An exceptional
team makes all the difference.

Amy is a Service Designer with a specialty in User Experience Research. Her design thinking approach is informed by her background in exhibition curation, ethnography, digital experience strategy, and workshop facilitation. She is an advocate for diversity, equity, accessibility, cross-disciplinary teamwork, and building with foresight. Amy enjoys sharing research findings throughout organizations in ways that allow others to connect with the humanity of users. 

She holds an MDEI, Digital Experience Innovation, from the University of Waterloo, and a BA (Hons), from the University of Toronto.

Kristin is a leader in Design Strategy with 16 years experience across design, organizational strategy, and complex program management roles, spanning the public, private, and non-profit sectors across the US, Canada, and Finland. She is an expert in co-creation and building collaborative teams, workshop design and facilitation, and organizational strategy. 

Kristin began her career in manufacturing, supply chain, and operations management. She grew up working at her family’s small manufacturing business, completed her Bachelor’s in Supply Chain Management, and then joined Microsoft Operations working in large-scale software program management, eventually leading the global launch of Office 2010.

 Transitioning from the world of operations, Kristin discovered Design Thinking while completing her Master’s in Business Strategy at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. Studio courses like Aalto’s Design for Government and Stanford’s Global Design Innovation (ME310) convinced her that Service Design was her true calling, and the rest is history.

Yasmine is currently completing her Master of Design at Carleton University in Ottawa, where her research is focused on the intersection of Service Design, Strategic Design, Employee Activism and Organizational Change.

Prior to pursuing Design, Yasmine trained and worked as a lawyer for several years, where she practiced in Toronto and in Frankfurt, Germany. Eventually, her long-standing interest in tackling real-world problems from a human-centred place of empathy prompted a major career change and she hasn’t looked back.

Yasmine is passionate about connecting with people and meaningfully understanding their problems, using ethnographic design research methods to ultimately improve their everyday experiences by accessing and making use of the services they need most. She is particularly interested in Service Design for social and public sector innovation.

In addition to experience in private legal practice, Yasmine has also worked in the public sector, both for the federal and provincial governments. She holds a B.Hum, a J.D., and an LL.M, and is currently an M.Des candidate at Carleton.

Ayomide (also known as Aday) is a Nigerian-born, Ontario based service designer. Her work meshes human-centered design practice with her extensive background in the strategic development of interactive experiences.

She is an expert in design planning, qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, and product design. Ayomide is passionate about connecting people, businesses and the world through inspiring design. Ayomide has had
a diverse career in the public service including the Federal Immigration and Citizenship sector of Canada and pharmaceutical companies.

She holds a BASC of Industrial Design in the Department of Applied Science from the University of Toronto as well as a MDES of Strategic Foresight and Innovation from OCAD University.

Sara Fortier is a design strategist and CEO/founder of Outwitly Inc. She is an expert in ethnographic research methods, workshop facilitation, and design-thinking, and she is passionate about human-centered approaches to innovation.

Prior to founding Outwitly, Sara worked in Silicon Valley for Fortune 500 clients such as Apple, AT&T, and Microsoft. She is also the former User Experience Director for one of the top ten media companies in the United States where she led the consumer products design and research teams.

Transitioning from her experience in the tech world, she now helps organizations improve systemic issues surrounding user and customer experiences by applying the same human-centered and innovative practices used in product and service development.

Sara received a Master of Interdisciplinary Design and a Bachelor of Industrial Design from Carleton University. She continues to work closely with the University as a sessional lecturer and advisor to the School of Industrial Design.

Michelle McCune is a design leader with over 15 years of experience in consulting. She is passionate about making sense of messy, ambiguous problems and building inspired-yet-practical solutions to improve people’s lives.

Her work has helped numerous global pharma and healthcare organizations to bring new service solutions to market while establishing the internal capabilities, systems and tools for delivering better patient and physician experiences. She is passionate about healthcare and understanding how the complex interactions between patients, professionals, and families impact care.

Michelle holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial design, and her work has garnered award recognition from the Design Exchange, Neocon, and the Chicago Athenaeum (Good Design Awards.)

Joysie Dimayuga is a driven Talent Coordinator with over 4 years of experience in the field. At Outwitly, Joysie manages all aspects of contractor recruitment, finding new opportunities for staffing, partnership and various administrative duties.

Joysie’s strong business development experience includes working as an Executive Assistant as well as a CRM Manager. She created, organized and maintained over 50+ systems company-wide via cloud-based systems. Increasing productivity, efficiency for training and auditing recruits by 120%. She has successfully served a range of clients including, entrepreneurs, corporate professionals and CEOs.

Joysie’s varied background in hospitality, human resources and administration provide the perfect foundation for her current role. Passionate about maximum productivity and possibilities. She provides services that help optimize workflow, curates an effortless onboarding process and improves efficiency to make the best achievable use of resources.

Shanna Small is an administrative professional with 15 years of experience in bookkeeping and office management. She holds a Business Administration Certificate from the University of Victoria and is QuickBooks trained and certified.

Shanna brings balance, loyalty, and companionability to her work. She believes that “you must begin from where you are,” remaining committed to your goals while learning to enjoy the flow through the ups and downs of life.

When she is not on her yoga mat or working behind a computer, you can usually find her at the lake as she loves being on the water with friends and family.

Danielle joined the Outwitly team as their Social Media and Communications Lead in May 2021. For several years she worked alongside small businesses to operate their communications and marketing initiatives, and to establish a strong brand presence across online platforms. Danielle is responsible for writing, editing, and publishing Outwitly blog posts, crafting newsletters and launching email marketing initiatives, and managing everything to do with our social media across several platforms. She develops our content strategy and utilizes her creativity throughout our various social media platforms to grow and engage our audience and the Outwitly brand, including Outwitly Academy.

In the fall of 2020, Danielle graduated from the University of Manitoba with an Arts degree majoring in Psychology.

Andréane Labrosse is a bilingual, multidisciplinary Graphic Designer and social media expert with 6+ years experience. Based in Ottawa, she is Outwitly’s brand designer, working on all internal branding and marketing materials, as well as all social media visuals. Andréane holds a Bachelor of Graphic Design from Algonquin College. She has also worked on diverse branding, social media, and human-centered design projects for companies like Shoppers Drug Mart, MarketersXMentors, Miami Ad School, Salt, and John St. Advertising.

Medina Abdelkader is a multi-disciplinary design strategist and JD candidate with 8+ years of experience in design strategy, strategic foresight, and service design.

Working at the intersection of advocacy, human factors, and systems theory, Medina has worked for various digital development firms, both in a strategic foresight and human-centred design capacity. She has worked for several large public and private sector clients, including Global Affairs Canada and RBC.

Medina holds a Masters of Design (M.Des) in Strategic Foresight & Innovation.

Chinedum Achebe, also known as Nedu, is a talented UX & UI Designer. She specializes in delivering seamless user experiences, well-researched brand identities and beautiful user interfaces for Outwitly’s clients.

Possessing a comprehensive and multi-faceted design experience, Nedu has designed for several industries, including healthcare, fashion, law, e-commerce, and technology. In 2020, she worked with Hackworks as a UI/UX Designer, IBM as a Visual Designer, Danna Nicole, and HackerGal as a Graphic Designer.

Nedu holds a B.Eng in Information & Communication Engineering (Covenant University, Nigeria) and a Masters degree in Digital Experience Innovation (University of Waterloo, Canada). In addition, she has received qualifications as a Google Analytics Individual, an IBM Design Thinking Practitioner, and holds a certificate in Mimic Pro Digital Marketing.