KILEY MEEHAN
CV · MMXXVI

Kiley
Meehan

Product design leader with twelve years building software that earns the trust of people who use it daily. Currently leading product design at FreshBooks across the full platform; previously a designer, then a manager, then a director within the same company — growing the team and the craft together.

I. Experience
Five roles · one company · twelve years
FreshBooks
Sep 2014 — Present · 11 yrs 9 mos
Toronto, Ontario · Hybrid
Senior Director, Product Design
  • Lead product design across the full FreshBooks platform — web, mobile, payments, and the AI surface area.
  • Set the design organization’s operating model, hiring bar, and growth ladder.
  • Partner with Product and Engineering leadership on long-range platform strategy.
  • Sponsor of Blupi, a blueprinting practice that has reshaped how teams scope cross-functional work.
Director, Product Design
  • Stewarded design quality and consistency across all product areas through a period of rapid platform expansion.
  • Built the design management layer — coaching the first generation of Product Design Managers at FreshBooks.
  • Led the modernization of the design system and the operating cadence between Design, Product and Research.
Associate Director, Product Design
  • Owned design for the platform pillar — payments, banking, accounting surfaces.
  • Drove the shift from feature-team thinking to outcome-team thinking across the org.
Product Design Lead & Manager
  • Coached and managed a team of world-class Product Designers.
  • Design strategy and leadership across major business mandates.
  • Stood up the first cross-team design crit, research ops, and hiring rubric.
Senior Product Designer
  • Lead UX designer for the new FreshBooks iOS and Android apps.
  • Lead UX designer for the FreshBooks Card Reader mobile payments experience.
  • Designed and conducted research to drive product strategy and roadmaps.
  • Active in shaping UX research practices and initiatives across the org.
  • Interim Product Manager (May — July 2018).
II. Focus & Craft
What I’ve been practicing
Building teams that compound — where craft, clarity, and care are the operating system.
  • Org design for product design — ladders, rituals, hiring bars, growth maps.
  • Translating fuzzy business mandates into legible, sequenced product bets.
  • Coaching managers and senior ICs through ambiguity and scale.
  • Bridging Product, Engineering and Design at the platform and roadmap level.
Skills & Practices
Org Design Design Systems Product Strategy Service Blueprinting Hiring & Calibration Coaching Research Ops Cross-functional Leadership Roadmap Shaping Writing & Storytelling
III. Teaching & Writing
On the side
BrainStation
UX Design Educator
Toronto, Ontario
Educator, User Experience Design
  • Taught working professionals the fundamentals and applied craft of UX design.
  • Recognized for bringing positive energy and a different outlook to the classroom.
Of Quality
Newsletter · ongoing
Independent
Writer & Editor
  • A newsletter on craft, leadership, and what it means to build things that last.
  • Topics: design organizations at scale, the decisions underneath the interface, the long game of product quality.

If you’d like a print-ready version of this CV, or want to talk about a role, advising, or just compare notes on running a design org — I’m an email away.

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