Ryan Weaver | UX Strategy & Design
Rolling Meadows, IL 60008 | 847-877-8219 | coffeeandux@gmail.com | www.coffeeandux.com
Summary
- User-focused design professional with a strong desire to deliver excellent end-to-end experiences and a proven ability to define problems, research and analyze qualitative and quantitative data, ideate and design solutions iteratively, and manage continuous product improvements
- Respected leader and team member, blending technical and creative experience with psychology and business degrees to understand and empathize with all stakeholders while working cross-functionally in a fast-paced, Agile environment to identify and solve problems, prototype, test and complete projects
Strong Skills & Experience
- Wireframing & prototyping: Pen & paper , Sketch, Invision, Axure, Adobe CS
- Product management: JIRA, Microsoft TFS, Aha!, ruthless prioritization and Agile/lean methodology
- Content management: Microsoft SharePoint, WordPress, IBM Digital Experience (DX)
- Research & analysis: Interviewing, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
- Digital: HTML, CSS, A11y Accessibility
Employment
September 2018 - Current
User Experience Lead
Thinkship – Chicago, IL
- Create and execute user experience processes and strategy in an Agile agency environment across several products and projects
October 2017 - June 2018
Senior User Experience/User Interface Designer
RedShelf – Chicago, IL
- Developed design processes in an organization where they had not previously existed
- Lead the hiring and management of a design team
- Established a design system including typography, iconography, and application components
- Created workflows and wireframes for several new products in the education technology space
October 2016 - October 2017
Lead User Experience/User Interface Designer
OpinionLab, a Verint Company – Chicago, IL
- Collaborated with the product team, customers, front-end development, and subject matter experts to plan
and prioritize new tools, new reports, and updates to the OpinionLab product suite - Represented OpinionLab UX on the Verint Product Strategy Group, a corporate multi-product integration
planning organization tasked with creating holistic customer insights across several VOC products - Lead the creation of a UI and typography style guide to modernize the reporting platform interface
- Designed a new export tool that rapidly became the second most-used feature in the reporting portal
November 2015 - October 2016
April 2012 - November 2015
User Experience Designer
Previously: Digital Marketing Analyst, Web Marketing Analyst
Essendant, Formerly: United Stationers Inc., Lagasse LLC – Deerfield, IL
- Plan, prioritize, and produce continuous improvements to the intranet that enable associates to work more effectively, such as customizable quick links, a feature used by over 30% of active users
- Identify and interview key associates throughout the organization to discover pain points regarding collaboration and the shortcomings of the tools provided by the organization
- Analyzed and presented the existing information architecture of the customer portal site
- Designed the user interface of a new SAAS service desk application
- Ongoing content management and user experience improvements for multiple internal and customer and customer-facing websites built with SharePoint, WordPress, and HTML & CSS
- Created website requirements and test cases to enable migrating users to a new customer portal as one component of a business-wide integration project
December 2010 – April 2012
Ecommerce Product Manager
MMA Warehouse, LLC – Wheeling, IL
- Launched three ecommerce websites on the Demandware platform
- Coordinated with marketing, creative to plan and implement a series of successive Black Friday campaigns and promotions, increasing YOY revenue 11.9% for the holiday weekend
- Illustrated and coded sizing guides for t-shirts and other products
- Achieved a 91.1% successful on site search rate from August to December 2011
August 2002 – December 2010
Merchandising-Purchasing Manager, Computer and Information Systems Manager
Action Village Holdings LLC – Wood Dale, IL
- Managed a team of eight full time employees engaged in content production including photos and video, descriptions, categories and maintaining secondary sales channels including eBay and Amazon
- Coordinated with buying staff and vendors to reorder existing merchandise for over 200 vendors
- Created cross sales, add-on sales, similar item suggestions and other promotions
Education
2018
UX Certified, UX Management Specialization
Nielsen Norman Group
2016
User Experience Design (UXD)
General Assembly – Chicago, IL
2015
Masters of Business Administration: IT Management
Western Governor’s University – Salt Lake City, UT
2000
Bachelor of Arts: Psychology
Minors: Photography, Philosophy
Purdue University – West Lafayette, IN
