USAW
A voice system—not another blank AI text box.
USAW turns how a person or brand communicates into a structured, reusable identity, then uses that identity to write consistently across audiences and formats.
Visit USAWEnterprise AI enablement · Product builder
I build systems for work that needs human judgment.
I’m Russ Vance. I work like a forward-deployed engineer inside the enterprise: start with the problem, help people use AI confidently, and build the workflows and applications that make sales, marketing, communications, and design work better.
PRODUCT FIELD / 2026
How the work moves
- 01Find the frictionWhere quality, time, or confidence breaks down.
- 02Shape the interventionTeach, enable, automate—or combine all three.
- 03Ship the whole loopInterface, intelligence, review, and operations.
- 04Learn in the workUse real behaviour to make the system better.
PROBLEM FIRST
[ Selected work · 01—07 ]
Products built around a point of view.
Each one starts with a specific friction—not a model looking for somewhere to land.
Protagons
Portable character identity for any AI model.
An open standard that replaces vague persona prompts with structured character files: 28 linguistic dimensions, 287 fields, and a public library of 865+ profiles.
Visit Protagons
Sales Practice
A rehearsal room for conversations that matter.
Realistic AI buyer personas for browser and phone practice, with live coaching, transcripts, and competency scorecards that turn every attempt into a learning loop.
View Sales Practice
PDF Hound
PDF accessibility, finally explained like a product.
A self-serve audit and repair workflow that makes hidden document barriers visible in plain language, shows the reading sequence, prices the work upfront, and keeps review in the customer’s hands.
Visit PDF Hound
You Suck at Writing
Fourteen editorial perspectives. One useful verdict.
A productized critique service that runs 14 AI specialists in parallel, then synthesizes their evidence into a practical editorial report in about three minutes. Users choose professional Editorial Mode or a sharper Roast Mode—each report is $5, with no subscription.
Visit You Suck at Writing
Sitular
Build a room of specialists around the problem.
A configurable swarm workspace where specialist agents collaborate in user-directed or autonomous mode, grounded in shared files, with reusable task templates and live token and cost visibility.
Contact me for a demo
Thought Stream
From stream of consciousness to grounded point of view.
A voice-enabled writing flow that researches a raw narrative, synthesizes it into a thought-leadership draft, and links claims to fresh, verifiable sources.
Contact me for a demo[ Enterprise AI · 08 ]
Put AI where the work happens.
Embedded enablement, education, and application building for teams solving real business problems.
AI enablement · Product delivery · Design systems
A forward-deployed builder for enterprise AI.
At CAAT, I start with the business problem—not the model. I work alongside teams in sales enablement, marketing, communications, and design to identify where AI can improve quality, remove friction, or deliver a better service sooner. Then I teach, enable, or build—whatever moves the work forward.
PUBLIC WORKSTREAM
CAAT Design System
One visible part of that work: accessible foundations, reusable components, and agent-readable guidance that give people and AI-assisted workflows the same shared language for quality.
41Components
3Templates
16Colour tokens
14Contract sections
01
Teach the practice
Practical, approachable AI education—including how employees can use ChatGPT with Excel and in everyday knowledge work.
02
Enable the builders
Help employees create, evaluate, and adopt custom GPTs for their own workflows—not just consume tools built somewhere else.
03
Build where it matters
Develop custom applications for sales enablement, communications, and the design practice, with quality and human review built in.
THE OPERATING QUESTION“Can AI make this better, improve the quality, or help us provide the service sooner?”
How I work
Start with the problem, not the prompt.
AI is useful when it improves an outcome—not when it merely adds another tool.
- 01
Find the real friction
Listen for where people improvise, repeat themselves, or lose confidence.
- 02
Ask where AI helps
Look for a real gain in quality, speed, confidence, capacity, or service.
- 03
Teach, enable, or build
Choose the lightest intervention that lets the team do better work sustainably.
- 04
Ship the whole loop
Connect interface, intelligence, human review, operations, and feedback.
About Russ
I’m interested in AI when it becomes a better way to do the work—not a better way to demo the model.
I’m a Toronto-based digital experience leader, AI enablement champion, and hands-on product builder. I came to engineering through design, content, product, and innovation—not through a traditional computer-science path.
Over the last three years, my work has become increasingly engineering-led. I operate like a forward-deployed engineer: embedded with the people doing the work, translating business friction into something teachable, configurable, or buildable. At CAAT, that currently means AI-enabled sales and marketing work in the pension industry—not engineering pension systems.
Enterprise AI enablementAI educationCustom GPT systems
Rapid application developmentSales enablementMarketing & communications
Product strategyDesign systems
[ Career journey ]
Built from the interface up.
More than two decades moving from making digital experiences to shaping the systems, products, and teams behind them.
2024Now
CAAT Pension Plan
Manager, Pension Solutions Digital Experience
Progressed from Team Lead, Digital Marketing to Senior Digital Experience Specialist and now Manager—championing practical AI adoption, building custom applications, and advancing sales enablement, marketing, communications, and design practice.
- Digital experience
- Human-centered AI
- Design systems
20132023
OMERS
From communications to innovation and product ownership.
A decade spanning Digital Communications Specialist, Design Lead for Innovation, and Product Owner for Pension Products & Technology—connecting content, service design, accessibility, and platform delivery.
- Product ownership
- Service design
- WCAG
20022012
Digital foundations
Designer, developer, and producer.
Started hands-on in digital design and web development, then grew into digital production roles across Toronto and New York. That maker’s perspective still shapes how I lead and build today.
- Digital design
- Web development
- Production
Have a difficult problem?
Let’s make it useful.
I’m interested in enterprise problems where AI might improve quality, accelerate service, or give a team new capacity—and where someone needs to turn that possibility into practice.
Start a conversation