Norman Tran
Let's get personal
Designer, Artist, Improvisor, Composer, Poet, Neurodiverse (2e), Queer.
I design experiences that change the way people see themselves, and the world.
Let's chat.
Norman Tran is an interdisciplinary designer with 10 years of experience spanning product and service design. He is most interested in education, mental health, and tools for empowerment.
Born from the urgency of Chinese immigrant refugees, Norman learned the hard way that gunning for "success" can lead to fatal burnout.
After a two year tour of duty in Silicon Valley, Norman developed an autoimmune illness from overworking, and during his 3-month recovery process, he realized bugs aren't just in software, they're in people: the way we communicate, the way we connect, the way we learn.
This is when they broadened their scope of design from designing screens to service design: creating programs and experiences to help people create more intentionality in their lives. His approach focuses on updating our internal "operating" systems of beliefs, mindsets, and practices.
From VC's and CEO's to career starters and high schoolers, Norman's service design has impacted people at companies like Facebook, IDEO, Stanford d.school, and Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center. He was a facilitator for Stanford Graduate School of Business' legendary Touchy-Feely class, which taught MBA's how to develop influence through relational and emotional fluency.
Then he joined MissionU, a one-year tuition-free college alternative for underserved adults as employee #5. He designed programs that helped participants deelop self-awareness and interpersonal dynamics, helping the 40 graduating students land technical roles at companies like Spotify, Accenture, and SurveyMonkey.
Afterwards, he served as Product Design Instruction Lead at Tradecraft, teaching professionals in career inflection points to avoid avoidable failures. Through partnerships with companies as early as stealth to Fortune 100, he helped 200 designers develop both technical and soft skills to land roles at companies from seed-stage to IPO'ed.
During the pandemic, Norman co-founded Relating Between the Lines, an online school for relational education, where his role as Product Strategy & Service Design Lead led to the creation of programs that elevated the interpersonal skills for leaders at companies like a16z, Apple and Google.
Most recently, Norman returned to focusing on product design because they wanted their work to help a wider circle of people in the world. Norman became the Lead Product Designer at Shimmer, where they led the redesign of the platform from the ground up, collaborating closely with the founders to take the coaching platform from good to great.
Norman is gay, neurospicy (2e), nonbinary, polyamorous, and laughs about the beautiful absurdity of it all.
SERVICES
Learning by design
DESIGN
Product Strategy
UX/UI Design
UX Research & Testing
Ideation & Prototyping
EXPERIENCES
Facilitation
Workshops
Offites & Retreats
Speaking
Coaching
LEARNING
Learning Needs Assessment
Course Production
Program Management
Learning Toolkits
Instructional Design Heuristics
SELECT CLIENTS
Work with purpose
