Alisa Pleasance
Product Design & Brand Leader · Calgary, AB
Product design and brand leader with 19 years across digital products, UX/UI, brand strategy, creative direction and business. I lead product design and brand at Zane, an AI-powered Canadian fintech, owning the end-to-end experience, from onboarding and banking to budgeting, forecasting and AI-driven guidance.
Before Zane, I co-founded and ran Class Act Media, a creative agency, for six years, leading teams of 5–10 and serving 50+ clients across financial services, energy, engineering, healthcare and technology.
I stay hands-on in Figma, in prototypes and with AI tools, and move easily between strategy and execution, turning complex business and technical requirements into clear, intuitive experiences.
Experience
Head of Product Design & Brand Development · Zane
Lead product design, experience strategy and brand for an AI-powered Canadian financial platform.
- Own end-to-end product design across onboarding, banking, connected accounts, MoneyNet budgeting, forecasting, savings, investments and AI financial guidance.
- Work hands-on from user flows and information architecture to prototypes and high-fidelity UI, and review builds with engineering to keep the shipped product true to the design.
- Establish design standards, reusable components and interaction patterns that connect individual features into one cohesive product.
- Use AI throughout the design workflow to explore, prototype and iterate faster.
- Lead brand strategy and creative direction across product, web, marketing and social.
Co-founder & Managing Partner · Class Act Media
Co-founded and ran a creative agency helping businesses win more clients through their web presence: brands, websites, e-commerce, ad campaigns, SEO, social media, explainer videos and motion graphics.
- Led multidisciplinary teams of 5–10 across design, development and marketing for 50+ clients.
- Designed the agency’s own brand, website and collateral, and set creative direction across client work.
- Led sales and discovery meetings, wrote and presented proposals, and set pricing.
- Managed contracts, accounting, and client and team relationships, accountable for both the quality of the work and the success of the business.
Product Design & Brand Consultant · Independent
- Design digital products, websites, customer journeys and complex workflows for B2B and B2C organisations, from discovery through delivery.
- Build design systems, visual identities and brand standards that help organisations stay consistent as they grow.
- Advise founders and executives on product experience, design strategy and brand direction.
Earlier experience
- Art Director / Designer · ATB Financial Brand rollout, campaigns, and educational and marketing materials for a major Canadian financial institution.
- Art Director · Digital Fire Creative and UX direction across digital products, websites and brand identities.
- Art Director / Senior Designer · Passerelle Marketing Brand identities and websites for B2B clients in the energy sector.
- Designer · ClearMotive Marketing Group UX/UI for Honda Canada’s digital properties; lead designer on the Honda Canada Power Equipment website.