We chat about Jourdan’s journey into Product Design Management, how she fosters team culture, and inspiration through her muse, Hank 🐶. This interview was monitored by Austin Couillard, Sr. Brand Designer and Pavi Designs, Sr. Product Designer. Hi Jourdan, tell us about yourself. For starters, I’m a fair weather runner and french fry connoisseur 😊. I…

Redirecting a moving train You may have found yourself in a situation where you needed to persuade others to see things your way without the backing of formal authority. There’s no perfect formula to solve this, but I’ll share what’s worked for me. Let’s redirect the train together, all aboard! Catching the train …

Share in-progress design work and receive specific feedback quickly — A few months ago I tried to make vegan mayo, which was a diabolical disaster. I couldn’t get the consistency nor texture I wanted. But then I remembered a tip I learned while making hummus to get the smooth, creamy thickness. It was adding ice water to the blended mixture…

Plus a Figma virtual debate kit to run your own. — At a fast-growing company like Shopify, sharing context across teams becomes increasingly challenging. In my first few months at Shopify, I identified a problem area that impacted two teams across two product workflows: mobile and web. The problem area raised the question: should the web and mobile workflows be the…

When we appreciate people’s artwork or performance, it’s common to say, “They’re so talented.” What defines talent? Is it really talent that makes them so good at what they do? This must mean that we cannot achieve greatness in a skill or task if we aren’t talented. Several people know…

I recently had the opportunity of facilitating a virtual design workshop for the SheHacks Hackathon. Running virtual design workshops are distinctively different from in-person. There’s a lack of insight into energy levels, what participants may be struggling with, and visual cues. The needs and constraints: Duration: 1 hour 100+ participants I won’t be able…

I was trying to design the perfect wallet for my friend. What makes a product perfect is the way it meets the user’s needs. The first step was to understand those needs, evaluate if their current wallet is meeting it, what would make them purchase a new wallet over their…

This is a story of how I along with a team of talented women tackled an impossible challenge of representing diversity accurately in media and in a social environment. We presented the idea using an adaptation of the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, “The Ugly Duckling”. The Ugly Truth Today in a world…

This article explains how I tackled the challenge of incorporating an effective onboarding experience in a consumer-to-consumer platform. Problem at hand Products that integrate consumer-to-consumer interaction enjoy a much higher user engagement, which is key in today’s competitive landscape. Aside from developing the consumer-to-consumer platform, a crucial task is to create an effective…