# Ross Fenner

> ✨ Product Design Leadership   📚 EdTech   🧩 Design Systems

Location: Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Profile: https://flows.cv/rossfenner

UX & Product Design Leader with 10+ years of experience crafting scalable systems that connect
business goals with user needs. I help teams design faster, ship smarter, and grow with purpose. My work has continuously powered successful launches, matured design systems, and delivered UX improvements that drive engagement, retention, and revenue. 

I bring a strong track record in EdTech and SaaS, leading design strategies that make products stand out. I thrive in collaborative teams, building momentum and clarity around what matters most. This helps keep everyone aligned, motivated, and focused on doing their best work.

## Work Experience
### Principal Product Designer  |  Co-founder @ Narli
Jan 2024 – Present | Knysna
Currently leading UX & Product Design for a climate resilience platform, empowering farmers and food & beverage enterprises, like PepsiCo, to turn climate threats into business opportunities. Driving their sustainability goals and targets through data-driven adaptation, aligning with client strategy, and delivering user-centred design solutions from concept to high-fidelity delivery.

### Lead Product Designer @ simpleclub
Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | Munich, Bavaria, Germany
• Led the UX and design strategy across B2C and B2B experiences for a 2 million+ user learning platform, driving seamless user interactions and product scalability.
• Business outcomes: 200% increase in B2C ARR over 3 years; 400% B2B ARR growth in 1 year, ranking as Germany’s fastest-growing EdTech platform.
• Boosted conversion rates over 50% through A/B testing and data-informed improvements to landing and payment flows.
• Built an enterprise design system with tokenisation (JSON) and documentation, streamlining design-dev collaboration.
• Created a growth path and career matrix for ICs and design managers, mentoring a junior designer to mid-level in just over a year.
• Successfully mentored a junior designer to mid-level in just over a year, providing guidance on design principles, processes, and career development, resulting in significant professional growth.
• Drove business transformation from K–12 B2C to vocational B2B, aligning design with OKRs and contributing to revenue growth.
• Contributed to UX success: 90% in-app satisfaction, 4.4★ App Store (12.5k+ ratings), 4.6★ Trustpilot (400+ reviews).

### Senior Product Designer (UI/UX) @ simpleclub
Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | Munich, Bavaria, Germany

### Principal Product Designer (via Narli) @ Aptem
Jan 2018 – Jan 2022 | London, United Kingdom
• Helped drive Aptem’s market leadership, now used by 60% of UK universities, contributing to 45% ARR growth (from $5.5M to over $8M), $3M in funding, and 10+ industry awards including the Digital Education Awards (2023).
• Led UX and Product Design for transforming a legacy .NET application into a modern PWA using Angular, delivering seamless user experiences and improved performance.
• Achieved WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance by embedding accessibility best practices across all design and development processes.
• Co-designed a cognitive assessment tool, built with psychological experts to identify learners
with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), enabling early intervention and tailored support to improve learning outcomes and retention.
• Established scalable UX processes to ensure design quality and consistency, including coded prototyping, wireframes, and documentation.
• Collaborated on product vision and strategy, leading iterative design processes with senior management and stakeholders, delivering high-quality user experiences that meet business goals and drive growth.

### Principal Product Designer / Co-founder @ Narli
Jan 2017 – Jan 2022 | Knysna, Western Cape, South Africa
• Customer account management, including negotiating contracts and agreements to maximise profit.
• Building and maintaining strong, long-lasting customer relationships.
• Translate concepts into user flows, wireframes, mockups and technical coded (react) prototypes that lead to intuitive user experiences.
• Lead product design teams by providing guidance, oversight, and mentorship to the teams.
• Establish the design strategy and provide visionary leadership of how to integrate leading technology to improve UI/UX of the solutions portfolio.
• Lead a team of User Interface (UI) User Experience (UX) designers, developers and project managers to build quality products on time and on budget. 
• Shape the design processes to ensure quality work in a short timeframe
• Coordinate with various teams so that the customer’s expectations are met.
• Ask smart questions, take risks and champion new ideas.
• Identify design problems and devise elegant solutions.
• Always looking to improve inefficient processes.
• Continue their assessment of a client’s needs and business objectives.
• Help develop initiatives to increase customer satisfaction and retention.
• Company-wide strategic planning.
• Upsell services and solutions.
• Manage a client’s projects from beginning to end.
• Work well under pressure and commit to deadlines.
• Liaise between the customer and internal teams.

### Design Director @ Niteco
Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Stockholm County, Sweden
• Led creative vision for internal and client projects, aligning with business objectives and brand guidelines.
• Led, managed, and mentored a multidisciplinary team of 8, overseeing salaries, career growth,
and fostering a high-performance creative culture.
• Directed and executed design projects from concept to completion, delivering high-quality
results on time and within budget.
• Developed user-focused experiences, creative briefs, and UX strategies, effectively presenting
concepts to clients and stakeholders.
Improved creative processes and workflows, driving innovation, efficiency, and enhanced client
outcomes.
• Designed intuitive web and mobile interfaces in collaboration with developers, delivering
seamless user experiences. Created responsive designs and prototypes, aligning with business
goals and enhancing user journeys.

### Senior Product Designer @ Niteco
Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 | Hanoi, Vietnam
• Execute interaction and visual design as a part of a multi-disciplinary team.
• Work with the Development Team to lead the design and implementation of beautiful, intuitive experiences.
• Design highly usable web, mobile and software interfaces.
• Articulate design decisions in individual and group critiques, be able to sell design concepts to clients. 
• Communicate effectively while working on multiple projects with tight deadlines.
• UI/UX Design, Web & Graphic Design, Multimedia & Print Design, Mobile Design. 
• Responsive Front End Development (HTML, CSS & Javascript).
• Wireframes and Prototypes.
• Daily Scrum and Agile meetings.
• Pixel perfect design comps.
• Research current design and technology trends.

### Web Designer & Front-End Developer (Senior) @ Coza Productions
Jan 2012 – Jan 2014 | Cape Town, South Africa
• Brand logo and identity creation, corporate stationery, development of brand guidelines etc.
• Website designs & development,  internal and external brand communications collateral.
• Strong ability to interpret creative briefs and produce aligned concepts that meet brand guidelines.
• Organised and able to prioritise my work to ensure deadlines are met.
• Be a team player with the ability to collaborate, accept and provide constructive feedback.
• Develop print and electronic designs for various software programs.
• Campaigns, advertising materials, emailers, newsletters, business cards, promotional items etc.
• Review graphics for quality and consistency.
• Provide design guidance to colleagues when requested.
• Work in a team environment to complete all designs in a timely fashion
• Update Manager regularly about status of graphic project.
• Manage workflow and schedules in the absence of Manager.
• Use style guides and technical specifications for graphic development.
• Stay abreast with the latest developments in the graphic/digital industry.
• Direct digital photographers and illustrators.
• Ensure that final designs meet customer specifications.
• Design HTML email and newsletter templates.
• Design and develop micro sites, banners, rich emails and other electronic media.
• Develop world-class design solutions, execute motion on time and recommend coding techniques.

### Web Developer & Graphic Designer (Junior) @ Coza Productions
Jan 2011 – Jan 2012
• Adhere to aesthetic design style guides, procedures, systems and templates.
• Execute pixel-accurate designs including clean PSD files.
• Coordinate and discuss creative aspects with other team members working on the project.
• Create multiple design options for team and clients.
• Convert images to suit colour profile required by various campaigns.
• Create and design advertising page layouts.
• Develop graphics based on standard technical specifications.
• Create sale signs with strong concepts and designs.
• Transform basic text documents into visually aesthetic presentations for meetings/pitching.
• Perform the assigned work within the allotted timelines to meet tight deadlines.

### Junior Graphic Designer / Repro Artist @ Niche Communications SA
Jan 2010 – Jan 2011
• A fast-paced, high volume environment with tight deadlines consistently editing quality photos.
• Responsible for cutting paths, masking, deep-etching, comping and retouching images.
• Photo retouching on images by cloning, color correcting, compositing, adding shadows, light etc.
• Use complex image masks and adjustment layers for sky replacement etc.
• Animate photo slideshows using Adobe Flash for online galleries.
• Responsible to download images from the Photographic server (FTP) and upload final product.
• Create HTML/CSS web design templates for real estate property websites.
• Use specialized software techniques and compile Virtual Tours to improve floorplans effectiveness.


## Education
### Damelin


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rossfenner

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Source: https://flows.cv/rossfenner
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/rossfenner/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-31