kaitlynbsmith@gmail.com
(416) 659-6974
Experience Summary
6 years in Product Management
8 years in Graphic Design
13 years in Project Management
Education
Certificate
2024 | George Brown College
UX Design
Bachelor’s Degree
2016 | OCAD University
Graphic Design
Associate’s Degree
2011 | Durham College
Animation & Film Production
Hard Skills
Budget Management
Data Analysis
Database Management
Design Strategy
Design Thinking
Graphic Design
Product Requirement Documents
Project Management Methodologies
(Agile, Kanban, Scrum, Waterfall)
Prototyping
User Research
Usability Testing
UX / Web Design
UX Writing
Wireframing
Soft Skills
Adaptability
Communication
Critical Thinking
Creativity
Empathy
Goal-Setting
Leadership
Problem-Solving
Teamwork
Time Management
Tools & Software
Product / Design
Affinity Designer
Figma / FigJam
Framer
Illustrator
InDesign
Miro
Photoshop
Premiere Pro
ProductBoard
Sketch
Webflow
Whimsical
Organizational / PM
Airtable
Asana
ChatGPT
Excel
HubSpot
Jira
Keynote
Monday
Notion
Salesforce
Trello
Wrike
Languages
Coding
CSS
HTML
Written
English
French
Professional Experience
Owner / Freelancer
2024–Present
Craft tailored brand messaging; establish & enhance user experience strategies.
Identify project goals, conduct user research & competitor analysis to determine product requirements, define target users, determine appropriate information architecture, and establish visual direction with design systems & prototypes.
Collaborate with clients to define KPIs and track project success, leading to an average 20% improvement in measurable outcomes across all projects thus far.
Conduct usability tests and user interviews to identify key user pain points and influence design iterations that improve satisfaction rates by 30%+ on average.
Established scalable workflows for managing freelance design projects, increased the capacity of concurrent projects by 80% without compromising quality.
Product Brand Manager
2022–2024
Executive PM for e-commerce products & media marketing of a dental professional.
Led a creative rebranding initiative for the company, and spearheaded the development and launch of the company’s first digital product line, employing iterative design & feedback loops to drive a 25% increase in e-commerce sales.
Re-designed Shopify storefront, enhanced digital storefront navigation, oversaw all front- and back-end e-commerce operations; analyzed website and campaign performance to optimize SEO; and created and implemented an inventory management system that reduced stock discrepancies to 0.
Executive Product Manager
2020–2022
MAKO Design + Invent
Remote
Executive PM at Industrial Design firm for end-to-end product development services.
Strategically planned PRDs and managed functional requirements for 400+ client projects, achieving a 90% on- or under-budget completion rate by employing agile methodologies and risk mitigation.
Developed a detailed reporting framework for business analysis, enabling real-time tracking of contract metrics; this initiative empowered the executive team to make data-driven decisions and improved cost-tracking accuracy by 75%.
Spearheaded new hybrid contracts, improving contract compliance by 80%, improving profit margins by up to 400%—and implemented resource planning & invoicing systems, reducing administrative workload by 10-15 hours per week.
Product Manager & Design Consultant
2017
PM on app for hailing makeup artists & aestheticians for weddings & special events.
Managed and mentored in-house design team and directed bi-weekly scrums, delivering assets in 40-50% less time across each project sprint, while maintaining top-tier creative standards, identifying product goals, and conducting research to determine go-to-market strategy.
Media One Creative Inc.
Toronto
Senior-Level PM responsible for pre-production planning and on-set production crew.
Assistant Production Manager · Assets
2017–2018
Mid-Senior PM responsible for all asset departments & overseeing project closeout.
Collaborated with cross-functional supervisors to refine processes for large-scale assets & directed the asset team, delivering high-quality assets 40% faster than previously projected, and accelerating projected project end by 10 weeks.
Production Asset Coordinator
2017
Mid-Level PM for 3 asset departments; transfer & documentation of 2 years of data.
Production Coordinator
2016–2017
ToonBox Entertainment
Toronto
Mid-Level PM managing 6 cross-functional pre-production departments.
Production Coordinator · Elements Quality Control
2016
Mid-Level PM responsible for team of 40 artists; liason for international vendors.
Production Coordinator · Assets & Outsourcing
2016
Junior PM overseeing transfer and takeover of longterm television show production.
Production Assistant
2011–2012
PM Assistant for pre-production departments on two early-stage productions.