clients included: Rangle.io, Havas, Jam3, SapientRazorfish, TribalScale, Deloitte, and Central1.

Ryan Short🇨🇦

About Ryan Short

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