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Resume

Claudio Afonso

Product & UX Design Leader | Enterprise UX | Platform Modernization | Creative Direction
Vancouver BC, Canada

I bring a rare mix of product design leadership and executive creative direction, combining UX strategy with creative director-level craft and storytelling.

Quick highlights

  • CIRO-regulated product and workflow design

  • Co-founder and head of design (product and UX)

  • Enterprise-scale B2B2C platform design
  • 0→1 incubation, concept validation, and roadmap shaping
  • Executive-level storytelling and stakeholder alignment
  • Award-winning creative leadership background

Selected clients and partners include:
HP, Microsoft, Finning, Aviso Wealth, South African Tourism, BMW, Mini, Lexus, Rogers Sportsnet, Tourism BC, Translink, Sound Transit, The Toronto Transit Commission, and other enterprise and public-sector organizations.

I’m a product innovation and UX design leader with 25+ years of experience designing digital products, platforms, and customer experiences across advertising, enterprise, and financial services. I specialize in modernizing legacy systems, simplifying complex workflows, and helping organizations deliver digital experiences that scale.

My background spans executive creative direction, product strategy, and hands-on delivery. I thrive in incubated teams where ambiguity is high, speed matters, and design is expected to drive alignment and measurable outcomes. I bring a player-coach leadership style that connects vision to execution and builds momentum across cross-functional teams.

Core UX and product design leadership strengths

  • Product design leadership for complex enterprise platforms and workflows.
  • UX strategy and experience design across B2C, B2B, and B2B2C products and platforms.
  • Modernizing digital products by combining UX strategy with brand-led thinking to improve adoption, trust, and engagement.
  • Designing compliant workflows that balance regulatory requirements with usability and efficiency.
  • Stakeholder alignment across Business, Product, Engineering, Operations, and Executive leadership.
  • Incubated team leadership, rapid validation, and zero-to-one product definition in high-ambiguity environments.
  • Translating business goals into scalable design direction and delivery
  • Accelerating design systems delivery through modern tooling, automation, and design-to-code workflows.
  • Designing AI-driven productivity tools that turn conversations into actionable workflows.
  • Translating hypotheses into testable prototypes, validated insights, and roadmap-ready product direction.

Leadership and working style

I bring a player-coach leadership approach that combines strategic design direction with hands-on execution when needed. I’m comfortable operating in ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and helping teams move quickly from early discovery to validated outcomes.

I work best in environments where design is treated as a strategic partner, and where teams are modernizing systems, improving workflows, and building new digital capabilities.

Design leadership experience

I am currently leading modernization initiatives for advisor platforms across Canada’s credit union ecosystem.

Lead Product Designer (Fintech, B2B2C)
Vancouver, BC | Current
Leading modernization initiatives for advisor-facing tools used across Canada’s credit union ecosystem. Working across product strategy, workflow design, stakeholder alignment, and compliance-heavy requirements to support scalable platform evolution.

Key focus areas include platform modernization, operational efficiency, workflow simplification, and enabling compliant digital processes.


Founder / Principal Design Consultant (Product & UX)
Vancouver, BC | Previous
Built and ran an independent product consultancy focused on product strategy, digital experience design, and innovation. Partnered with global teams to explore the trifecta of feasibility, desirability, and viability through structured discovery, rapid prototyping, and customer validation.

I led and executed the full design lifecycle, including strategy, concepting, UX and UI design, research planning, participant recruitment, facilitation, synthesis, and executive-level storytelling to drive alignment and decisions.


Executive Creative Director (Digital & Advertising)
South Africa | Previous
Led award-winning creative and digital work at the continents top digital agency, managing teams and delivering high-profile campaigns and digital experiences for major brands. Developed strong leadership foundations in storytelling, creative strategy, executional excellence, and team development.

This chapter shaped my ability to build strong vision, communicate ideas clearly, and drive high standards of craft, while operating at speed.

Selected project themes
(Non-confidential)

Platform Modernization (Financial Services)
Led UX and product design efforts to modernize investment advisor tools and workflows within the CIRO regulated environment. Focused on reducing operational friction and aligning with compliance requirements and business rules.

Enterprise Workflow Design (B2B / B2B2C)
Designed complex internal and external workflows supporting multi-stakeholder ecosystems. Focused on simplifying tasks, improving adoption, and enabling scalable processes.

Digital Product Strategy and Early-Stage Definition
Supported several incubated teams in defining product direction, validating concepts with users, and turning early ideas into roadmap-ready product experiences.

Cross-Device Experience Design
Designed cross-device experiences requiring thoughtful interaction patterns across the full product lifecycle, including OOBE and after-sales support.

Industries, blatforms, and brand experience

Domains

  • Fintech, wealth management, and advisor platforms
  • Enterprise SaaS and internal tools
  • Productivity and collaboration software
  • Digital media and brand experience platforms

Platforms

  • B2B and B2B2C platforms (multi-stakeholder ecosystems)
  • Workflow-heavy tools (compliance, approvals, straight-through processing)
  • Dashboards, admin tools, and operational control systems
  • Cross-device experiences (mobile, desktop, multi-screen)

Brand & creative direction

  • Brand-driven digital experiences and unified marketing ecosystems
  • Creative direction for advertising, digital media, and marketing campaigns
  • UX + brand integration (designing usable experiences without losing emotional impact)
  • Storytelling, messaging, and experience design aligned to brand identity
     

Core Capabilities

  • Product strategy and experience vision
  • UX design for complex workflows
  • Discovery, research, and synthesis
  • Workshop facilitation and stakeholder alignment
  • Rapid prototyping and concept validation
  • Design systems and scalable UI frameworks
  • Cross-functional collaboration with Product and Engineering
  • AI-enabled workflow design and human-first automation thinking

Skills (UX, Product Design, and Leadership)

Enterprise UX, workflow design, B2B SaaS, B2B2C platforms, fintech, wealth management, advisor tools, design systems, usability, information architecture, interaction design, service design, journey mapping, stakeholder management, product strategy, discovery, research synthesis, prototyping, AI product design, branding, creative direction, art direction, UI design.

Roles I’m open to

I’m currently exploring senior leadership opportunities including:

  • Director of Product Design
  • Head of Design
  • UX Director / Director of UX
  • Product Design Director
  • Design Director
  • Principal Product Designer

I’m open to Vancouver-based, hybrid, or remote roles, depending on the team and mandate. My full PDF resume, detailed work history, and references are available upon request.  To request access, please email me

Tools & current stack

My tooling evolves constantly, but my focus remains on outcomes and speed of execution.
Current tools include:

  • Strategy & alignment: Miro, FigJam

  • Prototyping & product definition: Figma, Adobe Creative Suite (increasingly minimal)

  • Rapid prototyping (AI-assisted): Figma Make, Cursor, OpenAI Codex, OpenAI Playground

  • Remote research recruitment: UserResearch.com, Respondent.com

FAQ

Are you primarily a leader or an individual contributor?
I’ve spent the majority of my career in player-coach roles, leading design direction while staying close to execution. I’m most effective when design leadership is expected to drive both strategy and outcomes.

What types of teams do you thrive in?
I thrive in incubated teams and modernization environments where ambiguity is high, priorities are evolving, and design is expected to bring clarity and momentum.

Do you work with AI and emerging technology?
Yes. I’m especially interested in applying AI in practical, human-first ways that reduce operational friction, improve workflows, and eliminate repetitive tasks.

Can you share case studies?
Yes. Selected case studies are available in my portfolio, with password-protected access available upon request.

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