Karina Kurmanbayeva

I was a maker from an early age, I did crafts, I painted, I drew, I sew clothes - I did it all. I wanted to be an architect and was fascinated by Zaha Hadid I came to Canada in 2012 to study Digital Design and build experiences for the future. When I learned about Design Thinking - everything suddenly made sense. And that's what lead me to the area of Product. I love identifying problems, opportunities and solutions to improve people's lives. My first job was at an early-stage retail marketing startup. I was designing the campaign creation platform from scratch. We had the support of the DMZ, and signed pilots with large organizations like Shoppers Drugmart and Ubisoft. Then I got into mobile design, I designed 5 mobile applications that improved the experience for RBC employees. I love designing, but I quickly understood that building a product it's not as simple as designing a perfect experience. So I became a Product Manager to learn how to build and grow a product and deliver business and customer value. Now I work at Royal Bank of Canada, setting up product practices and culture, enabling the digital product team to build the best products. _____ Aside from product, I am passionate about entrepreneurship, startups and innovation. I've been testing out ideas, and practicing and learning entrepreneurship. ____ I love hiking with my French Bulldog and Traveling I have a purple belt in Krav Maga martial arts I love snowboarding and other extreme sports