Sofia Ryan never imagined herself as a leader. Leadership, she admits, was something she avoided – until she discovered that innovation doesn’t stumble because of a shortage of ideas, but because it’s missing the right kind of leadership.
Why Innovation Fails
“You can hire the best of the best, put them in a room, and still get nothing,” Sofia says. “Innovation breaks when leaders don’t understand the craft, when they don’t see people’s strengths, or when they can’t create a space for collaboration.”
That philosophy now guides her work as vice president of product at Frontify, the brand management platform. Her role spans design, user research, R&D, product management, and marketing, all disciplines that are often kept in silos at large companies. But for Sofia, bringing them together is essential for the kind of fast, complex innovation today’s world demands.
Leadership as Orchestration
For Sofia, leadership isn’t about who has the most authority, it is about orchestration. “It's really about creating a space for different opinions but also knowing when to cut through, so it doesn't become an endless discussion. You need to say, 'Let's try this' – always keeping things lean and experimental.”
Innovation, she reckons, is powered by play – a lesson learned from her children. “What happens when I bend this or push this, and what reaction will I get from my sister if I poked her,” Sofia shares. The problem though is that companies are so geared towards productivity, they forget to give time, space and resources to play.
“True play is where we get creative, where we can even get close to innovation and where we can experiment, test out things and see what happens,” she says. “Will it break or will it lead to something useful? Maybe, maybe not, but the experiment still was worth it.”
From Science to Branding
Her path into leadership began not in software, but science. During her PhD, she worked with the International Red Cross on prosthetic legs. Same job, very different tools. “If you put something out into the world, we think it solves a functional need, but it does so much more. The very fact that you created it means it has implications for a person, for community, a society, and also for the planet.”
At Frontify, she’s responsible for the tech company’s suite of branding products, everything from digital asset management to brand guidelines, and workflow integrations, the lot. “Branding takes a village,” Sofia says.
“You have so many people in the back. You have the designers, the creatives, the marketers, the strategies, the developers. They might sit in different geographical locations. Then there's always so many companies involved, there are tons of agencies, freelancers, third parties – and all of this needs to come together in this very orchestrated mix,” she says.
AI, Storytelling, and Culture
It’s a headache for many companies and has a negative impact on brand strategy. Frontify’s pitch is a centralized platform where organizations can create, store, and manage their brand assets, from logos and design systems to marketing materials and campaigns. The aim is to eliminate duplication, reduce inconsistencies, and help brands stay coherent everywhere.
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The products she has been working on aim to make Frontify the home for everything brand. The place where a brand’s “essence and DNA lives and is governed”.
Naturally, AI is set to take centre stage in the company’s evolution. But Sofia counters this by saying that brands aren’t asking for AI to be thrown “mindlessly” into the mix. They want to use AI to make the right, and smarter choices.
“It's important [with AI] to use insights and data, not just as here you go here's tons of insights and data. But how can we translate that into actionable insights and guidance that shows up where you need it when you need it – that's way more complex, but also way more fun to work with.”
At its core, branding is about storytelling. It shapes meaning, values, and identities. But that power only works when stories are grounded in culture – when they reflect it, tap into it, and even shape it.
For Sofia, this responsibility grows even more urgent in the age of AI. The data and models that power AI are often rooted in Western perspectives and English-language sources. That means entire stories, voices, and cultures risk being left out. It’s a challenge that requires real people: using AI to amplify choices thoughtfully, with strategic intent, and with ethical, intentional awareness.
“This is where we as humans need to step up more than ever, so that yes, we use AI, but we really amplify it with human intent, strategic intent, but also ethical, intentional awareness,” she adds.
“With AI, you realize no one is a master. We're all learning, even the most AI savvy of us, because things just happen so fast.”
Signals and Inspiration
Sofia’s academic background means that she finds most of her signals from “pure academic” research. Anthropic is on the top of the list for her when it comes to keeping up with the AI conversation. “What's so special with Anthropic is that a huge portion of the research looks into safety and how to be mindful of societal impact. It doesn't come across as something it just says, but also something it really does,” she says. The company behind Claude is, in her view, at the forefront of tech innovation.
Sofia also frequents industry and academic conferences that have little to do with her day job. She references a recent event where she heard the art director of Muji, Kenya Hara, speak about the concept of emptiness in Japanese culture. The idea is to create emptiness and you make space for something new to enter. This then gives the emptiness meaning. That talk stuck. “I started thinking about what we are doing with AI. It is full of patterns and we are trying to put stuff in there immediately, so there’s never any empty space.”
So, what’s the takeaway? Leadership is less about command and control, and more about orchestrating chaos and turning it into creativity. It is about making room for play, culture, and sometimes, leaving a little space for the unknown. As AI redefines the rules, Sofia Ryan’s approach reminds us that the future belongs to those who can lead with both curiosity and conscience.
