Connector Spotlight: Hilary Hayes

Whether designing software experiences, deadlifting barbells or blogging about the next great skincare product, Hilary will make your life better.

Tell us a little bit about the project you’re working on.

After helping a leading US media organization bring their music streaming service to the world of voice, we’re now helping them iterate on and refine that service post-release. As the project’s Conversation Designer, my days are largely occupied with documenting a conversation map for the current production state of the Amazon Alexa skill as well as designing conversation flows for roadmap features.

Cool! What about prior to joining Connected?

I worked as a Product Designer at Scotiabank, Telus, and Heist. While at Telus, one of my biggest projects was doing a complete redesign for Telus.com. Oh, I also worked for a gene-editing company called Synbiota on an in-browser genetic code editor.

Sounds like you’ve been all over. What advice would you give to someone just starting here at Connected?

Don’t worry about not knowing how to do the things you’re eventually going to be expected to do. We work with so many new, emerging, and non-normative technologies that it’s really okay if you don’t know what you’re doing for the first little while. There are lots to learn, and you’ll learn it. Just give yourself time.

That’s good advice. What about downtime? How do you like to disconnect?

I love being with nature and spending time with my family. I also love exploring the Gallery of Minerals at the Royal Ontario Museum (trust me, it’s awesome).

Aside from that, I’m passionate about several forms of self-care: mental health, skin care, and taking care of my body through nutrition and weightlifting. In fact, I’m training for my first powerlifting meet coming up this spring! Fun fact: my deadlift max is almost 300 lbs!

For skincare and mental health (psychodermatology), I have a blog where I write about everything from my past and current mental health journey to moisturizers and other skincare products that I’m enjoying.

Any weird talents?

I have very, very fast reflexes. Maybe that’s why “Feel The Lightning” by Dan Deacon is a song on repeat for me.

What’s your favourite Toronto restaurant?

La Banane. They serve French-influenced dishes, and I highly recommend you try their Petit Plateau seafood tower, Tartare de boeuf, and their specially-made and hand-painted Ziggy Egg for dessert. It’s legit.

This is the seventh entry in our Connector Spotlight series. Stay tuned for more profiles about the great people here at Connected.