Raphael Bouchard

Hello!

I'm Raphael, I'm currently a Staff Product Designer at Flexport. I’ve been focused mostly on our tooling required to clear customs on-time and broadly the Flexport Platform. I’ve been the sole designer on products like the Product Library and a mentor for products like Reporting and Analytics. Curious? Take a look!

But, how did I get here?

My curiosity for the world around me began at a young age, as it does for many, but it didn't stop. While I was growing up, I used to take apart anything my lawn cutting or snow shoveling money could get me from Goodwill. As I grew older I thought the next logical step was to become an Engineer. So I started my collegiate career at Wentworth Institute of Technology as a Mechanical Engineer. I was on a great path, soon I could be creating anything I wanted! But I quickly realized that I didn't know why I was creating or for who, I just knew what the end result should be. 

I didn't like not knowing why I was making something. One day, on my way to class I ran into a former high school friend and she was carrying this little 3d printed toy and its clamshell vacuum formed packaging. After asking her about it, I was blown away by its personality and story. Surely this was the result of countless Engineers working and testing to find the cheapest, most efficient and structurally sound toy. I was wrong, it was the result of countless user interviews, observations, ideation sessions and refinement.

Fast forward four years and I was walking across the stage at my graduation, receiving by Bachelors of Science in Industrial Design. I had a degree, four amazing cooperative education experiences, a plethora of tools and I was headed to Carnegie Mellon University to pursue my Masters in Product Development(now called Masters of Integrated Innovation for Products & Services). 

At CMU I learned how powerful the marriage between Business, Design and Engineering is. I was exposed to new ways of thinking and analyzing concepts, new ways of planning development cycles and research studies and new ways of working with people to create cross-disciplinary masterpieces. Now my toolkit was larger than ever and I was ready to put them to use. This is how I got here, please feel free to contact me and I can share more on my journey and experiences.