Melissa Patenaude
Verified Expert in Design
Creative Director and Designer
Oakland, CA, United States
Toptal member since May 17, 2017
Melissa has over 17 years of experience in design (UI/UX, visual, product, and identity) as well as art direction and strategy. She's worked for Fortune 500 companies and startups in various fields, including B2B, developer tools, retail, food, education, and finance. Melissa's passionate about the relationship between people, technology, and culture and is dedicated to creating experiences that charm people from the digital world to daily life.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Design Strategist | Growth Consultant
Independant Consultant
- Uncovered gaps and opportunities for a fashion eCommerce company growth. Developed and implemented CRO strategies that increased organic traffic to the site by 9% and increased conversion rate by 0.7%.
- Increased a restaurant chain's customer satisfaction and retention with in-restaurant experience audit, strategy, implementation, and a cohesive and relatable online and social presence.
- Designed and built a new global home decor brand, from business concept to financial modeling, operations, branding and marketing, asset delivery, and Shopify website building.
- Rebranded and built an animé and pop culture apparel Shopify store. Designed and constructed Klaviyo emails and email templates targeting Gen Z.
- Rebranded a Silicon Valley group of CTO consultants and built their WordPress website, marketing, and SEO strategy, targeting venture capitalists, private equity firms, and mid-market enterprise companies.
- Developed a fashion marketplace concept for a startup funding presentation from branding to UX to future web app product concepts. As a result, the client got the funding.
Design Director
LaunchDarkly
- Led product, marketing, and brand for the company. Established design principles, brand guidelines, design thinking processes, and workflows that ensured ongoing feedback and iteration.
- Built the design team. I was the only designer for a year, then made a centralized design team of six designers, three specialized in the product and three specialized in branding and marketing.
- Built the design systems for LaunchDarkly—one for the product and one for marketing—integrated with code and the engineering team.
- Led the evolution of a SaaS product. Oversaw the redesign of the entire information hierarchy and evolution of the dashboard and designed a new experimentation offering and visual usage dashboards.
- Led branding and marketing for a brand new user conference for a developer and product audience in Oakland, California.
Chief Experience Officer
Fewofmany
- Architected a unique inclusive process to discover value, challenges, risks, and opportunities which I facilitated within companies and individual entrepreneurs.
- Designed the brand identity, website, and growth strategy for a gourmet cannabis pop-up event company.
- Created and built a website and marketing materials for a B2B business continuity company.
- Rebranded a vape cannabis company along with all marketing collaterals and designed and built their website.
- Designed and built our agency website and marketing collaterals.
- Branded and built the website for a mental health group therapy startup.
Design Manager | Strategy Designer
Macy's
- Led the UI/UX and visual design as well as product management for a sister-company testing platform.
- Strategized and built radical consumer-facing features, monitored the data, and conducted user interviews to learn and iterate.
- Led a team of 10 designers who worked across the Macys.com platform.
- Instilled the importance of design guidelines, consistency, and clean and delightful experiences.
- Created sessions and fostered working relationships between departments to merge a siloed old way of working.
- Led design (UI/UX) in a lean and agile team to build a marketplace for Macys.com.
Design Director
Studio7
- Designed Walgreen's grand opening books showcasing local culture for each location opening.
- Designed and strategized a gaming app and in-store experience for Walmart and EA Sports.
- Built and strategized on a three-year roadmap marketing plan for Urban Outfitters.
- Designed two new-concept project management and communication web apps.
- Designed a multitude of brand identities, websites, and apps from consumer goods to restaurants, finance, and education companies.
Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion and Art Design
Lasalle College of Montreal - Montreal, QC, Canada
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering
Polytechnique of Montreal - Montreal, QC, Canada
Associate of Applied Science in Pure and Applied Sciences
College de Maisonneuve - Montreal, QC, Canada
Certifications
Marketplace Platform Business Sprint
Section4
Strategy Bootcamp
Mark Pollard's Sweathead
Management Bootcamp
Harrison Metal
Design Thinking & Lean Development
Pivotal Labs
Skills
Tools
Adobe, Sketch, InVision, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe CC, Microsoft Word, Asana, UX Tools, Jira, Zeplin, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Microsoft PowerPoint, Usertesting.com, Adobe Creative Suite, InVision App, Pivotal Tracker, Miro, MURAL, Apple Keynote, Google Slides, Lean Testing
Languages
Visual Design Language, HTML, CSS
Industry Expertise
Marketing, Apparel & Accessories, Advertising, Psychology & Mental Health, Restaurants & Dining, Food & Beverage
Platforms
WordPress, Figma, Web, Mobile, Shopify, Zeppelin, iOS, Magento, Apple TV
Other
Prototyping, Information Architecture (IA), Art Direction, eCommerce, eCommerce UX, eCommerce UI, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Responsive UI, Creative Direction, Usability Testing, Marketing Design, Presentation Design, Product Design, WordPress Design, Storytelling, Strategy, Branding, Lean UX, UX Research, Websites, Visual Design, UI Design, Lean Startups, Identity Design, UX Design, Leadership, Design Leadership, User Personas, User Flows, User Stories, Web App Design, UX Strategy, Lean, Brand Design, Responsive Web Apps, Web Design, Brand Guidelines, PowerPoint Design, Graphic Design, Wireframing, High-fidelity Mockups, Color Theory, Digital Brand Identity, User Experience Strategy, User Experience (UX), eCommerce Web Design, UX Wireframes, Mockups, Remote Team Leadership, Scrum, User Interface (UI), Mobile Design, Web UX, Website Redesign, Web Page Mockups, A/B Testing, Design Thinking, Communication, Responsive Design, User Research, Brand Identity, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Landing Page Design, UX Audits, Navigation Design, Design Reviews, Navigation, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Visual Identity, Color Palettes, Typography, MVP Design, Feature Prioritization, User Testing, Design Systems, WordPress Themes, UI Components, Mobile First, Best Practices in Design, Logotype, Agency Websites, Design Strategy, Strategic Design, Marketing Collateral Development, Digital Design, Ad Design, Collateral Design, PowerPoint Templates, Document Design, Checkout, User Management, Shopify Customizations, Shopify Design, Print Design, Tone of Voice, Market Research, Layout Design, Design, Web UI, Merchandise, Content Writing, Visual Storytelling, Content Strategy, Lean Research, T-shirt Design, Clothing, App UI, UX Leadership, Pitch Presentations, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Hands-on Implementation, Executive Presentations, Mobile UI Design, Pixel Perfect, Mobile UX Design, User Interviews, Advertisement Design, Web UI Design, Minimalism, PDF Design, Infographics, Readability, Interactive Prototypes, Web Applications, Stakeholder Management, Content Management Systems (CMS), Heuristic Evaluation, Layout, Rapid Prototyping, Presentation Development, Blog Posting, Email Design, Illustration, Presentations, Social Media Design, Marketplaces, Apps, Marketplace Design, Agile, Data Visualization, Dashboards, Logo Design, Consumer Technology, Web App UI, Web App UX, System Design, User Roles, Growth, Dashboard Design, SaaS, SaaS Design, Conversion Rate, Conversion, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), B2B, Enterprise, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Landing Pages, Web Marketing, Complex Application User Interfaces (UI), User Journeys, Landing Page Optimization, Cross-platform UX, Mobile Prototypes, UI Animation, Pitch Decks, Workshops, Workshop Facilitation, Gamification, Analytical Dashboards, Web Application Design, Email Template Design, White Papers, Reports, Parallax Design, Shopify Theme, Elementor, Booking Systems, Data, Copywriting, Artificial Intelligence (AI), iOS App Design, Mobile UI, Mobile App Design, ChatGPT, Webinars, Interface Design, Writing & Editing, eCommerce Design, Mobile eCommerce, Responsive, Style Guides, UI Style Guides, Product Management, Social Media, Web Development, Photography Direction, Image Manipulation, Event Design, Cannabis, Digital Strategy, Social Media Content, Management, Web Components, Template Design, Email Templates, Email, Component Libraries, Production, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Tech Packs, Package Design, Recommendation Systems, Two-sided Marketplaces, Apple TV UI, Keynote Templates, Squarespace, Web UX Design, Web Dashboards, WebApp, High-tech Startups, Enterprise SaaS, Enterprise Design, Enterprise Startups, Web 3.0, Business, Change Management, Lean Canvas, Lean Inception, Design Thinking Facilitation, Brand Strategy
Experience
- Branding - 12 years
- UX Design - 12 years
- UI Design - 12 years
- Creative Direction - 10 years
- Strategy - 10 years
- Product Design - 8 years
- UX Research - 5 years
- Information Architecture (IA) - 5 years
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