Tanya Junell
Designer
Location
Austin, TX, United States
Toptal Member Since
October 9, 2015
Tanya is a human-centered director of product management with over 12 years of product strategy, team management, and UX leadership experience. From process improvement to design sprint facilitation, she will help take a product team to the next level of efficiency, empowerment, and efficacy.
Tanya is available for hire
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Work Experience
2019 - PRESENT
Director of Product Management
Blue Label Labs
- Implemented a human-centered process for strategy, discovery, and design.
- Facilitated Google Venture design sprints to accelerate learnings and inform mobile application MVPs.
- Created interaction design (IxD), product requirement documentation, and specification templates for increased efficiency and clarity of information transfer between product and development.
- Effectively and efficiently collaborated on product planning with engineering leads, off-shore development teams, and client stakeholders.
- Defined the North Star product vision for multiple client Android and iOS applications.
Technologies: Asana, Jira, Miro, InVision, Sketch
2006 - PRESENT
UI Visual Designer
Freelance Work
- Developed brand strategies, style guides, marketing materials, and interface design systems.
- Created illustrations for marketing, branding, and product initiatives.
- Offered design and design strategy consulting services to clients lacking in-house creative design resources.
- Provided logo design, style guide creation and expansion, and print and interactive design services on short-term and long-term projects.
- Kept up to date with current and upcoming design trends and technology.
Technologies: InVision, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite
2016 - 2018
Head of Product
Creatubbles
- Advocated for and enabled a human-centered approach to product planning efforts.
- Spearheaded a revised value proposition and identified viable markets and opportunities to focus on via data analysis, competitive research, and ethnographic user studies.
- Designed successful partner white-label applications that leveraged the core business applications and could be executed with minimal customization and extra development time.
- Established a user-centric design thinking process into the company culture that had a cross-departmental reach and positively impacted engagement metrics and user satisfaction.
- Introduced a need for leadership to be aware of competitive markets and to learn from successful, innovative companies that leveraged user co-creation and a specialized understanding of user mental models and behaviors.
- Gained a deep experience of identifying user and business problems, proposing solutions amongst a dynamic cross-disciplinary team of experts, and prioritizing development and feedback loops for continuous refinement.
Technologies: Sketch 3, Principle, InVision
2011 - 2015
Senior Designer
MTV Networks
- Created user interfaces and visual design for select niche networks at Nickelodeon Digital including Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nick, and NickMom.
- Found opportunities to elevate select brands, both new and established, via current design thinking and technology.
- Collaborated daily with art directors, content producers, and product managers to produce ideas, design, and deliver beautiful and sound design solutions while working in a remote capacity.
- Created visual design for interfaces for mobile, tablet, and web applications that captured and enhanced the Nickelodeon family of brands.
- Delivered comprehensive and effective marketing product and strategy that supports on-air counterpart initiatives.
Technologies: Adobe Creative Suite
2009 - 2011
Creative Director
SchoolNet, Inc.
- Ensured interdepartmental adhesion to branding guidelines during product development, marketing initiatives, and internal client design projects.
- Developed creative design strategies in concert with company stakeholders in order to increase product sales and conversion.
- Devised creative design and UI guidelines that brought legacy product in-line with current design thinking.
- Actively advocated for UX-based design thinking across all product development.
- Increased collaborative communication between all internal clients: creative and technology.
Technologies: Adobe Creative Suite
2006 - 2009
UX Visual Designer
SchoolNet, Inc.
- Worked with UX designers, information architects, and the copy team to develop interfaces for SchoolNet product suite.
- Created data visualization visual treatments and guidelines for data-rich dashboards.
- Created a new style guide to inform product development.
- Underwent Agile training and attended design conferences.
- Involved in performing UX testing, developing and hosting internal UX design workshops, and low and high fidelity prototyping.
Technologies: Balsamiq, Adobe Creative Suite
2002 - 2006
Sole Proprietor
Honeybee
- Provided web, print, and illustration design services on a case by case contract basis.
- Provided business and event branding services.
- Led art direction on a contract basis.
- Worked with Flash animation and web design (HTML and CSS).
- Hired and managed vendors.
Technologies: Flash, Adobe Creative Suite
Education
2000 - 2002
Completed Courses (Certificates) in Graphic Design, 3D Max, Flash, and Freehand
Ottawa School of Art - Ottawa, Canada
1996 - 2000
Bachelor of Arts Degree Cum Laude in Philosophy
University of Ottawa - Ottawa, Canada
Certifications
AUGUST 2019 - PRESENT
Design Sprint Master
The Design Sprint School
Experience
Human-centered Design (HCD) - 12 yearsAgile UX - 12 yearsDesign Thinking - 10 yearsLeadership - 10 yearsAgile Product Management - 10 yearsProduct Management - 5 yearsLocation
