I’m a principal product designer who builds.
At PayPal I shipped in-store QR payments in five markets, and built two AI tools the design team adopted. At NBC News I designed the live election results: 140 million page views in 2024.
A working prototype gets a room to a decision faster than a deck, so I make one early and watch what people actually do with it.
I’ve run three design teams at NBC News, including its first GenAI team, with up to four designers at a time, and I still do the work myself.
I’m looking for a hands-on design manager role, or a principal product designer role on interesting work. Remote, hybrid, or on-site all work. With me, you get:
I build AI tools teams keep using, and teach them to build their own. At PayPal, over half did within a week.
I put working prototypes in front of people early. At PayPal, decisions came about five times faster.
When teams disagree, I weigh user research with business and engineering needs. Sometimes it tips the call.
I set direction and give designers real problems to own. At NBC News, a team new to games built six in five months.
My design systems outlive their projects. The one I built for NBC News in 2024 ran the 2026 elections too.
I design for accessibility from the start. At NBC News, user testing made our election maps easier to read.
He pours time, care, and thoughtfulness into the growth and development of his team. I had the privilege of working with him as he led design on the most successful digital election night experience in NBC News’ history.
His work on the 2024 Elections products contributed to record-breaking online traffic. Kriss is an exceptional product designer, and any team would benefit greatly from his experience, creativity, and leadership.
Kriss is a decisive and strategic thinker, a strong collaborator, and a natural leader. He consistently brought clarity and direction to complex projects, and his ability to navigate shifting priorities and team changes was invaluable.
My role at NBCUniversal was to build an enterprise accessibility program. Kriss was the first person at that table for our News group, and he stayed, and learned, and advocated, and led, and practiced, and shared, and modeled for his organization, and again, led.
For the past seven years at NBC News he has consistently proven himself to be an exceptional UX design lead and a trusted collaborator… His design insight and deep understanding of both user needs and technical constraints have been instrumental.
Kriss is a true team player. He pushed our junior designers to elevate their work, challenging them to explore alternatives and grow their creative thinking.
Kriss is a powerhouse builder… proactive in wielding AI to create detailed and robust products and prototypes that help align stakeholders, from design leadership to PMs to engineers.
Kriss built two internal AI tools on his own initiative… then ran pairing sessions to teach teammates to build their own. That combination, strong craft plus a drive to make the whole team faster, is rare.
I left Belgium at 20, and my first job was at Microsoft, on the Encarta encyclopedia. Making complicated things feel easy turned out to be what I do. I forage mushrooms with the Snohomish Mycology Society and grow my own, make sourdough and pasta, and cook far too much for far too many people. I love automating anything that eats time: for our honeymoon I planned everything with AI and built an app to take the friction out, so there was nothing to look up or decide. The honeymoon went fine too.
Email me at krisschaumont@gmail.com