Work History

C.V.

Kaishin Chu

Strategic Designer & Collaborative Leader

Specialization: Systemic service design-thinking for organizational transformation, addressing complex challenges in culture, processes, stakeholder experiences, and business alignment.
Approach: Empathy-driven, behaviorally informed, and visionary.
Facilitates: Meaningful change and empowering innovations that awaken passion and purpose.
Role: People-centric coach and champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Strengths: Aligning teams toward shared visions and navigating grey areas with adaptability.
Driven By: Purposeful curiosity and fresh perspectives.
Outcome: Innovative solutions grounded in real-world applicability.

Key Accomplishments

Led the transformation of the Club Couloir Performance Wear‘s organizational culture and ecosystem, as well as improved design & development delivery cycles which saw 30% increase of profits within 18 months of diagnosing specific challenges and iterative implementation of co-creative solutions, company size grew from 5 to 17 staff in this time as well, with promotion to become a manager of the design & development department overseeing staff of four. Highlights: assess employee, vendor and business needs to create alignment across the organization; iterative streamline of processes; reduction of departmental silos; facilitated increased collaboration & dialogue; cultivation of a more engaged work culture with open inclusive dialogue and fostering of psychological safety; increase employee happiness and sense of belonging.

Leadership & Business Skills Development Workshops

Designed and delivered two 2-week Innovative Thinking (Design-Thinking-Doing) hands-on learning programs for new immigrant professionals attending MOSAIC BC job-readiness programs, aimed to cultivate business skills ranging from critical thinking, analytical thinking, team work, collaborative leadership, etc… along with coaching participants on self leadership competencies that boost overall confidence, emotional & social intelligence and self awareness. Provided hands-on learning experiences and cultivation of Design Thinking mindset within a Service Design framework; led multiple teams in application of service design and empathetic perspective to better provide agile solutions for local organizations they were paired with, such as City of Vancouver Engineering dept. and its Diversity & Inclusion department, as well as Telus’ Marketing & Innovations team; worked with 5 cohorts: 15 innovation teams, totalling 90+ participants – majority of participants gainfully employed within 3 months due to growth in business skills and confidence.

Read IWERCCase Study

Pandemic Community Relief Project

Co-created and collaborative led DTES Response which has raised over $450,000 to help community support groups through grants and DTES community peoples through providing meals. Led the endeavour ad-hoc Project Strategist and Manager to assess immediate needs and determine steps forward. Based on needs assessment, a direction was decided on and quickly gathered a small volunteer team , we were able to launch the fundraising campaign in less than 1 week and collaborative assisted with donations of goods in a separate campaign with another team.

Read about the Project

Performance Outdoorwear Specialist - 22 yrs

Liaised and managed international teams of designers and developers and vendors within the apparel manufacturing industries. I worked as both self employed design & development specialist and as an employee over the many years. Helped teams and organizations improve design and delivery cycles, cultivated better engagement and communication, as well as helped design wearer experience of the garments for improved fit and functionality through technical design expertise. Coordinated & managed full-cycle product actualization from design to development, prototyping to sampling, sales meetings to retail delivery. Collaboratively worked with both remotely and in-person design meetings, with travel for in-person vendor and production meetings abroad. Some companies I’ve worked in, partnered or collaborated with: Leba Design, Couloir, Fruv Apparel, Lija Style, Lela, GentleFawn, Sugoi, UnderArmour, Swansea, Sierra Design Canada, Hot Chillys, factories in China/Taiwan/Vietnam/Bangledesh and many more. See <a href=”https://www.hellokai.ca/apparel/”>More Details</a>

Service Design Doing Sprints

Planned, coordinated, designed, coach and facilitated & led 7 annual 3-day Global Service Design Jam events locally via immersive workshops. Attended by participants from all industries and user segments, totalling 9 events saw over 145+ participants, delivered in-person and remote online. Participants became familiar with Service Design in both thinking and doing. They saw opportunities in where they could use and apply their new skills gain.

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Service Design Community Engagement

Co-Founded UX Design Therapy and Service Design Vancouver which later became Innov8 Collective community with a new volunteer leadership team. Organized, hosted and facilitated 30+ design thinking & service design related events to engage individuals from all backgrounds to engage, inspire and empower collective knowledge and skills for growth. Highlights for attendees were the level of inclusiveness, sense of belonging, and range of hands-on interactions with learning experiences.

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DTES Community Engagement

Facilitated two Overdose Prevention workshops in 2018. Brought together frontline workers, responders, friends, family and drug-users as one community by creating a safe space where everyone’s voice was heard, lived experiences were shared and respected. Intentional conversations were facilitated while coaching service design training for building and improving OD prevention technology. Collaborated with Brave with Bickson2 (first event).

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Becoming A Certified Organizational Coach

Went back to university at age 47 and completed a 10 month certification program trained as leadership coach for individuals, teams, groups within the organizational context. The training included hands-on practicing with both individual and team coaching, working with volunteer organizations. It marries with my experience with business and service experience design, assisting in communicating with stakeholders for needs assessment, creating psychological safety, fostering co-creative dialogue and collaboration for solution finding. Graduated Dec 2021.

see Certification (coming soon)

Core Values

Lead with Deep Empathy

Affective, Cognitive, Compassionate Empathy, required for collaborative leadership.

Do with Integrity

Lead by example, steadfast with values and purpose.

Always Be Curious

question assumptions, biases, always wanting to understand fuller context. Never

Co-Create as Allies

Do Together as a community. Collaborate to create inclusiveness and belonging. Have fun in our work.

Embrace Our Humanness

Acceptance that we are all Human and embracing it within and of others.

Equitable Innovation

Do no harm, positive Intent, systemic thinking of impact for self and others.

Work+Life Harmony

Cultivate a positive environment that aligns shared values and purpose for sustainable, fulfilling experiences.

Growth Mindset

Never stop learning, iterative growth through reflection, dialogue, new experiences.

Professional Experience

Strategic Design, Service/experience Design, Operations – Consulting & Coaching

Creatific Culture Labs. Consultant, scope of work & needs assessments for client in-house internal development services. Plan, design and delivery of learning experiences. Deliver implementation blueprints and partner to coach/mentor next steps. Individual, teams and groups facilitation and coaching. Operations & admin lead. People & organizational culture design and development. (see sample) 2020-present
Scoli Clinic (UBC Organizational Coaching practicum) Planning, conducting client and staff needs assessment, business requirements, team coaching, values discovery and alignment facilitation. Remote sessions 2021
Self Employed (Methodsquared Designhaus) Consultant, experiential workshop design & delivery, facilitation and coaching. Operations and people & organizational culture & process design and development. 2018 – present
DTES SRO (non-profit community advocates and SRO management) operations specialist and consultant 2020
Mosaic BC (non-profit New Immigrants Services) Consultant, Innovative (Design) Thinking workshop design & delivery, facilitation and coaching, liaison. IES Program 2015-16, IWERC Program 2018-2019
DTES Response (community pandemic response effort) Project lead, strategist, coordinator, fundraising campaign digital content design and development, board advisory for fund distribution to community groups in need. 2020
Prenabelt (Medical Wearable Device) Business & Product R&D, and coaching. 2019
Burgundy Bums (Baby wear startup) Apparel Business Coaching + Initial Brand Discovery for concept creation. 2019

Web, Content, Digital Services & Products

I’ve worked with talented folks on a variety of projects and tasks, and am always keen to learn to do more:
Front End UI/UX
Visual/Graphic Designs
Information Architecture
Asset/Content Management and UX
Storyboarding/Mockups, Wireframe Prototyping
Data Migration & Management: Entry/Retrieval with customized CMS (JDE, EE, WP)
Digital Storytelling

I have volunteered with UX and Service Design meetup groups to be more immersed and network with peers and seniors.
UX Design Therapy : A Co-host and organizer.
Service Design Jam : On the organizing committee.

Worked in close collaboration with:
• various stakeholders, business owners
• programmers, development team

Creatific.co – website design & dev, content dev with co-founders
Methodsquared.co (my site) – website design & dev using WordPress
WordPress Theme Weekend – Collaborative 2 day theme design and creation. Visual UI/UX design with 2 fellow designers and a programmer. 2012
NoMoreRack & DealFun.com (E-commerce) Content Specialist – Front End UX advocate, asset and content management, vendor liaison, editorial workflow coordination. 2011-2012
Digitial Storytelling Unconference – Branding and Web UI (see sample) 2012-2013
Adience (Digital Design Services) UX & UI design (see sample) 2010
Hop Studios (Web Design & Dev) CMS Admin & Content Migration with EE (Expression Engine) and web design/graphics 2008-2009
Sugoi Performance Apparel (Intranet UI/UX Advocate) liaison representative for development of the intranet CMS (JDE), with focus on the design and workflow creation for the design/marketing department. 2005-2006
Launchpad Designs (Creative Design and Dev Studio) Creative director, Digital designs, UI concepts to branding, commercial print work design. 2002-2009

Apparel Product Design & Development – Design & Development, Graphics Design, Consulting, Management

Prenabelt (Medical Wearable Device) – in collaboration with GIRHL & Shiprah Biomedical. Medical Apparel full-cycle design, development and production Management. 2016 & 2019
UnderArmour (Performance Snowsport Private Label for Ski Resorts) in collaboration with Leba Design Studios & a Major Ski Resort conglomerate. Full-cycle design and development, client & vendor liaison. 2015-2016
Arctic Cat (Snowsport) in collaboration with Leba Design Studios. Concept Technical design and development, client liaison. 2015-2016
Ride509 (Snowsport) Technical design services in partnership with Westcomb Outerwear. 2017-2018
Swansea Urban Apparel (Outdoor/Travel/Lifestyle – Private Label) in collaboration with manufacturer in Bangladesh. Full-cycle design & development, offshore factory visit. 2013
Fruv (Yoga/Active Lifestyle) fruv.com. Full-cycle Local design & development, service design, production management, leadership coaching. 2011-2013
L IJA Style (Golf/Active Women’s) lijastyle.com. Technical design services. 2011
Garçon Model (Men’s undergarment) Startup consulting and coaching, brand design design & technical apparel design. 2010
Lela Designs (Golf/Lifestyle) leladesigns.ca. Full-cycle design & development and production, print design, management 2010-2011
Sugoi Performance Apparel (Technical Activewear Men’s and Women’s) Local & offshore design & development, apparel, offshore procedures and graphics design. 2004-2006
Sierra Design Canada (Outdoor/Active Lifestyle) Concept design, technical design, material print design 2006
Westcomb Outerwear (Performance Outdoor Technical – Men’s & Women’s) Local design & development, service design 2007-2008, 2014
Leba Design Studios (Performance Outdoor Technical Apparel) Technical apparel design & development, service design, vendor liaison, print/catalogue design 2002-2005, 2015-2016
Hot Chillys (Performance Under Layers) Technical design & development, catalogue/print design & development. 2003
Couloir Actionwear (Outdoor Technical) Technical apparel design & development (men’s, women’s, junior and kids), catalogue and print design, design team management, service design and change management. 1997 – 2001
Vancouver Opera (Wardrobe Dept. – part-time on-call) Costume customization, creation, restoration, alteration. 1996-2000
Nemesis Apparel (Pattern services and Garment restoration) Pattern maker, grader, and alteration specialist 1996-1997
Catherine Regehr (Haute couture evening wear) Purchaser, inventory control, design assistant 1995-1996
Bard On The Beach/Vancouver Playhouse (Theatre – seasonal) Costume assistant and sewer 1995-1996
Cannell Films (Wardrobe Department) wardrobe rental service associate 1994-1995
Kwantlen College (Apparel Design dept) Faculty assistant, retail service, public speaking as student assistant. 1991-1994

Skillsets

Leadership

design thinking
collaborative leadership
empathy
people & culture cultivation
strategy and design
consulting
facilitation
coaching & mentoring
curiosity – lifelong learning
organizational awareness
intercultural awareness
inclusion & psychological safety
planning & coordinating
managing priorities
growth mindset

Business

entrepreneurial mindset
self starter
critical thinking
systems thinking
fast thinking
analytical
reflective learning for improvement
creative problem solving
business model and value proposition
operations and admin
wear many hats
language
- English (native)
- Mandarin (mid)

Innovation

design thinking doing
service design framework
requirements discovery
service & product design
ux & user research
insight & data synthesis
define outcomes and requirements
journey & process mapping
service blueprints
rapid visualization – sketch
fail-fast prototyping
test and evaluation with stakeholders
re-assess & reiterate
implementation roadmaps

Digital

technical and digital savvy
expert Mac OS
proficient with PC OS
Mac, Google, Microsoft productivity apps
Zoom, Slack, Whatsapp
Miro, Mural, Butter.us
Airtable, Asana, Clickup, Basecamp, Trello
WordPress, basic HTML programming
Adobe Creative, Affinity
Keynote, Canva
social media savvy
image and video production
Online and Cloud services

Plus many more…

Education & Certification

Certification
• Certified Organizational Coach – individual, teams/groups, organizational coaching and facilitation. Dec 2021.

Education
• UBC Organizational Coaching Certificate Program. Completion Dec 2021
• Industrial Design – Basics of ID and Rapid Visualization (visual prototyping) – Emily Carr 2010-2011
• Experience Design – Langara College 2012
• Apparel Design and Technology, Diploma – Kwantlen Polytechnic University 1994

Participation
• Design Thinking Unconference 2011
• Interlink Conference 2012
• WordPress Theme Hackathon 2012
• more to be added… webpage is a work in progress.

Community – Volunteer
• Digital Storytelling Unconference – Co-founder, Event Co-ordinator/Logistics, Speaker on the Slow Movement regarding engagement 2013.
• Digital Storytelling Unconference – Co-founder, Event Co-ordinator/Logistics, Speaker on how Storytelling help influence ‘Better Care for Alzheimer’s Patients’. 2012
• Photography for local non-profit organizations: Vancouver Farmers Markets, White Rock Fire Department

Open to Work

Open to full-time or fractional remote employment, as well as client project opportunities with like-minded organizations that value collaboration and co-creation.

Thank you for taking the time to read my message. I appreciate your consideration and look forward to connecting!

key traits of a Holistic Strategic service designer

Here are some key traits of a good and true service designer:

Empathy: Ability to understand and relate to the needs, wants, and pain points of customers, employees, and other stakeholders.
Creativity: The ability to generate new and innovative ideas and approaches to solve problems and improve services.
User-centered mindset: A focus on designing services that meet the needs of the users and provide a positive experience.
Strategic thinking: The ability to see the big picture and understand how different elements of a service fit together, and how they can be improved.
Strong communication skills: The ability to explain complex ideas and processes in a clear and simple manner, and to communicate effectively with different stakeholders.
Collaboration: The ability to work well in a team and to bring different perspectives and expertise to the table.
Adaptability: The ability to adapt to changing requirements, constraints and unexpected situations, as well as different design spaces from physical to virtual, analog to digital.
Analytical skills: The ability to gather and analyze data to understand customer needs, and to measure the effectiveness of service design and supporting initiatives.
Technical skills: Understanding of technology and its role in service design, use and its implementation.
Continuous learning: A willingness to learn and stay up-to-date with the knowledge, tools and methodologies in service design as well as supporting skills.