Dina Smith-Hayes

About

I blend delight and function to craft impactful product experiences. With 12+ years in product design and a marketing background, I bring unique insights into user behaviour, growth strategies, and product development across ecommerce, education, and fintech.

A self-starter and lifelong learner, I combine empathy and data to design thoughtful, user-centered solutions that align with business goals. I thrive in building 0-1 products, defining product strategy, and collaborating in complex spaces.

I’m passionate about leading teams and helping designers meet their career goals. I believe sharing knowledge is the key to crafting truly human-centred design.

Outside of design, I’m a cat mom who loves cooking and embroidery

Download my resume ➛

Staff Product Designer, Homebase

August 2023 - January 2025 | Toronto, Canada + hybrid remote

Defined foundational user personas for the Point of Sale (POS) team, and led onboarding of 2 new integrations.

Overhauled first time user (FTU) on-device onboarding, increasing conversion by 7% and improving user data quality by 60%.
Conceptualized and delivered a novel partnered experience supporting full functionality in reduced screen sizes. Captured key dev requirements like interactivity standards, screen sizes, accessibility.
Conducted 2 major research studies guiding product strategy and market positioning.
Worked with Eng, QA, Data, CS, and Compliance teams to gain strategic alignment and iterate with minimal downtime.

Senior Product Designer, NorthOne

March 2021 - May 2022 | Toronto, Canada + fully remote

Sole growth designer at this hypergrowth company providing business bank accounts to entrepreneurs.

Improved onboarding conversion by 8%/mo; worked end-to-end to deliver thoughtful UX, high-craft UI, and testing roadmaps.
Designed a new ID verification feature and reduced Compliance team overhead by 66% using Intercom’s chatbot feature.
Ran weekly user interviews and A/B tests to gain insights into user needs; built improvement roadmaps for various features.
Led design workshops to define vision and values. Advocated for user-centric thinking with non-design stakeholders in crits and other rituals.
Organized and supported monthly eng/design Lunch & Learns to unlock knowledge sharing and professional development.

Lead Product Designer, Prometheus Group (previously Viziya)

March 2020 - May 2021 | Hamilton, Canada + hybrid remote

Worked with product leaders to lead the end-user product strategy of this enterprise-level SaaS company delivering manufacturing tools.

Managed 20+ global clients, used data to guide design decisions.
Managed and supported 2 designers through daily stand-ups, weekly 1:1s, mentorship, and best design practices.
Oversaw dev implementation for all UI and UX changes, and introduced accessibility guidelines to a team of 20+ developers.
Overhauled design library for scalability and accessibility, creating 500+ components. Ran Atomic Design methodologies workshops.

Visual Designer & Project Manager, Wave Financial Inc

April 2016 - March 2020 | Toronto, Canada + hybrid remote

Employee 68 at a then-start-up/now-hypergrowth B2C SaaS company making invoicing and accounting software. Company IPO in 2019.

Overhauled the company blog (UX and UI) with data-driven research, resulting in +300% pages/session, +200% time/page, 2x subscription rate. Introduced accessibility best practices.
Launched a culture manifesto in collaboration with the CPO, leading the project end-to-end. Crafted copy and visuals.
Used Google Analytics and HotJar to identify user pain points; built a testing roadmap to continuously improve UX.
Coordinated 14 marketers and delivered 1 week early (5 month timeline) as a project manager during Wave’s 2018 rebrand.

Lead Designer & Project Manager, Propeller Ideas

July 2014 - April 2016 | Toronto, Canada

Worked directly with clients to bring their ideas to life in an agency setting. Led projects end-to-end and supported business ops.

Boosted ad performance by 5% with effective SEO and AdWords.
Delivered high-quality UX and UI for large education-sector clients.
Created a tracking system to provide feedback to developers, reducing feedback cycles by 10+ hours a month.
Tracked user behaviour and site performance via Google Analytics to improve content adoption.

Design mentor

May 2020 - Current | Fully remote

Empowering growth, providing guidance and exploring design skills via 1:1 mentorship, workshops, and documentation at work and offline.

Introducing IDV at NorthOne

March - April 2022

I helped users get to their NorthOne bank account 2 days faster by introducing an ID verification flow during onboarding. We kept it lean, using Intercom's chatbot to request and receive confidential documents. 98% conversion rate with >1% churn.

Renewing Prometheus' design systems

May - August 2021

After a large acquisition, I unified 3 separate design systems into 1 accessible and sustainable component library. Tested, iterated, and annotated for better adoption across the entire product org.

Project managing Wave's 2018 rebrand

April - September 2018

I led a team of 14 marketers to complete the biggest company rebrand to date, unifying the corporate site, social media, and all marketing assets. I also rebranded the blog, social media, and email comms.

Sid's Deli

May - June 2015

Brought a new restaurant's identity to life with lively illustrations, menu and restaurant signage. I provided documentation and templates so the client could make website and social media updates.

Design and analytics

Figma • Sketch • After Effects • Amplitude • Axure • Bootstrap • Fullstory • Google Analytics • HTML/CSS • HotJar • Invision • Lookback • Loom • Maze • Miro • Mixpanel • Photoshop & Illustrator • Usertesting.com • Wordpress

Ops

Asana • Confluence • DevOps • GitHub • Hubspot and HubL • Jira • Trello • Visual Studio • Zeroheight

Methodologies

Accessibility • Growth • Product strategy • Prototyping • Testing roadmaps • UI & UX design • Usability testing • User research • Visual design • Wireframing

Specializing in

Design team ops improvement • Documentation • Product strategy • Workshop facilitation

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