Chris is the Vice President and Head of Design at Northwestern Mutual Insurance where his team of product designers, content strategists, and user experience researchers imagine and build the tools to help clients grow and protect their financial legacy. In his first year at NM he’s scaled the team from about 70 to 120 leaders and practitioners, introduced experimentation and systems thinking into the product development process, and has led how design impacts customer journeys to uncover the moments that matter to the business and user.
He’s the author of Liftoff: Practical Design Leadership to Elevate Your Organization, Your Team, and You (Rosenfeld Media 2020 with Russ Unger), and has spoken on design-centered themes such as innovation, systems thinking, unlocking the value of design and more across 4 continents.
Prior to joining Northwestern Mutual, Chris led and scaled design teams at Facebook/Meta, InVision, and Nasdaq. While at InVision, he co-authored the seminal report The New Design Frontier that explored design maturity across thousands of companies and shaped how organizations can improve design and product development value and delivery.
Past Talks
9 October 2024
When you are a large enterprise with over 30k employees, there are a lot of challenges that come when trying to change a mature organization that has immature product delivery practices. In this session Chris will share the work it takes to shift from a business-led approach, to a more modern product development practice. He'll share the challenges and successes his team faces and how they know when they’re doing it right, including;
- Setting the foundations of how teams need to be sized and structured to not only survive, but thrive
- Road Clarity: identifying what skills are necessary for growth
- How designers and engineers are working together; then, now and in future
16 May 2024
When you are a large enterprise with over 30k employees, there are a lot of challenges that come when trying to change a mature organization that has immature product delivery practices. In this session Chris will share the work it takes to shift from a business-led approach, to a more modern product development practice. He'll share the challenges and successes his team faces and how they know when they’re doing it right, including;
- Setting the foundations of how teams need to be sized and structured to not only survive, but thrive
- Road Clarity: identifying what skills are necessary for growth
- How designers and engineers are working together; then, now and in future
