Signed letter · May 2025
Kristian’s versatility is one of his strongest assets. Whether setting strategic direction or rolling up his sleeves to execute, he adapts quickly and delivers in fast-paced, high-stakes environments.
Kristian Clinton
I turn complex payment programs into clear plans, aligned teams, and faster launches.
Open to the right fit
Program, delivery, implementation, product operations, and customer-success leadership.
Considering full-time or contract roles across fintech, payments, SaaS, commerce, AI, and adjacent technology; Canada-wide remote, hybrid in Montréal, Ottawa, Kingston, or London, or relocation for a strong fit.
Support-desk instincts. Program-level execution. I ask the awkward question early, write the plan people will actually use, and keep product, engineering, and compliance moving in the same direction.
Don't take my word for it.
From formal letters and LinkedIn recommendations, lightly trimmed. Real people, real work.
LinkedIn · Aug 2026
Kristian has a rare ability to take something complex and make it clear and usable. He’s thoughtful, generous with his time, and someone who elevates the people around him.
LinkedIn · Aug 2026
Kristian is highly competent, thoughtful, and dependable, with a strong ability to navigate complex work. He brings candor, a clear point of view, and focus on quality outcomes.
LinkedIn · Oct 2024
Kristian is an absolute savior! He opens the door to new ideas. He’s direct and to the point, and he’s an amazing team player.
LinkedIn · Feb 2021
When Kristian started, he was already exceeding expectations in quality and quantity. He was consistently top solver of the month and always willing to help the team.
LinkedIn · Feb 2023
Kristian is dedicated to customer satisfaction and consistently goes above and beyond. He tackles problems with ease, brings a contagious attitude, and is always willing to help.
LinkedIn · Jan 2023
Kristian is proactive in sharing improvement ideas and helping implement them. He has a critical eye and massive knowledge, and I would happily work with him again.
LinkedIn · Nov 2018
Kristian dominated a project with our enterprise sales team that was ambiguous, acted like an owner and took charge when he saw opportunity to add value.
LinkedIn · Dec 2018
Kristian excels at websites, marketing, and communications. He is charismatic, well-spoken, and consistently an asset to any team he joins.
01 / 09
7.9s avgTools, systems, and platforms.
Design & systems
Figma
Framer
Design systems
WCAG accessibility
Payments
Stripe
Adyen
Fiserv
Merchant onboarding
AI workflow
Claude
ChatGPT
Gemini
Vercel v0
Project & delivery
Jira
Confluence
Notion
Asana
Platforms
Shopify
Salesforce
Magento
WordPress
Things I've helped build.
A few themes I keep coming back to.
ValPay
Payments product design
End-to-end UX for payments: discovery, wireframes, prototypes, specs, and dev handoff.
Figma · Magicpath · Claude
Product operations
AI-accelerated delivery
I use Claude and v0 to go from prototype to production faster, while keeping decisions grounded in real customer data.
AI · Product · Delivery
ValPay
Merchant onboarding
A self-serve onboarding redesign that supported a ~60% YoY rise in merchant go-lives, with go-live as fast as 48 hours.
Onboarding · CS · Ops
ValPay
Merchant Capital
Embedded funding with Parafin and Adyen, expanding merchant access to capital while creating new revenue opportunities across ValPay’s partner ecosystem.
$500M+ capacity · Embedded finance
Systems improvement
Quieter support queues
Workflows, documentation, and automation that took real pressure off customer-facing teams.
Automation · Process · Support
Lightspeed
Go-to-market operations
Connected sales, finance, and legal workflows so deals moved faster with fewer errors.
Salesforce · Compliance · Ops
Shopify
Merchant-first foundations
Thousands of merchant conversations and technical fixes. The foundation everything since is built on.
Shopify · HTML/CSS/JS · Zendesk
Non-profit
Canadian Artisan Dairy Alliance
Volunteer program work: reduced infrastructure costs, migrated to Google Workspace, built a new website, and implemented fundraising with Zeffy.
Google Workspace · Zeffy · TechSoup
Projects I’ve built.
A growing suite of internal and partner products, built from real operational problems into live tools.
Additional product work
Support desk first, program plans second.
2012 – 2016
The scenic route
Taught English in Beijing, au paired in the Netherlands, and ran live events for thousands. I learned to explain complicated things to every audience imaginable.
2016 – 2017
Tucows
Worked as a domain technician, building the technical foundation in domains, DNS, and customer problem-solving that led into commerce support.
2017 – 2019
Shopify
Started on the merchant support desk, helping thousands of businesses launch and grow online. Every design instinct I have traces back to those conversations.
2020 – 2024
Lightspeed
Three years of technical support for online stores, then go-to-market operations. I learned how commerce actually works, from the storefront code to the contract.
2024 – now
ValPayNow
Joined to lead customer success, moved into product design, and now pair design with program delivery: roadmaps, sprint planning, and release cycles across product, engineering, and compliance, plus an onboarding redesign that cut go-live to as fast as 48 hours.
Follow my journey · hover, tap, or focus a city
In a world running on AI, proof there’s a real person behind the work.
Montréal, year-round
Home base through every ice storm and construction season. Poutine opinions available on request. Strong ones.
My Husky/Shiba Inu mix arrived with a page-long disclaimer: anxiety meds, destructive, “trouble housebreaking.” Two weeks in the right home and he was off everything and thriving. Environment is everything: true for dogs, true for products.
Perpetual AI experiments
Always tinkering with Claude, v0, and whatever shipped this week. Half the experiments make it into my workflow. The other half make good stories.
Volunteer, raw milk division
I help the Canadian Artisan Dairy Alliance, champions of raw milk, with websites, infrastructure, and fundraising. Compensation occasionally arrives in dairy form. I do not object.
First aid, tested
Certified since my Air Cadet days, thanks to an instructor whose intensity I only understood twenty years later, the day the training kicked in. Take a course. Seriously.
Ten days of silence
One ten-day Vipassana retreat: no phone, no talking, no eye contact. Harder than any incident review, and the best perspective reset I know.
PROOF / LIVE