Product Leader · Applied AI · Product Architecture

I lead product direction and stay hands-on in how the product works.

I've held product-wide responsibility for a complex enterprise platform, conceived and led development of the product that became its primary revenue engine, and personally designed and built production AI systems. My work connects product strategy and architecture with the UX and system behavior that make complex products work.

View selected work ↓ Résumé ↗

Portrait of Stephan Ryatt wearing a washed black T-shirt against a neutral background.

Selected work

Pathfinder Pro

AI recommendation product · Product architecture · Applied AI

I took a founder’s concept and study-program dataset to a live product in six weeks, owning product definition, UX, AI architecture, implementation, evaluation, and launch.

The system turns a multidimensional student profile into three personalized university-program recommendations using a retrieve–rerank architecture, then generates a report explaining the fit, associated career paths, and practical next steps.

View case study

Cover of a Pathfinder Pro personalized university recommendation report.

How I work

I don’t separate product strategy from the mechanics of the product. I move between the larger vision and the details until the underlying logic is clear enough to make good decisions – and clear enough for design and engineering to build from.

Build the whole picture

I build an integrated model of the users, business and competitive context, workflows, existing capabilities, and technical constraints and opportunities before committing to a direction.

Make the product logic explicit

I work through how capabilities fit together, how information and responsibility move through the system, and where the important boundaries and edge cases sit until the product makes sense as a whole.

Stay close where details matter

I stay hands-on where detail materially shapes the outcome—especially in UX, applied AI, and system behavior—while leaving design and engineering clear ownership of their craft.

Selected experience

Copalana

Head of Product & AI · Co-Founder

2019–Present

I conceived and led development of Corporate Volunteering from concept through enterprise adoption. It became Copalana's primary revenue-generating product and the core offering driving new enterprise customer acquisition.

Across the wider platform, I conceived and drove integrated workspaces that brought fragmented capabilities together around the workflows of corporate administrators, employees, and nonprofits. When volunteering bookings stalled, I traced the underlying problem to fragmented information and inadequate date negotiation, redirecting a proposed dashboard refresh into a booking-lifecycle redesign.

Pathfinder Pro

AI Product Architect & Developer (Contract)

2025

Designed and built a paid AI recommendation product with a retrieve–rerank architecture, automated report production, evaluation, and founder-managed operations.

Earlier work

KV Luzern

Project Lead, Digital Transformation

2015-2018

Led enterprise CRM/CMS integration and redesigned marketing and sales workflows from process design through organizational adoption.

Credit Suisse

Business Analyst, Infrastructure Virtualization

2011-2013

Designed business-process models supporting workflow standardization and automation within a major infrastructure-virtualization initiative.

Where I do my best work

I’m at my best in senior, hands-on product roles where I can shape meaningful product direction while staying close to how the product actually works – particularly in applied AI, technical products, and complex product systems.

I work well with strong design and engineering partners in high-autonomy, distributed teams where clear thinking, written communication, and product judgment matter more than process for its own sake.

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