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Jason Theodor
Executive Design Leader, Creativity Researcher, Writer, Speaker
Professional Background
Jason Theodor stands as a distinguished figure in the realm of design and customer experience, particularly within the financial services industry. With a career that spans several notable roles, including Executive Director of Imagination & Experience Design, Jason has dedicated himself to transforming the customer-facing aspects of some of the largest financial institutions in Canada and beyond. He has led design experiences for prominent banks such as RBC, TD, CIBC, BMO, Scotia Bank, President’s Choice Financial, and even global firms like Morgan Stanley. His efforts have made significant strides in integrating empathy and customer-centric perspectives into design practices in finance.
As a seasoned Creative Director, Jason has left his mark on well-recognized advertising agencies such as MacLaren McCann, Ogilvy, Critical Mass, Blast Radius, and Publicis. He has a remarkable track record of winning pitches for high-profile clients, including Ferrero Canada, Nike, and WestJet. His expertise in user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design has contributed to successful campaigns for major brands like Canada Post, Citibank, General Motors, Kraft, and many more. His unique approach combines principles from various disciplines—ranging from advertising and design to psychology and philosophy—to create engaging and effective customer experiences.
Education and Achievements
Jason's educational journey is a testament to his diverse interests and dedication to understanding human behavior and creativity. He studied Advertising and Design at Conestoga College, which laid the groundwork for his career in creative strategies and design thinking. Pursuing his passion for storytelling, Jason also delved into Creative Writing at the University of Manitoba. Further enriching his academic portfolio, he explored subjects like English and Philosophy at The University of Winnipeg, as well as Psychology, Ethics, and Sociology at Canadian Mennonite University. This multifaceted education has provided him with a robust foundation to understand the intricacies of human motivation and interaction, critical in driving customer-centric design.
Jason is not only a leader in his field but also an influential public speaker. He has shared his expertise at prestigious educational institutions like NYU, Ivey, Humber, and OCAD, and has presented at high-profile conferences including FITC, NxNE, and Codemotion. His speaking engagements have taken him across several major cities, including Halifax, Toronto, Winnipeg, and even international locations like New York and Rome, where he emphasizes the importance of empathy in design thinking.
Moreover, as a writer, Jason's insights have attracted a significant audience. His work on SlideShare has garnered over 750K views, and he has built a community of 40K followers on Medium, where he continues to share his thoughts on experience design and customer-centric innovation. His writings often reinforce his belief that while methodologies like design thinking are essential, the real catalyst for successful design is understanding and connecting with the end user.
Achievements
- Executive Leadership: As Executive Director of Imagination & Experience Design, Jason has overseen transformative design initiatives for a range of financial institutions, effectively advocating for customer-centric approaches in their services.
- Creative Direction: His role as a Creative Director has led to the successful development and execution of campaigns for various global brands, integrating advanced UX/UI practices and innovative concepts that resonate with consumers.
- Public Speaking: Jason has continuously contributed to the academic and professional community through extensive speaking engagements. His presentations articulate the relationship between empathy, design, and user experience, making him a sought-after speaker at various conferences and educational institutions.
- Writing and Influence: With his significant online presence, Jason has established himself as a thought leader in experience design. His popular posts and presentations have amassed hundreds of thousands of views and interactions, reflecting his commitment to educating others on the importance of customer-centric design.
Conclusion
In summary, Jason Theodor is a highly respected figure in the design and customer experience fields, particularly within financial services. His unique blend of education, experience, and a deep understanding of human behavior enables him to lead initiatives that prioritize empathy and user-centric approaches. Through his leadership, public speaking, and writing, Jason continues to inspire and influence the design community, demonstrating that the key to successful design lies in truly understanding and valuing the human experience. He provides genuine insights that resonate across industries, making a lasting impact on how businesses interact with and serve their customers.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.