Hi, my name is Jo and I'm the CEO of Holio. I'm a senior product designer based in the greater Montreal area with over 15 years of experience in product development. I have a real passion for all things creative and innovative. Here's my story.
At the end of 2012, I left my stable job to create the first web workers' cooperative in Montreal. During my first year, I worked on pitches, managed projects, built a team, designed mockups, prototypes, design systems, learned accounting, managed crises, organized happy hours and delivered over 125 projects. From this experience, I have learned many things, developed a multitude of skills and met some great people. I learned that flexible hours, game consoles in the office, a fridge full of beer and ping-pong tables are no guarantee of team cohesion. The adventure lasted 7 years, but after so many years of working on other people's ideas, I decided to start my own.
In 2019, I created Talento Ai, with the idea of automating part of the recruitment process to improve the candidate experience. Since startups rarely have the luxury of being able to immediately recruit resources with a variety of skills, I had to learn to wear many hats. In the first year, I learned how to apply for funding, build a business plan, do market research, define a go-to-market strategy, define technical and functional specifications, create the product experience, hire a team of developers, make customer presentations, work with sales, and perform hundreds of iterations based on the information we discovered as the project progressed. Unfortunately, like many startups, the project ended after two years, I'm not bitter because it was a great learning experience and as the old saying goes, failing is not serious, what is serious is not trying.
Since 2020 I offer my services as a designer through my agency, Holio partners with small and medium sized businesses to solve their everyday digital challenges through research, design and technology. I mainly work with startups and have a strong interest in designing web applications and services. Holio stands for Holistic approach, because I believe that design is everywhere, it is in the definition of the functionalities, in the choice of the user experience and even in the vision of the company.
I have often collaborated on projects that were at the idea stage and had only a small team and I love it, it's often projects that bring a lot of flexibility, require a lot of creativity and where speed of execution is a challenge to get to market.
If you are a startup with a great idea, I can surely help you. If you want to know my rates or if you want a free consultation, contact me!
I'll be happy to know more about your idea.
