Canadian Tire

As an Industrial Designer on the Automotive Product Development Team under the Consumer Brands Division, I led and contributed to over 78 products representing 232 SKUs, generating $67.8M in annual sales.

I even had the opportunity to share the development process behind a few of my products in The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business magazine (or PDF).

Role

Industrial Designer

From CMF (Colour, Material, Finish) for turnkey or white-label products to full new product development, I was responsible for every stage of the process, serving as lead on the majority of the products I worked on, including:

• Conducting ethnographic research to identify user needs and product gaps

• Benchmarking competitors through testing and teardown studies

• Developing sketches, concepts, and renders to present to vendors and merchants

• Building mock-ups, CAD models, and functional prototypes to validate feasibility and ergonomics

• Collaborating with QA and Engineering to define testing criteria by use cycles

• Managing development with vendors to meet deadlines and business targets

• Refining CMF to elevate product aesthetics and brand identity

• Documenting progress with tech packs and design guides

• Reviewing vendor samples through pre-production and providing feedback

• Contributing design insight to photography, packaging, and manuals

At Canadian Tire, each private brand has a distinct CMF language and user group, requiring me to design products to fit their different identity and guiding how I approached the development process.