Ryan Yao

Co-Founder

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada8 yrs 7 mos experience

Key Highlights

Mentored over 140 designers globally.
Founder of multiple design-focused initiatives.
Expert in job searching strategies for UX designers.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Product Designer with a strong focus on UX and community-driven design education.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Product DesignWeb DevelopmentPublic SpeakingMentorship

Other Skills

iOS appsemotional designHTMLCascading Style Sheets (CSS)WebflowContent Management Systems (CMS)ZapierJavaScriptA/B TestingStripe (Software)E-CommerceFacilitationInteraction DesignUser Interface DesignMobile Applications

About

Hi there! My name is Ryan, and I'm a product designer with a passion for design education. For the past three years, I've been mentoring 140+ designers from all around the world. This year, I decided to go all in on helping designers to land their dream job. Follow me to learn tips about job searching for UX designers, and join my course by clicking the link in my profile.

Experience

8 yrs 7 mos

Total Experience

Average Tenure

Current Experience

Cat on desk design

Founder

Aug 2025 – Present · 10 mos

Building iOS apps that are not only helpful tools, but emotional companions to support people in need.

iOS appsemotional designProduct Design

Hug design

Founder

Sep 2024 – Jan 2026 · 1 yr 4 mos · Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · Remote

Unlimited design requests to elevate your brand

HTMLA/B TestingCascading Style Sheets (CSS)Stripe (Software)WebflowE-Commerce+4

10x designers

Design Mentor

Jul 2023 – Sep 2024 · 1 yr 2 mos · Remote

Ux jetpack

Founder and Educator

Jul 2023 – May 2024 · 10 mos · Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · Remote

Teaching designers how to land their job. Sign up for the waitlist at https://uxjetpack.com

HTMLCascading Style Sheets (CSS)FacilitationWebflowJavaScriptMentorship

Designlab

Design Mentor

Apr 2023 – Jun 2024 · 1 yr 2 mos · Remote

Mentor students from DesignLab, providing feedback on their portfolio, interview skill, and career knowledge.

Coho

Design Fellow

Feb 2023 – Sep 2024 · 1 yr 7 mos · Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · Remote

Design fellow at first Coho Beyond Senior Track

Designer slack communities

2 roles

Podcast Host

Oct 2022 – Jan 2023 · 3 mos

Hosting Designing Community, a podcast for people interested in how community founders build their designer communities.

Maker and Curator

May 2020 – Present · 6 yrs 1 mo

I built a collection of Slack communities for designers. Currently lists 170 communities and gains an average of 2.5k unique viewers each month. https://designerslack.community

HTMLCascading Style Sheets (CSS)WebflowContent Management Systems (CMS)ZapierJavaScript+1

On deck

Design Fellow

Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 · 1 yr

Design fellow at On Deck Design Cohort 3

Alumi.design

Co-Founder & Mentor

Nov 2021 – Mar 2023 · 1 yr 4 mos · Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · Remote

Joined Alumi.design (formally ecudesigncareers) as co-founder. Our goal is to bridge the gap between design education and the creative industry. We help design students to connect with their alumni working in the industry. We host monthly events to invite alumni to share their experience in the industry.

Public SpeakingFacilitationMentorship

Adplist.org

Design Mentor

May 2021 – Mar 2025 · 3 yrs 10 mos · Remote · Remote

Mentoring early-stage designers to help them improve their portfolios and interview skills. Sharing my experience working as a sole designer in startups, being an introvert in tech, how to improve designer skills.
https://adplist.org/mentors/ryan-yao

Public SpeakingFacilitationMentorship

Various events

Speakers and Hosts

Dec 2020 – Present · 5 yrs 6 mos

Speaking
Student Portfolio Review at DesCan 2022 Launch Conference
Nov 2022
UX Design Portfolio Best Practices: Do’s and Don’ts at devfest 2022
Nov 2022
The Importance Of Diversity For The Design Community at BeMore Festival
Sept 2022
I’m a Product Designer in the health care industry with Ryan Yao on UX Untamed Podcast
Aug 2022
IRL: Summer with VDC, Getting Into Design Panel
July 2022
From Mentee to Mentor on ADPlist
Jun 2022
Breaking Barriers In Healthcare Product Design on ADPList
Mar 2022
Mandarin-speaking panel talks on ADPList
新手设计师入门与求职技巧 UX设计师北美职场沟通与合作技巧
Nov/Dec 2021
Land a job across the globe on ADPList
Part I Part II
Oct/Nov 2021
Design Key Panel on VXP Protothon 2021
Aug 2021
Working at startups as a UX Designer on UX Untamed Podcast
Apr 2021
Panel Talk Vol.1 on ECU Design Career
Dec 2020
Hosting
IRL Vancouver Mandarin Designer Meetup
温哥华中文设计师沙龙
Jan 2023
Hosts regular events on Alumi Design
2021-2022
Mandarin-speaking panel talks on ADPList
UX设计师北美职场晋升经验北美设计师人脉经营指南北美设计师面试指南
Dec 2021 / April 2022 / Oct 2022

Public Speaking

Curative

Product Designer

Sep 2020 – Mar 2023 · 2 yrs 6 mos · Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (Remote)

Redesigned Curative’s COVID-19 test booking website to increase 20% more conversation on booking rate
Kept improving the booking website to make sure it’s accessible to millions of visitors every day
Built a UI component library in Figma and helped out developers to maintain Storybook components
Worked along with user researchers, PMs to manage and define product requirements documents for all of our projects
Designed new flows for Curative’s testing site management software to support new services and high demand

Richway new media technology inc.

Product Designer

May 2018 – Sep 2020 · 2 yrs 4 mos · Vancouver, Canada Area

Worked as the solo designer to design and build new features for a SaaS product, while maintaining its style guide
Designed, developed (HTML&CSS) and shipped many websites, including two online marketplace websites
Designed marketing and branding materials for both clients and our company
Worked with the copywriter to complete content for websites