Ryan Smith

Ryan Smith is a product leader, builder, and educator focused on helping teams turn AI into working systems.

He is the co-author of 021:Events’ Agentic AI curriculum, where he translates complex AI capabilities into practical workflows that product teams can design, build, and ship. His work focuses on closing the gap between product discovery and real-world execution in an AI-native environment.

Ryan brings deep product leadership experience across high-performance technology companies, including Shopify, where he worked on products at scale in one of the most demanding commerce ecosystems in the world. He has led product initiatives from early discovery through validated delivery, consistently operating at the intersection of customer insight, technical execution, and business impact.

He is the creator of Skillsmith, an agent-native skill-building platform built using the same methodology taught in 021:Events workshops. It serves as a working proof that agentic workflows, when properly designed, can move from concept to production quickly and reliably.

Ryan has delivered agentic AI workshops for product and engineering teams at organizations including Boeing and Asana, and has led fractional product engagements at companies like Cloudinary, where he helped take their Shopify ecosystem strategy from discovery through validated product direction.

His approach is grounded in first principles and experimentation. With an MBA from the University of British Columbia and a physics degree from the University of Victoria, he brings a structured, analytical mindset to complex problems, while remaining deeply hands-on in execution.

Ryan currently teaches product discovery at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and leads workshop delivery for 021:Events across North America.