Innovating for Business Success

Overview

​​As Lead Product Designer, I led the growth of a cross-functional team of designers, content strategists, and insights specialists, driving the advancement of ATB’s business banking across web and native mobile platforms. I also strengthened collaboration among design, product, and engineering—the “trio.” Our design team earned particular praise for professional handoffs and overall professionalism, which greatly improved the development process.

Client: ATB

Role: Lead Product Designer

Duration: 2 Years

Team: Bizbanking

Highlights

Key launches where I provided mentorship and support to the team:

  • Sort, search, filter

  • Global transfers payment rail

  • Customer identity and access management (CIAM)

  • Printing 

  • Team member tool remittance

  • SMS e-transfer for Interac

  • Mastercard services enhancements

  • Embedded learning

Personal achievements as a lead designer:

I created a service blueprint to map how various teams interact within Agile ceremonies, identifying opportunities to enhance the development process. I served as the service designer and facilitator, responsible for understanding the end-to-end ecosystem. This artefact was used to integrate more robust accessibility checks into the development cycle to ensure inclusive product delivery. Overview below.

I improved our design workflow by developing a suite of tools aimed at boosting efficiency and collaboration. This included a checklist system that gave designers clear objectives and defined deliverables, an annotation toolkit to standardize handoffs and provide essential file annotations, and a wireframe kit to enable rapid iteration and testing. These kits were adopted by the broader ATB design team and became the standard for deliverables. Additionally, I introduced case studies stored in Confluence, creating an accessible archive for current and future designers as well as stakeholders. Overview below

I created a service blueprint that defined a multidisciplinary approach to proactively support accessibility in our pipeline. It became the foundation for the Accessibility Working Group, which I was part of.

Key enhancements included:

  • Structured accessibility checkpoints to catch issues early

  • Governance gates to involve the right people at the right time

  • A cultural shift toward shared ownership of accessibility

The blueprint remains a living tool—regularly referenced and updated as needs evolve

Service blueprint for development process and accessibility integration

To build a shared understanding of the product shipping process (especially for new team members), I led the creation of a service blueprint. I conducted extensive stakeholder interviews to document process flows and identify critical touchpoints, requiring multiple meetings to capture the full picture.

Design Upgrades

Recognizing the strength of our team’s diverse design backgrounds, I aimed to turn that diversity into a collaborative asset. To support this, I embedded a weekly critique into our workflow, encouraging the team to share early and often. I also created a checklist to guide and align the team through each stage of the design process:

Discover, Analyze, Ideate, Design, Develop, Measure, and Evolve.

We faced challenges with inconsistent design file delivery, which made it difficult for developers to interpret designs and led to frequent clarification calls. To resolve this, I created an annotation kit that helped designers present their files more intuitively, adding essential context such as interaction details and accessibility notes. The kit proved highly effective, became a key part of our design system, and continues to support onboarding new designers and streamlining design iterations.

For quicker testing iterations, I developed a wireframe kit leveraging design library elements. This facilitated early validation of designs with team members and users, preventing wasted effort on high-fidelity versions and enabling iterative prototyping that sparked deeper discussions. We also had to carefully consider typography and visual styling to ensure clarity without creating confusion with final branded designs.

It’s about the people

Steering these initiatives was so much fun. They fostered deep collaboration among designers and our product partners. These collaborative endeavors were instrumental in solidifying and refining our design practice.