About Me
👋 Hi, I'm Wendy
I am a product design leader currently in the e-commerce space. As a former entrepreneur, fashion designer, and fashion buyer, I bring a unique blend of design aesthetics, customer-centricity and business acumen to the table. My reputation as a connector reflects my boundless energy, outgoing personality, and exceptional relationship-building skills.
Background
I’m a former fashion buyer and designer using my 15+ years of experience in retail to lead with a customer-centric mindset and drive product innovation with data.
Design Leader 👏
As the Director of UX at Air Miles, Canada’s leading coalition loyalty program, I’m bringing my eCom background to the world of loyalty. I oversee the web and app experience, leading UXD and UXR to help collectors rack up miles and score amazing merch and travel perks. My mission? To create smooth, intuitive journeys that make earning and redeeming even better.
Understanding Human Behaviour 🧠
You know that kid that always ask “why?” 😬 I’ve always had a deep interest in understanding how people think which led me to complete my B.Sc in Biology/Psychology from the University of Toronto. On the path to studying how neurotransmitters affect the brain in disorders like Alzheimer’s and drug addiction, my life changed when I got a PT job at a design school.
Entrepreneurship and Designer Days 👗
Not ready to spend my days in a lab, I pivoted into fashion design. Fresh out of college I started my own clothing line and thus began my decade-long run as an entrepreneur. 1 clothing line became 2, my clothes were sold internationally and featured in Sportswear International, In Style, People and Refinery 29 to name a few.
As a designer, my focus was on aesthetics and visual design, harnessing the power of color, texture, and style to evoke emotions. Fit and usability were paramount and each season I would receive customer feedback (or user research as we like to call it now) to understand buying preferences.
Being an entrepreneur was a practical education in resourcefulness, business acumen, market understanding, time management, innovation, leadership, legal knowledge, negotiation, goal setting, marketing and problem-solving. Yes - all of that! I learned to adapt to change, how to network like a pro, and view things from a global perspective.
But all good things must come to an end….
Business Strategist / Fashion Buyer 🎯
I transitioned into buying roles at various companies ranging from national chains to small retailers. Trying to understand consumer behaviour, iterating on seasonal assortments and key business metrics were central to my role. I spent a lot of my days staring at spreadsheets and willing good sales (it wasn’t all bad, i got a lot of free shoes). I managed budgets totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, and my performance was gauged by KPI’s including revenue, profit margins, and inventory sell-through.
So…that explains why I’m driven by outcomes and results, I understand the value of customer-centricity’s influence on business metrics and can discuss the value of UX with numbers.
Interests
I am an avid lifelong learner and believe in the importance of a growth mindset. Nothing expands the mind more than traveling and of that I go as far-flung as possible. Some of my recent faves are Albania, Vietnam and Thailand. Some other obsessions are personal finance, stock trading, real estate, interior design, anything AI and environmental sustainability.