Shaun Illingworth
Vice President
Ensuring research is relevant and actionable is what drives Shaun day-to-day. With over 17 years of experience in both enterprise and startup technology companies, Shaun is an experienced business strategist, creative thinker and market research executive with a rare focus on user-centered design and its resulting business value.
With extensive North American and European market research and market development experience, Shaun has successfully built several marketing and business relationships from the ground up – born from a focus on customer values and the user experience.
Shaun began his career in Boston as a product and market research consultant; he holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Northeastern University and is a professional moderator and workshop facilitator.
Prior to joining Akendi, Shaun held a variety of senior management positions in strategic marketing, market research and business development, with companies like Nortel, March Networks, and Inuk Networks.
With extensive North American and European market research and market development experience, Shaun has successfully built several marketing and business relationships from the ground up – born from a focus on customer values and the user experience.
Shaun began his career in Boston as a product and market research consultant; he holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Northeastern University and is a professional moderator and workshop facilitator.
Prior to joining Akendi, Shaun held a variety of senior management positions in strategic marketing, market research and business development, with companies like Nortel, March Networks, and Inuk Networks.
Author Archives: Shaun Illingworth
Grow Up!
As someone on the front end of UX projects, I spend a lot of time talking with clients and prospects about their specific project. I’ve grown into this role because I really do enjoy meeting new people, hearing about new technology and helping advise companies on service design. I can tell you that selling UX… Read more
Why Poor Customer Experiences Are Still So Common
When Companies Fail To Invest In Connecting To Users, The Fallout Is Significant In 1998 Joseph Pine and James Gilmore published “Welcome to the Experience Economy” in the Harvard Business Review (July 1, 1998.) The authors suggest the forces of competition, commoditization and technology advances have evolved our expectations beyond basic needs to heightened experiences.… Read more
Beware of UX Shingles
Almost as bad as the other shingles, there are increasing numbers of companies hanging the “UX shingle” to ride the wave! Being a “UX consultant” is a big deal these days. More and more, companies are (finally, sigh!) looking to improve their customer experience in hope of gaining or retaining customers. For many this means… Read more
UX Insight: Measure Twice, Cut Once
I recently attended a large UX conference – lauded as one of the largest in Canada. It was an enjoyable couple of days with some well-known and soon-to-be well known speakers. The audience was a good mix of client side and consultant side UX junkies. If we could only get a few more product, marketing… Read more
Big Innovation for Associations
Innovative organisations are risk-taking by nature. And some organisations are simply more apt to take risks. Many ‘Innovator of the Year’ lists contain mostly product-focused organisations. Most are really big business – engineering and/or science heavy – with big projects, big budgets and big risks! Associations are not usually on that list, but associations can… Read more
Customer Experience in the Friendly Skies
Recently, I enjoyed a fantastic vacation in the tropics with my family. The travel was long, with three connections and over twelve hours in flight. Thankfully, the airline had a great web check in that allowed me to see each flights aircraft type, seating configuration and seat availability. Our island bound travel was painless. As… Read more