About Amanda Swee
Every essay on this blog is written first-hand by Amanda — founder of Designing Kairos — from the workshops she runs in Singapore.
Founder, Designing Kairos
Amanda is a facilitator and experience designer who builds the conditions for people to change. A Distinction graduate in Industrial Design (Honours) from the National University of Singapore and an Art Elective Programme Scholar, she is the founder of Designing Kairos and a LUMA-certified practitioner. Her work lives at the intersection of design, research and human behaviour.
Most recently Lead UX Designer at an enterprise compliance platform, she led full product overhauls and co-creation work with clients, earning recognition as Brand Ambassador (2022, 2024) and Woman of the Year (2023), and receiving the SG Good Design Award (2022). She is a published co-author on design innovation methodology, and designs the emotional architecture of every Designing Kairos workshop.
Ryan Wong — Co-facilitator
Ryan came through a strong academic background and legal track — Raffles Institution, NUS Law, then honed his craft as a practicing lawyer across Corporate M&A, Litigation, Corporate Advisory Work, and Conveyancing. Legal practice has trained Ryan to stay calm and collected under pressure and complexity, to ask the hard questions when necessary, and it has armed him with the ability to turn ambiguity into a clear path forward.
Ryan is now the founder of Ladder of Life, an AI consultancy and Learning Studio. He is also a Performance Coach, because he knows what it takes to perform at the top under real pressure and real stakes, and how to win, excel and succeed. In the room, he brings with him trained, discerning ears and sound advocacy skills to gently push participants to surface truths about themselves which may have been buried for years under negative and limiting beliefs and subdued from various forms of conditioning.
“The real breakthrough usually comes after the first answer — when we stop performing and start telling the truth.”