About · Vancouver, BC

Hello, I'm Yosuke.

I'm a design leader who builds world-class teams, extensible design systems, and AI-first product experiences — and connects all three to business outcomes.

Placeholder — portrait of Yosuke Shinto
The short version

Design starts with people. So does leadership.

Great products are built on understanding people — not just users, but the emotional, complicated humans behind every click. That belief shapes how I design, and it shapes how I lead.

I bring strategic design leadership and deep empathy to cross-functional teams, turning ambiguous problems into experiences people love. From standing up design practices where none existed, to driving products from first research call to delivery, I make design work that works.

Today that means leading globally distributed teams from Vancouver — aligning product direction across Canada, Korea, and Germany in enterprise security, identity, and agentic AI.

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Years of design experience
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Years in design management
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People managed across disciplines
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Designers mentored and managed
Leadership values

Four pillars.
One people-centric philosophy.

Excellence starts with people. Every team I lead runs on the same four commitments — and every case study on this site is one of them in action.

People success

I grow designers into leaders. Through mentorship, honest feedback, and genuine advocacy, I build inclusive teams where people do their best work — and know it matters. Four designers promoted to senior across my last two teams is the record I'm proudest of.

Partnerships success

Design doesn't work in isolation. I build trust with stakeholders early, maintain alignment through structured communication, and make design a partner in business decisions — not a downstream step. That's how research changed an HQ directive without costing the timeline.

Projects success

I protect maker time, drive shared ownership, and keep quality high without slowing teams down. Every project is an opportunity to elevate craft and ship something worth shipping — which is how handoff times fell from weeks to days on my teams.

Process success

Research and strategy belong in product development from day one. I address design debt, establish quality principles, and evaluate process ROI — so design scales with the organization, not against it. Structures I build are designed to outlast my tenure.

Testimonials

Don't take my word for it.

"Yosuke has been one of the most impactful people I've worked with."

Anh Nguyen · Senior UX Designer, Absolute Security · nearly six years working together

He'd move mountains to solve problems and ensure that they are indeed, usable. A rare self-starter who develops genuinely innovative solutions.

Vilia IngrianyCo-Founder & Partner, SixtyTwo

Yosuke routinely develops smart and innovative solutions to complex user problems — collaborating skillfully with technical teams and communicating design direction with complete transparency.

Jacob GoldmanPrincipal Product Manager, Algolia

Exceptionally detail-oriented. His wireframes and click-through prototypes illustrate content strategy and user experience so effectively that alignment becomes easy.

Eddie LefflerSoftware Architect, Side

He works with highly skilled technical teams to understand the under-the-hood implementation — and makes sure the experience supports both the technology and the business.

Brandon BilfieldFrontend Platform Engineer, Mural

Next

The values are the method.
The work is the proof.

Three case studies — a first-mover AI product, an enterprise identity platform, and an organization that learned to listen.

Explore the case studies yosuke@ydshinto.com