Alison McDougall

about me

I am studying the science of happiness while also building a business which is currently focused on creating retreat spaces and wellebign programs for visitors and the communities they reside in. regrow retreats incorporate physical space, I am currently studying to become a Happiness Trainer, with the goal of combining my product management skills, leveraging my network and harnessing my passion of helping others to discover their authentic self. I'm in the early stages of creating a wellbeing product. Check out my vision.

I have 11 years of experience managing B2C digital products in a range of industries including travel, banking, commercial real estate, software development, and early-stage startups.

Outside of work, you can find me cycling, reading, listening to podcasts, practicing yoga and meditation, traveling (near and far), baking healthy treats and spending time with people who help me grow and inspire me to keep following my dreams.

core skills

Product Management

I have 11 years experience managing B2C digital products in a range of industries including travel, banking, commercial real estate, software development and early-stage startups.

My highest priority is always the user. I become their voice and build out my product roadmap based on user needs/wants rather than only focusing on business value. Leveraging user research, interviews and user testing to define and deploy an MVP. Then testing and validating our product strategy, iterating on it to ensure value is being delivered to the business and end-user.

User Experience

Working in collaboration with UX designers, engineering, data teams, key stakeholders and most importantly the end-users to ensure we are building the most optimal user experience for customer facing products and internal business applications.

I have experience translating product concepts into user flows, wireframes, mockups and prototypes.

Training & Coaching

I am currently taking a Happiness Studies course with the goal of building my own program to coach people who are interested in pursuing happiness.

I am a happiness coach in training and have experience teaching and coaching junior product managers.

I have experience creating training documentation and executing training sessions.

Quality Assurance

I strive to create high-quality products and I'm always thinking of ways to improve an existing product.

I have experience building QA test plans, executing manual QA testing for front-end experiences, reviewing product quality throughout development and working alongside Engineering to ensure we are building and launching quality and scalable products.

fun facts

23 Countries Visited. Last trip: Newfoundland

176 Yoga Classes Attended in 2017

592 km: DISTANCE TRACKED IN 2021

Favourite animal: cat

resume

each role led me closer to finding my purpose, place and people in the world

March 2022 - present

Visionary & Host

regrow

At regrow, we are dedicated to building accessible, effective, and inclusive wellbeing solutions that empower human thriving and nurture nature's harmony. Through expert collaboration and evidence-based practices, we host supportive retreats, co-create community wellbeing strategies, develop sustainable products that ignite creativity and conduct research to advance our understanding of non-traditional approaches to healing. Our mission is to facilitate individuation, enhance community resilience, and promote intentional tourism for a flourishing world.

learn more

October 2021 - present

Volunteer

Birchcliff Bluffs Food Bank

working together to end hunger in our community

donations are used to purchase groceries that supplement what we receive from our parent agency Daily Bread Food Bank.

learn more

October 2021 - June 2023

Student

Happiness Studies Academy

A course created and delivered by Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar that provides the knowledge and the tools to generate happiness and build resilience on the individual, interpersonal, organizational and national levels. I’m learning about the science of happiness for wholebeing healing through the SPIRE (spiritual, physical, intellectual, relational, emotional) framework.

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." - Aristotle

November 2020 - September 2021

Senior Product Manager

Skylight

Working closely with key stakeholders to enhance the homeowner experience web channel. Defining the user experience for new products to support internal teams. Building and executing internal workshops in order to better understand our customers needs.

Key skills:

Product Strategy
UX Design
Customer Journey mapping
Stakeholder management
QA testing
Process improvements
Training

February 2019 - October 2020

Product Manager, Digital & Innovation

Cadillac Fairview

Working as part of the new Digital & Innovation arm of Cadillac Fairview, I lead the Web channel strategy as well as supporting the new app launch.

Key skills:

Agile project management
Vendor management
Stakeholder management
QA testing
Process improvement
Strategy planning
Analytics reporting

July 2018 - February 2019

Technical Product Manager / CSM

Myplanet

I joined the Myplanet team in a dual role where I worked with clients to build new products while also managing current clients in a Customer Success role. This included working on enhancing their current products/platforms and providing strategic guidance for new enhancements/features and technologies.

Key skills:

Agile Project management
Customer success
Stakeholder management
QA testing
Stragtegic planning

July 2017 - July 2018

Product Manager, Digital

Meridian Credit Union

I managed three digital sales products - loan platform, mortgage platform and Member onboarding platform.

Key skills:

Platform management
Vendor management
Stakeholder relations
Project management
QA testing
Problem solving

March 2015 - July 2017

Manager, eCommerce & Digital Projects

Fairmont Hotels

In addition to the specialist duties below, this role involved supporting all AccorHotels properties within North and South America from a digital content and project perspective.

Key skills:

Project management
Content management
Training & coaching
QA testing
HTML5 and CSS3
Problem solving

March 2012 - February 2015

Specialist, Digital Platforms

Fairmont Hotels

I managed all digital projects relating to Fairmont.com and Raffles.com which includes site enhancements, site rebranding, bug fixes, brand-level content creation and global campaigns. I am also the first point of contact for all technical related issues for our global teams (spanning 33 countries).

Key skills:

Project management
Content management
QA testing
HTML5 and CSS3
Problem solving

January 2010 - February 2012

Marketing Assistant

Butterfield & Robinson

This job was the start of my web content management journey. I was exposed to a lot of different marketing duties in this role including, writing traveller materials, planning and executing the annual media buy, executing all email deployments and managing web content updates.

Key skills

Content management
Writing
HTML/CSS
Budgeting

EDUCATION

2023

40-hr yoga immersion training

HOV Academy

2021-2023

Certificate in Happiness Studies

Happiness Studies Academy

2015-2016

Project Management Certificate

University of Toronto

Foundations of Project Management
Leading Projects in Organizations
Project Implementation and Control

2012-2013

Design & Development certificate

Ryerson University

HTML5 and CSS3
Advanced JavaScript Programming
Dreamweaver
Advanced HTML5 Programming

2006-2010

Bachelor of Commerce - Marketing Minor

Ryerson University

Download CV

skills

Product vision, strategy and roadmap development

User research (interviews, testing)

Competitive benchmarking/analysis

Mockup & prototype creation

Quality assurance testing

Customer journey mapping & persona development

Coaching & mentoring

Relationship management (vendors, partners, stakeholders)

Talent acquisition

Content management (integrations & content creation)

HTML5, CSS, Javascript

portfolio

regrow product vision (v1)

learn more

Journaling workshop

workshop + 4-week program

Renovation Scope Clarity

front-end ux + backend feature

Customer Journey Mapping

workshop

Material Selection

front-end ux

B2B website

new product

Renovation QA

backend feature

Wait List App

new product

digital loan platform

new product

App Microsite

microsite development

Event Guide

microsite

Principle PM Redesign

website redesign

Raffles Paris Suites

microsite

Fairmont Meetings

microsite

Heritageplace.com

microsite

Fairmont.com rebrand

website redesign

Raffles.com redesign

website redesign

Destination Guides

feature

Fairmont.com redesign

website redesign

journal

No matter who we are or where we come from, we all have one thing in common. We’re human. Humans that have emotions related to our own unique life experiences. Emotions, pleasurable and painful, have the ability to provide our activities with meaning, move us with action and inspire us to learn and connect us to people.

In my first journal entry I'll take you through my self-healing journey and how I got to this point. Each subsequent journal post will include interesting learnings from the Happiness Studies course, my reflections, personal stories and I will recommend a related activity that I found helpful.

My happiness journey is dedicated to my Dad (DBM), who passed away in 2014 at the age of 67. He was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer a month prior to his passing and suffered from alcoholism in the final few years of his life. A smart, hard-working, kind, sensitive, loving and funny man that, like me, held in a lot of emotions. I watched a true friend of mine fall into a place of darkness and sadly he didn't have the support and tools to find his way back. I didn't have the information and tools at that time to help him, but now I do. This is what drives my passion, along with mistakes I've made, and the belief that no matter what you've done, what pain you've endured or where you come from, you can learn, grow stronger and find your own unique path in pursuit of the ultimate currency; happiness.

Going on this journey starts with me but with the goal of guiding others to chart their own path. "The foundation of healthy relationships with others is a healthy relationship with oneself." - Dr. Tal Ben Shahar

I'd love to hear from you :). Feedback, journal topic suggestions, share a story; all are welcome in my inbox.

woman on a red bike riding along the beach front path

21oct 21

contact

Reach Me

based in Durham, Ontario and Shapinsay, Orkney

Tel : +1 416 839 5154

amcdoug [at] gmail.com

Freelance & Coaching available

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