Curriculum vitae

Colleagues and friends call me Christian; you can do the same.

Peers describe me as an effective and caring design leader with broad expertise in technology, systems architecture, research, product, and business strategy. I gravitate toward intractable problems, and if there's one thing I can say I've specialized in over the years, it's navigating complex situations.

I've partnered with organizations of all sizes, including government, non-government, enterprise, and startup-stage teams. Focus areas have included privacy, commerce, civic technology, product, brand, marketing, advertising, data strategy, artificial intelligence readiness, and more.

A room in a carriage house apartment with large windows. In the room there is a wooden table, a white desk, an office chair, a bookshelf, and a couch. Outside there is snow nestled on a stand of trees visible through the window. — A snowy January morning at my home office space in Portland, Maine.

I value equitable outcomes, sustainability, and inclusion. I embrace transcontextuality and dance with systems. By the by, I’ve made a career of understanding situations, framing problems, identifying opportunities, and steering organizations to successful outcomes.

"The opposite of complexity is not simplicity. It's reductionism."
—Nora Bateson

My practice centers facilitation and leadership methods rooted in interdisciplinary fields such as strategy, management science, behavioral sciences (as well as “other” intertwingled formal, natural, and social sciences), systems theory, complex systems, design research, human-computer interaction, information architecture, product design, and cybernetics.

I gather context quickly and excel at identifying and wrangling nth-order considerations as well as minute particulars. I’m passionate, opinionated, visionary, and a ready listener, learner, and collaborator.

Abbreviated timeline

Over the years, I've led several high-stakes initiatives and transformations involving technology, enablement, and culture. All are learning experiences I think of fondly.

Most recently, after completing a few stints on in-house enterprise product teams, I transitioned back to consulting and fractional organizational leadership.

This digital résumé summarizes the course of my career thus far.

2025 - Now

Fractional principal strategist at a stealth startup and consultant-for-hire (feel free to contact me to talk shop).

2024 - 2025

Member of Technical Staff and Senior User Experience Designer at Pure Storage.

2022 - 2024

Product and systems design at Lightspeed.

* Role eliminated by corporate restructure (yes, that's two layoffs in a row 😅).

2022

Product and content design at Shopify.

* Role eliminated by corporate restructure.

2019 - 2022

Design, product, and operations strategy at Anchour.

2016 - 2019

Led UX and transformation strategy for enterprise and government organizations on behalf of Coria; first as a contractor ('16), then as staff ('17-'19).

Product, technology, data governance, and AI readiness strategy.
Solution architecture, front-end engineering, and digital accessibility.

2014 - 2016

Pivoted Brilvan into a design lab called Essvan.

Provided product design and software development consulting services to various agencies and product organizations.
Designed and developed web software products for construction and materials companies.

2010 - 2013

Started a small agency (then called Brilvan) to provide web software design and development services focused on web standards and accessibility guidelines.

While starting Brilvan, I worked in sales and customer service consulting for Tandy, then TDS. Both roles dealt with network configuration and mobile device management.

2007 - 2009

Founding designer and full-stack developer at a boutique web software studio called CreativeMeta.

Say hi

Interested in talking shop? Learn more about me or email [email protected].