Martin Laws
Engineering leader, UX developer, design thinker
tl;dr

I am a designer-turned-developer with a passion for creating beautiful, functional, and accessible digital experiences. I have a proven track record of building, leading, and coaching teams to success. Throughout my career, I have helped organizations of all sizes improve their development practices, build compelling user-facing products, and drive business value through collaborative and cross-functional design thinking.


When I'm not neck-deep in TypeScript, you can find me cooking, checking out local breweries/restaurants, and enjoying stand-up comedy.

Employment
Shopify
Remote — Toronto, ON
Staff Software Developer
May 2021 to Current

As a Staff Software Developer at Shopify, I've had the privilege of helping to lead engineering efforts across Shopify's app developer platform, with a focus on improving the app developer experience. My work has centered around developing and refining developer tools to make it easier for developers to build high-quality apps on Shopify. I'm passionate about creating accessible, user-friendly tools that empower developers to do their best work, and I'm committed to fostering a collaborative, innovative engineering culture.

Remote — Toronto, ON
Software Development Manager
Apr. 2020 to May 2021

As the manager of Shopify's App Developer Experience team, I oversaw a talented group of twelve developers who were responsible for stewarding the user interfaces, APIs, and tooling that make it possible for developers to build apps on Shopify's platform. I took pride in fostering a collaborative, empathetic team culture that encouraged innovation and continuous improvement. Whether mentoring interns, coaching senior ICs, or managers; I was committed to helping every team member grow and thrive. Our team's hard work and dedication paid off, resulting in a Shopify app developer experience that is more intuitive, accessible, and powerful than before.

Low Tide Consulting
Toronto, ON
President & Principal Consultant
Mar. 2019 to May 2021

As the founder and principal consultant of my own UX development consulting practice, I had the pleasure of working with exceptional clients, including The Globe and Mail, where I provided consulting, strategy, and contract development services. I also provided technical prototyping for a variety of startups, helping them to bring their innovative ideas to life. My expertise in UX design and development was recognized by industry leaders, and I co-authored blog posts published in InVision's Inside Design blog and UX Planet. I also presented at workshops and conferences across Canada and the United States, sharing my insights and best practices with other software development and UX professionals.

Lighthouse Labs
Toronto, ON
Instructor - Web Development
Jan. 2016 to July 2020

From March 2019 to July 2020, I lectured weekly at Lighthouse Labs on a range of topics, including best practices in modern JavaScript (ES2015-2019), CSS (Grid and Flexbox), and React (Hooks, Context, function components), as well as various advanced topics.

In addition, from January 2016 to March 2017, I co-taught and mentored Lighthouse's part-time Web Development Fundamentals course. During this time, I also co-authored curriculum material for prominent Lighthouse initiatives, including the HTML500, which was taught in eight cities to over 2,000 participants.

Ample Organics
Toronto, ON
Lead, Front End Development
Dec. 2017 to Mar. 2019

As Front End Development Lead, I implemented a Front-End development lifecycle with Design Thinking methodologies to drive user and business value. I managed and coached Front-End and Full-Stack Developers across multiple product teams, providing ongoing professional development.

I migrated the company to a modern Front-End technology stack and tooling, including Vue, Vuex, and Webpack, and was accountable for project management of all user-facing web applications, open-sourced projects, and a robust Vue.js component library.

I worked closely with Director, Executive, and C-level stakeholders to define requirements, develop technical strategy, and build consensus. Under my leadership, the front end team grew by over 4x and the company grew from 30 to over 110 employees, serving 80% of Canadian medical cannabis patients and 70% of Licensed Producers.

Employment
Index Exchange
Toronto, ON
Lead, UX Development
Oct. 2016 to Dec. 2017

As the UX Development Lead at Index Exchange, I bridged the gap between Design and Engineering by advocating for modern front-end development and design tooling. I created rapid prototypes to facilitate optimal user experiences and authored and facilitated workshops on topics including ES6 Javascript, TypeScript, Angular, React, HTML and CSS Fundamentals, Cross-Team Collaboration, Flexbox, and CSS Grid. Additionally, I planned and facilitated Canada's first Ad Tech Hackathon and provided ongoing technical feedback to my Product Design peers.

Think Research
Toronto, ON
Software Developer - Full Stack
Jan. 2016 to Oct. 2016

I improved healthcare outcomes for millions of patients by leveraging my technical knowledge and design thinking. I developed multiple enterprise healthcare applications using Ruby on Rails and implemented web interfaces using React, Angular, semantic HTML, and SCSS. I collaborated closely with product and design teams to iterate over feature specifications and worked with operations and infrastructure to build and scale back-end services. My work improved patient care in Canada and the United States.

Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS)
Toronto, ON
Multimedia Design and Development
Oct. 2014 to Oct. 2015

Consistently meeting tight deadlines and managing client expectations, I delivered a range of marketing initiatives, including:

• Social Media - Proactively managing Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram profiles, I created a social media marketing plan with regular analysis and data-driven action items.

• Web Development - Designing, developing, and maintaining various web presences with CMS (SquareSpace and FinalSite) and Google Analytics integration.

• Graphic Design and Video Production - Utilizing creative media to demonstrate the value of a Canadian Boarding Experience, I produced marketing materials (print and digital, static and dynamic).

• Leadership - Organizing, directing, and facilitating a five-day leadership retreat for over 150 students and staff from 25 schools across Canada.

Public Work
Design Thinking for Developers

I've presented at tech conferences across Canada and the United States on a variety of topics, most recently: Design Thinking for Developers at FITC Web Unleashed 2020, 2021, and dedicated Design and Development sessions.

Shopify 2020 Commerce Awards

I led the technical execution of Shopify's 2020 Commerce Awards campaign.

Custom Apps in Shopify Admin

I led the team that rolled out Custom Apps in the Shopify merchant admin.

Blaze.vue - Component Library

Led the execution and open-sourcing of this Vue 2.0 based component library made for developers and designers. This project follows open-source community best practices for code contribution and technical issue management.

Education
Lighthouse Labs
2015
Full Stack Web Development
Carleton University
2011 to 2014
B.PAPM Social Policy
Dropped out twice (intentionally!) — completed third-year coursework