My name is Michelle Casanova and I am a product designer currently living in Portland OR with my wife and 2 kids. I grew up in advertising and later moved into product design. I absolutely love what I do, and I am highly motivated to create products that change the world. I enjoy working with companies to design products that help people and teams to work smarter — helping individuals and companies lead better quality lives and foster a culture of Ubuntu — “I am because we are”.

I grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa and moved to Seattle in 2008. I left an established advertising career in Johannesburg and later started the Jozi Firecracker Factory in Seattle in 2009. Since then I’ve been consulting and contracting as Creative Director / Lead Designer / UX Designer and everything in between — winning RFPs and executing all kinds of projects for blue chip clients including AT&T, Microsoft and Continental AG to name a few.

I’ve been a (mostly) remote worker for over 10+ years now, and although the adjustment was hard for an extrovert like me, I’ve long since made the best of it by designing an environment that helps to keep me in flow. The pandemic has now democratized this transition for us all, and I am captivated by how this has changed the way we work and the tools we use. Being a part of this journey in the product design space is an enormous privilege, and I am motivated to help make work easier and more enjoyable for the people who use these tools every day.

On the personal front — I’m a self-confessed foodie, I like spending time with my family, enjoy wine tasting, cooking and playing video games in my spare time. I like doing mundane DIY things. I also have a pretty healthy sense of humor and I try not to take things too seriously. Life is too short for that.