Keeping craft close
I lead best as a player-coach: hands in the work, earning trust, empowering the people I'm growing. Together we set the bar and hold quality.
Product Design Leadership
Chris Lorensson
Design leader, 25 years — products and teams built on trust
I've led product design across nonprofit, fintech, entertainment, edtech, and government — from UNICEF to financial platforms — always with people at the center. The result is an operating culture of honesty and trust, where design does its best work.
- 25+ years in product design
- Teams up to 5 direct, 8 indirect
- Entertainment, EdTech, SaaS, FinTech & Gov
- TIME Best Invention & Addy Award winner
How I lead
Leadership approach
A natural mentor
I've mentored designers publicly and for free for over fifteen years, well beyond any one employer. Growing people is what I do first — it's never delegated.
AI is a valuable tool
I use AI daily and encourage every tool that helps. It moves too fast for any one expert, so we learn from each other — and adopt it where it earns its place.
Outcomes are the deliverable
Design earns its seat by what it delivers — to the people using the product and the business behind it. I keep the team pointed at that outcome, so craft and process serve a real result instead of becoming the goal.
Honest, open culture
I lead with an honest, kind culture where openness is table stakes, where we all grow together. My teams learn from each other with real feedback within real relationships. Emotional health & safety are foundational to achieving the best work.
Selected
Featured work
TIGER 21
Digital Design Director (current)
Sole design leader for the digital platform serving an ultra-high-net-worth member network. I own product design end to end — every feature in the app — and have shaped or solely ideated the product strategy and human-centered direction behind it. Built the design function from the ground up in a flat, fast-moving org.
UNICEF Kid Power
Head of UX Design, Kid Power
A wearable-and-app program that turned kids' physical activity into life-saving therapeutic food for severely malnourished children. I led the user experience and interface design across the ecosystem of hardware and software. Named a TIME Best Invention of the Year.
Reverse-chronological
Career
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–Present
Design Director
TIGER 21
Leading design for digital properties.
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Founder & Principal Designer
Lorensson Ltd / wonderhouse
Independent human-centered design practice.
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UX Lead
State of California
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Principal Product Designer
eHealth
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Senior UX Designer
7Summits
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Senior UX Architect
Appirio
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Head of UX Design, Kid Power
UNICEF USA
Led UX for a program named a TIME Best Invention.
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Senior Vice President of Design
ELEVATION Consulting
Executive design partner; led UX, UI, and front-end.
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UX & Visual Design Lead
Ascentric
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UX Lead
Fasthosts Internet
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UX/UI/IX Designer & Consultant
Flourish Direct Marketing
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Creative Director
cxpartners
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Creative Director
The DuBois Agency
2004 Addy Award, best website design.
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–
Creative Director
Hautlab Music Group
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Creative Director
California Charter Academy
The human
About
Twenty-five years in, what I care about hasn't changed: design that treats people as the whole point. I've led that work across nonprofit, fintech, edtech, government, and my own studios, which has made me a practical, range-tested leader rather than a specialist in any single playbook. I'm based in Fort Collins, Colorado, currently leading design at TIGER 21.