SVSylvain Vanderhaegen
Design Consultant / Lecturer @ Luid / Taylor's
Subang Jaya, Malaysia 20 yrs in design
About
I'm a French designer based in Malaysia for over 15 years. I consulted startups, SMEs, product teams over Europe & SEA on their design strategy, their innovation culture and their product line. I'm also a trainer and coach, recently been focusing on education products, L&D and teaching design.
How I can help
I help students and working adults to work out their next career move or going solo. Style wise, I'm supportive, optimistic, yet straight to the point. If you need an honest feedback on the market or what you need to work out, I can help.
Ask me about
IC to manager
Agency to in-house
Pivot into design
Returning from a break
Freelance to full-time
A failed launch
First or only designer
A reorg
Influence without authority
Stakeholder standoffs
Presenting to execs
Imposter syndrome
Negotiating comp
Building a design system
First design hires
Growing into leadership
Craft to strategy
full-time to freelance
solopreneur
entrepreneur
Not the right mentor for: I'm not familiar with AI yet. I dabble with it, but besides vibe coding and research, never used it in depth.
A hard problem I've navigated
Well, in 20 years I seen most of the above in one way or another. I've been through career lows, reorgs, burnout, toxic environment... but also great projects with great teams. Good news is you survive and can rebuild, and lots of your skills can be repurposed or built on, no matter where you;re heading next. Designers are sturdy like that.
Frequently asked
What should I prepare?
You may send me your links ahead, I read everything.
Expertise
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Product Designer
Design Manager
Design Lead
Gaming
Healthcare
Design systems
Freelancing
Leadership
Interviewing
Education & EdTech
Hardware & IoT
Innovation
Design culture
Workshops