Sasha Yan Email & Phone Number

Greater Chicago Area

Scope and lead human-centered research, design, and strategy projects to create tools, services, and programs for social sector partners.Manage distributed teams of designers, researchers, and contractors while balancing budgets, timelines, and studio wide resourcing with Asana, Slack, and Google Suite. Adapt and pivot projects as priorities and situations change. Foster relationships with clients and community stakeholders throughout engagements to sustain their ownership of… Show more Scope and lead human-centered research, design, and strategy projects to create tools, services, and programs for social sector partners.Manage distributed teams of designers, researchers, and contractors while balancing budgets, timelines, and studio wide resourcing with Asana, Slack, and Google Suite. Adapt and pivot projects as priorities and situations change. Foster relationships with clients and community stakeholders throughout engagements to sustain their ownership of the work.Recruit, screen, and schedule research participants through multiple channels. Identify an effective mix of ethical, accessible, and culturally appropriate research practices for target users. Craft research sessions and stimuli to achieve learning goals, uncovering pain points to define opportunities and problems.Write, design, and illustrate: reports, presentations, wireframes, journey maps, workshop materials, personas, etc. Synthesize data into compelling stories and frameworks that are true to lived and learned experiences. Present prioritized research findings to clients and stakeholders to highlight user experiences, bring concepts to life, or facilitate decision making. Clients include: The Greater Chicago Food Depository, The Urban Institute, The Government Alliance on Race and Equity, Washington State Department of Commerce, Endeavor Health. Show less

Support the professor in teaching innovation fundamentals for the food industry. Help graduate students from diverse, non-design backgrounds, define problem areas, concept solutions, and define product roadmaps in capstone projects.

Greater Chicago Area

Unify and guide an interdisciplinary team of designers, researchers, business analysts, and engineers through the end to end innovation design process, pivoting roadmaps to support and push evolving business goals for Gordon Food Service (GFS).Understand and translate business goals to accurately scope, size, and plan project efforts, considering how it fits into the broader project portfolio and potential long term business impact, breaking down complex problems to the true, core… Show more Unify and guide an interdisciplinary team of designers, researchers, business analysts, and engineers through the end to end innovation design process, pivoting roadmaps to support and push evolving business goals for Gordon Food Service (GFS).Understand and translate business goals to accurately scope, size, and plan project efforts, considering how it fits into the broader project portfolio and potential long term business impact, breaking down complex problems to the true, core issue.Transform research findings and insights into the most impactful format and level for the audience, ranging from microsites, videos, workshops, and storyboards to clearly communicate a strategic point of view with a product roadmap or pilot plan.Create tangible solutions, tools, and experiences that span the digital and physical worlds for the highly complex and regulated distribution ecosystem, wider restaurant and hospitality partners, and emerging startups and innovators.Structure and lead collaborative and inclusive research with end users, experts, and stakeholders to translate their collective needs into solutions that address ecosystem and market realities while retaining empathy and understanding for the user.Present insights, findings, and recommendations to board members and CEO, facilitating discussions that inform and drive decisions that create new revenue sources, streamline processes, or reduce costs, all while advocating for the end user.Craft an impactful narrative for a series of pitch decks for a Relish venture, securing over seven figures in funding from investors at key points.Spearhead company volunteer effort, allocating $20K and 200 hours to Breakthrough Fresh Market, Kitchen Possible, and Feeding America, focusing on partners improving underserved populations in the food ecosystem, not only donating time and money, but our unique innovation skill sets. Show less

Greater Chicago Area

Champion the user voice by using human centered design to approach a breadth of business challenges and opportunities to re-frame obstacles and design solutions that Fortune 500 customers can implement in manageable & measurable stages.Work with a diverse team of design thinkers, industry experts & agile developers alongside C-suite stakeholders to re-imagine digitally integrated & authentic customer experiences to transform complex and challenging industries.Outline information… Show more Champion the user voice by using human centered design to approach a breadth of business challenges and opportunities to re-frame obstacles and design solutions that Fortune 500 customers can implement in manageable & measurable stages.Work with a diverse team of design thinkers, industry experts & agile developers alongside C-suite stakeholders to re-imagine digitally integrated & authentic customer experiences to transform complex and challenging industries.Outline information architecture, UI/UX, user flows, design systems and screens to rapidly prototype and co-create robust solutions with engineers and product managers across platforms and systems. Continually test & refine prototypes with users.Design high fidelity mockups, wireframes, and concept visualizations with digital collaboration tools to bring research findings, stories, & future visions to life, winning strategic and high value customer accounts like CVS, BMW, & State Farm.Structure, design, and facilitate design sprints, co-creation workshops, and brainstorm sessions to help stakeholders understand the core user motivations & mindsets, bringing alignment on the vision to senior managers at an enterprise level.Projects include a framework for financial independence for low socioeconomic populations, the future of a technology fluent retail industry, and designing an intuitive & seamless car insurance claim experience spanning digital & physical touchpoints. Show less

Chicago

Help clients creatively approach and identify hidden business opportunities, define & develop new products, services & experiences, & enter new markets with design thinking. Specializing in the food & beverage industry entrepreneurship.Conduct in-depth ethnographic, stakeholder, and industry research, code and tag qualitative data, conduct BASES testing.Sketch product concepts and specifications, prototype solutions, visualize storyboard for videos and narratives.Work in… Show more Help clients creatively approach and identify hidden business opportunities, define & develop new products, services & experiences, & enter new markets with design thinking. Specializing in the food & beverage industry entrepreneurship.Conduct in-depth ethnographic, stakeholder, and industry research, code and tag qualitative data, conduct BASES testing.Sketch product concepts and specifications, prototype solutions, visualize storyboard for videos and narratives.Work in interdisciplinary teams of researchers, designers & strategists to consider all aspects of experiences, through initial concepting and scoping to design and production. Weave stories that resonate, designing decks, cutting videos, or creating prototypes to showcase research insights in impactful formats.gravitytank acquired by Salesforce in October, 2016 Show less

Test 15 recipes weekly, focusing on prepping, cooking, and eating user experience Identify any ambiguous instructions or flavor improvements, suggesting alternate ingredients or techniques to streamline preparation to lower costs without compromising taste or quality Part of a culinary team that increased customer retention by 20% over 6 months.

5 time winner of international food photography competition, Foodelia; featured on top Instagram accounts: theFeedFeed, Sorted Food, King Arthur FlourEdit custom Wordpress theme, manage 300 subscribers with Mailchimp, analyze traffic with Google Analytics; increase Instagram following by 500% in three monthsPrep, cook, and style food as a Culinary Production Assistant on a Food Network show pilot and commercials, organizing the timing of multiples of item with minimal space and… Show more 5 time winner of international food photography competition, Foodelia; featured on top Instagram accounts: theFeedFeed, Sorted Food, King Arthur FlourEdit custom Wordpress theme, manage 300 subscribers with Mailchimp, analyze traffic with Google Analytics; increase Instagram following by 500% in three monthsPrep, cook, and style food as a Culinary Production Assistant on a Food Network show pilot and commercials, organizing the timing of multiples of item with minimal space and time, often in a field kitchen. Show less

Greater St. Louis Area

Part of a creative team with a love for explaining complex ideas in smart & beautiful ways, furthering skills in information and graphic design, digital & print production, and visual narrative. Storyboard & create videos for Eli Lilly & Marriott HotelsDesign brand guidelines, business cards, letterhead, and collateral for Digital GuardianProduce newsletters, digital ads, & curate stock photos for AARPPrepare complex files for animation for TED-Ed videos

Greater St. Louis Area

Re-design Gateway Greening’s website, efficiently and intuitively arranging information in a new user-friendly site map and content priority guide, increasing site traffic by 15% and donations by 18%.Create a flexible and dynamic visual language and structure that adapts for mobile, tablet, and desktop; prioritizing most relevant information for the specified format while highlighting Gateway Greening’s mission of the human and community experience.

Greater St. Louis Area

Collaborate with senior level employees to re-imagine executive training materials, manuals, and UX, increasing policy adoption and reducing onboarding time. Spearhead production, packing, and shipping of over 400 kits of printed materials for offices around the country. Design thoughtful and thorough presentation books, leave behinds, & packaging for extremely time sensitive new business pitches; winning one of the agency's largest crisis management accounts and a contract with the… Show more Collaborate with senior level employees to re-imagine executive training materials, manuals, and UX, increasing policy adoption and reducing onboarding time. Spearhead production, packing, and shipping of over 400 kits of printed materials for offices around the country. Design thoughtful and thorough presentation books, leave behinds, & packaging for extremely time sensitive new business pitches; winning one of the agency's largest crisis management accounts and a contract with the St. Louis Zoo. Animate complex presentations in PowerPoint to create a client-editable deliverable.Create banner ads, flyer, posters, and billboards for AT&T, Monsanto, Sleep Number, & Anheuser-Busch. Show less

Greater St. Louis Area

Concept, design, and pitch a Spring Black Friday campaign for Home Depot in an intern case competition. Featured a pre-fab house designed to showcase project demos in the Home Depot parking lot with project cards that list the location of every item needed in the store. Placed second and Home Depot launched Spring Black Friday the next year. Create the overarching campaign concept, "Ask for seconds", that helped the Crisco team win an agency-wide creative overhaul… Show more Concept, design, and pitch a Spring Black Friday campaign for Home Depot in an intern case competition. Featured a pre-fab house designed to showcase project demos in the Home Depot parking lot with project cards that list the location of every item needed in the store. Placed second and Home Depot launched Spring Black Friday the next year. Create the overarching campaign concept, "Ask for seconds", that helped the Crisco team win an agency-wide creative overhaul competition.Conduct competitive and market research, participate in brainstorms, and create concepts for WeCar, Ghirardelli, J. M. Smucker, and GM. Show less

Bachelor Of Science, Business Administration; Marketing

Activities and Societies: Danforth Scholar - for students who demonstrate leadership in service, a commitment to community, personal.

Bachelor Of Fine Art, Communication Design

Activities and Societies: Dean's List, Peer Advisor, AIGA Programming Chair Coursework included information design, graphic design.

Drawing, Renaissance Art

Immersive summer program in Renaissance art history and architecture, drawing from life, and photography.