Learning,
made beautiful.
Norman Tran is a designer with 10 years of experience spanning product & service design.
With a career spanning from Silicon Valley startups to global tech giants, Norman has spent the last decade designing products and services that spark curiosity, solve problems, and change lives. As a Lead Product Designer at Shimmer, they led a complete platform redesign, working closely with the founders to enhance the coaching experience. Before Shimmer, they served as the Product Strategy & Service Design Lead at Relating Between the Lines, where they applied service design principles to transform interpersonal skills development for leaders at companies like a16z and Apple. At Tradecraft, as the Product Design Instruction Lead, Norman trained hundreds of aspiring designers for roles at startups and Fortune 100 companies by teaching them best practices across product and psychology. Their expertise in blending product design with service design allows them to craft impactful experiences, both digital and analog, that drive meaningful, lasting change.
Gay, neurospicy (2e), nonbinary, and polyamorous, Norman embraces the beautiful absurdity of it all. Let’s work together—reach out at hello@normantran.com.
ux / UI design | research
Shimmer - Personalizing ADHD coaching through assessments
PROJECT: Wheel of Life Assessment
ROLE: Lead Product Designer
YEAR: 2024
I joined Shimmer as a Lead Designer and led the Wheel of Life Assessment design, which helps clients get the most out of their coaching experiences through a comprehensive audit across 15 areas of their lives. I worked closely with the CEO and CTO to design and launch the feature, now a core part of our 2000+ members' coaching journeys.
UX / UI DESIGN | RESEARCH
Shimmer - De-shaming ADHD by sharing community perspectives
PROJECT: Community Polls
ROLE: Lead Designer
YEAR: 2024
I joined Shimmer as a Lead Designer and led the Community Polls design, which helps clients connect with one another beyond their 1:1 connection with coaches so that they can feel less alone and feel a sense of belonging as a community overcoming similar challenges. I worked closely with the CEO and CTO to design and launch the feature, now used daily by our 2000+ paying coaching clients.
service DESIGN | visual design | branding
Relating Between the Lines - Launching an online school for relational education
PROJECT: 0 to 1 - RBTL
ROLE: Product Strategy & Service Design Lead
YEAR: 2020 - 2023
As Product Strategy & Service Design Lead, I set out to create a modern school for relational education because we all deserve to have healthy relationships regardless of our upbringing. Think Brene Brown meets Stanford d.school. Responsibilities consisted of wearing many hats, spanning brand strategy, messaging, copywriting, art direction, packaging design, UX/UI design, product development, hiring & training, sales, and content development.
service DESIGN | FACILITATION | PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
Tradecraft - Helping smart people in career inflection points design their next move
PROJECT: Product Design Program Management
ROLE: Product Design Instruction Lead
YEAR: 2018 - 2020
As Product Design Instruction Lead, I was tasked with updating and managing recurring three-month in-person intensives that help professionals break into product design. Responsibilities included curriculum design for technical and soft skills, as well as managing an agency that placed participants in high-growth startup roles for real-world experience.
LEARNING DESIGN | ux / ui design
Learn with Facebook + Pathstream - Bridging the digital skills gap for front-line workers, one resume at a time
PROJECT: Online Course Redesign
ROLE: Learning Design / UX Consultant
YEAR: 2019
As a Learning / UX Consultant, I worked with education consultancy Pathstream to improve both the pedagogy as well as the UX experience for the Learn With Facebook (now Meta Blueprint) platform to better provide digital skills for frontline workers. My project focused on improving the "Boost Your Resume" module, where I brought more humanness, personalization, and practical takeaways to the responsive web experience.
service DESIGN | visual design | FACILITATION | program management
MissionU - Preparing underserved adults for the future of work
through emotional intelligence
PROJECT: Service Design: Programs for Emotional Intelligence
ROLE: Service Design Program Manager (Employee #5)
YEAR: 2017 - 2018
As the Service Design Program Manager (Employee #5), I was tasked with creating a year’s worth of curriculum and collateral for a new hybrid online/in-person college for underserved adults. I developed two classes: Success by Design (self-awareness), and Interpersonal Lab (interpersonal dynamics). Students left rave reviews such as "this class alone was worth moving across the country for."
LEARNING DESIGN | FACILITATION | branding
D.tech & Stanford d.school - Creating cultures of creative experimentation in high schools
PROJECT: K12 Design Thinking Playbook
ROLE: Designer In Residence
YEAR: 2016 - 2017
Funded by a grant from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to accelerate Design Tech High's (d.tech) implementation of new learning models, I was brought in as a Designer in Residence for 8 months to collaborate with the Stanford d.school to (1) improve d.tech's design programming for students; and (2) create various resources to help staff adopt design thinking as a change management process.
PRODUCT DESIGN
Declara - Helping knowledge workers learn faster, together
PROJECT: End-to-end Design
ROLE: Product Designer
YEAR: 2014 - 2015
Between 2014 and 2015, I designed a variety of key features for Declara, a knowledge-sharing platform, including Sign-Up, Onboarding, Insights & Discussions, Home Feed, B2B Channels, and Content Authoring.
I worked closely with the VP of product, PM's, and engineering across the entire design process, from research to design to prototype to rollout.
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