Recommendations

Manager    Principal Lead UX Designer at Akamai

I had the distinct privilege of working with Chris for almost five years at Akamai, during which time we worked together on some deeply complex and interesting projects. My team was able to make huge strides on some very important projects through his ability to collaborate with product, engineering, and research, and then innovate and present his resulting interface solutions in a compelling enough way that there was little debate.

Chris is naturally a master of the designer’s toolbox and all the core principles of UX design and research, as befits a Principal-level practitioner. His true gifts, however, are his ability to calmly assess and work within even the most difficult projects and situations, bringing order to sometimes chaotic teams; his thorough and methodical process of ideating, iterating, and presenting his very creative design solutions; his ability to work easily with just about every colleague we’ve shared, forging solid personal relationships as well as good working relationships; his strong EQ, balanced ego, and well-developed soft skills, which allow him a high degree of empathy and insight into users; his capacity for mentoring and managing up and outwards, influencing even without authority, and making everyone look good through his efforts. He is also just a straight-up good and kind human: creative, thoughtful, interesting, and an all around wonderful person to have as a friend as well as a colleague.

I could go on, but if you are still reading at this point I hope you are already sold on Chris as a consummate UX professional. Without hesitation I give him my highest recommendation.

Manager   Principal Lead UX Designer at Akamai

Chris Hansen is an excellent user experience designer, manager and extensively skilled.

I have had the privilege to work with Chris for over 6-years. I was impressed by his diverse skill set in Enterprise software at Siemens and Bose, an ad agency model at Staples, and his overall User Centered Design skills. He takes on challenges that seem overwhelming and complex and creates clear and easy to use solutions.

During the time I worked with Chris he performed as an individual contributor, peer and manager. He rose to every new opportunity and excelled. He led the build out of a design system and components, Simplified design patterns, and worked to prioritize the development schedule. He uses a data-driven approach to create innovative solutions with a measurable outcome. As a manager he concentrated on developing his direct reports as well as providing visibility to their work.

Chris has a fantastic combination of leadership, design-thinking, technical expertise, and communication skills that will make him an asset to any design organization.

Colleague    Principal UX Designer at Akamai

While I have been fortunate enough to report to some great managers, Chris has been truly been one of the best. One of Chris’s key talents is to bring out the finest in his team. He is consistently a great listener and highly effective coach and does this by instilling confidence. He has an innate ability to dissect a problem and produce strategies to solve the problem, considering what is best, not only for me as his report, but also what is best for the project itself. Chris also trusts my decisions and will support me in trying new and different ideas. He encourages me to be more creative and to innovate. He does not micromanage which allows me to focus on my strengths. 

Chris understands the challenges UX teams face and has facilitated a great working relationship between UX, product teams and development. He understands the importance of user research, and a customer first approach. 

His interactions with upper management have helped us to gain traction and respect throughout the company. He has facilitated a design thinking process that is helping us move our customers across a full product journey. 

Colleague    Senior UX Designer II at Akamai

I had the pleasure of working with Chris for 5 years on the Central UX team at Akamai. During that time, he excelled and rose through the ranks from individual contributor/peer, and then manager. 

Chris proved very quickly that he is a born leader and mentor, a consummate UX design professional with many strengths. For starters, he is well-versed in user-centered design principles and its various methodologies. Chris has an innate talent at breaking down and defining the problem, or task at hand, for internal stakeholders as well as leadership, so everyone clearly understands the issues, needs, challenges, etc. as well as the value that UX, or he or his team, is bringing to the table.

Chris is also technically adept, hard-working, and highly skilled at tackling complex, enterprise UX design challenges and devising simplified solutions that are user centered and backed by research and data. He is accustomed to and comfortable working in cycles - sketching, building prototypes, testing, learning, iterating and validating with users his concepts or solutions.

He is an excellent listener and strong communicator with a calm demeanor, committed to collaborating cross-functionally and forging great working relationships between UX (design, research, and tech writing) and engineering and product.

Though I was never managed by Chris directly, I witnessed firsthand how he treated his reports - fairly, with respect and dignity, and always made sure to listen, guide, and encourage them without being over-bearing. 

Most importantly, Chris is a genuinely nice person and colleague who would be an asset to any team.

Colleague    Principal Lead UX Designer at Akamai

I had the pleasure of working with Chris at Akamai. He’s a dedicated design leader that showed an impressive mix of technical and design skills. Chris has an exceptional ability to guide and inspire designers, encouraging them to think more holistically about their UX decisions while delivering in a complex enterprise environment. With his guidance, the team consistently delivered excellent work that exceeded stakeholder and user expectations. I highly recommend Chris for any UX design or leadership role.

Direct Report    Principal UX Designer at Akamai

Throughout our time working together, Chris consistently demonstrated remarkable leadership and creative direction. He worked with a strong commitment to fostering a collaborative and positive work environment for everyone on his team. He always encouraged open dialogue, made space for diverse opinions, and made an atmosphere where people felt comfortable to talk. Chris is incredibly talented and has a keen eye for design and the user experience. His attention to detail in both his work and his team makes him an incredible asset!

Direct Report    Senior UX Designer at Akamai

Chris is a great supervisor. One of the best. He is always fair. He makes sure to recognize and credit someone’s work. He is very candid and upfront about good things, but he also finds a nice way to point out the things that can be improved. He helps the others to improve their work and be their best selves. Chris is very thorough. When he is on a mission, he weighs in all possibilities, and finds the best way to go forward. Chris is very supportive and always looking out how to help his employees, peers, and friends. I will truly miss workin  with him.

Manager    UX Design Leader at Staples

Working with Chris I found him as a person with great proficiency and deep wisdom of business solutions. Chris did not let me down a single time. Very good and forward thinking User Experience Designer with boundless energy. Reliable UXD who can take on even the most challenging projects and maintain a great sense of humor even during the most trying of times. Self motivated, broad-minded and open minded. Proactive User Experience Designer, a person you can trust when you want to be sure that important tasks will be completed in a systematic and precise way. He is an asset to any company.

Manager    Senior UX Design Manager at Bose 

Chris is a hard working Sr Interaction Designer. He is diligent and took a lot of initiative to drive design decisions and design closure. Chris is a strong collaborator with both Product Marketing and Software Engineering. This makes him an excellent interaction designer. He has strong design skills on his own, but the fact that he works so well with his peer organizations makes him a holistic user experience professional and very valuable. Chris was a great addition to my team and a very good contributor. He has a great passion for user experience, and awesome experience in a wide variety of design spaces- hardware UE, software UE, Mobile UE, device focused UE, and ecosystem UE. Chris is easy going, nice and just an all around good guy to work with!I highly recommend Chris to any team!