I’m Kriss. 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 lead design teams and help turn them into builders. A working prototype gets a room to a decision faster than a deck, so we make one early, put it in front of people, and see what they actually do with it. I keep my own hands in the work, whether it’s starting the design system or building the tools that turn days of work into minutes.
I led three design teams at NBC News: Elections, which built the live results for the 2024 presidential election, plus Breaking & Live and the first GenAI team, which built the games. Two days above 30 million daily unique visitors, and the highest rated results experience against seven direct competitors. Then at PayPal I designed in-store QR payments end to end and built two internal AI tools.
I’m looking for a design manager, lead or director role where I set direction and stay close to the people building it. Remote, hybrid, or on-site all work. Here’s what I bring:
Led four designers through sixteen months of elections. Three more had never vibe coded and now prototype.
The NBC election desk fought the cartogram. Prototyped and tested with users, it shipped beside the map.
Decisions came about five times faster when stakeholders could try PayPal’s QR checkout on their own phones.
Designed NBC News’ first AI features. At PayPal, over half the twelve people I paired with built their own tool.
Reusable systems across web, mobile and TV. The elections library carried 683 pages and outlived its cycle.
NBC’s maps were not accessible. We tested with users with disabilities and shipped zoom and adaptive legends.
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.
Kriss is an incredible UX Design leader… 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 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