About
Hey, I’m Cristian. I design digital products that make life simpler.
What I do
I’m a design leader focused on transforming complex systems into clear, trustworthy AI and digital product experiences.
Within product development, I aim for clarity through a deep understanding of user problems—balancing the expressive and functional sides of design to create experiences that deliver real value. My experiences have spanned from agency advertising, SaaS, B2B, DTC, e-commerce and new tech products from zero-to-one.
I thrive on collaborative teams in a strategic player-coach role, empowering peers to do their best work while guiding products from vision to execution. And when ambiguity or limited resources are part of the process, I’m comfortable charting a clear path forward on my own.
My Experience
NYC (Remote) · Jul 2021 - Oct 2025
Raven:
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I led the design for Wellfound’s first AI Agent job search tool, Raven, growing it from 0 to +10k users.
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Initial limited Beta release was release to 1600+ beta users and gained over 100 paid subscribers.
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Raven was created to reduce job seeking search time from 10-40 hours a week to just minutes.
WellfoundAI
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led design for WellfoundAI that became Wellfound's premier paid candidate AI sourcing product.
Stealth product lead:
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Functioned as product lead & designer for an innovation team discovering PMF for a stealth product.
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The beta led to notable company hires and informed future product releases.
Pheonix, AZ (Remote) · Nov 2018 - Jul 2021
Cart & Checkout Conversion Optimization:
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Led cart & checkout & purchase experience for T&N and the Serta Simmons house of brands.
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Direct efforts led to increasing average daily revenue of +$94K for Serta and +$37K for Beautyrest.
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Emphasis on user research, analytics and mobile conversion led to several CRO successes for T&N
Snooz App design Lead:
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Led full app design of the Snooz + Tuft & Needle white noise machine partnership and launch.
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Redesigned existing Snooz legacy app
Growth Promotion Design lead:
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Highest gross-revenue day of the year nearly doubling revenue performance YOY (Labor Day Sale).
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Led the 2nd and 3rd highest gross revenue days in the company's total history.
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Created replicable and proven top of funnel promotional processes that yielded consistent growth.
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Aided in mentorship of junior and intermediate designers.
Greenville, SC · Jun 2018 - Dec 2018
Designed an Automotive Predictive Marketing Platform that enables dealerships to predict their next automotive buyer.
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Conducted user research and competitive analysis to determine gaps in features and usability.
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Created and presented pitches up to an executive-level audience either by phone or face-to-face.
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Built and maintained segment-specific buyer personas based on industry research
Dallas, TX · Jan 2018 - Sep 2018
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Spearheaded design thinking and UX strategy for the company throughout all departments.
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Embedded a proven UX process for research, design and all agile development teams
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Led design and set the foundation for Transplace's 4 core transportation management system apps.
Greenville, SC · May 2012 - Jan 2018
Led UX design strategy and successful launches for agency projects and clients such as Michelin, Trijicon, North American Rescue, Junior Invitational Golf, BNSF, Harlem Globetrotters, and BFGoodrich.
Greenville, SC · Jan 2012 - June 2012
Part of a cross-functional indie studio team creating concept art, rendering art digitally, level design creation, game QA testing, and promotional materials for the apple iOS game, function.repair.
Kind Words
Amber Aultman
Director of Product Design. LTK
"I had the pleasure of working with Cristian Valdes for several years. As a lead product designer on my team, his UX strategy, visual design chops, business acumen, and entrepreneurial spirit made him an incredible asset! Cristian works at lightning speed with great attention to detail. I consistently depended on him to handle complex projects across multidisciplinary teams. His passion for product strategy and user advocacy is apparent in the high quality of his work. I can't recommend Cristian enough. I'm excited to see what he'll do next with his incredible passion and skill!"
Zach Halleck
Sr. Product Designer, GoFundMe
"I’ve had the privilege to work with Cristian on a variety of different projects. Aside from being an outstanding visual designer, Cristian brings a deeper way of design thinking to every project that he engages in. His thinking goes beyond just what is best for the user and solves the business goals all while building solutions that are technically achievable. His enthusiasm and motivation to work together to produce the best solution would be an asset to any team looking for someone to lead and encourage others to do their best work."
Michael Dee
Head of Integrations, Upwage
"I had the privilege of working with Cristian Valdes on both the Growth team at Wellfound (formerly AngelList) and an innovation team where we built a candidate-focused project from the ground up. Cristian is easily one of the best teammates I’ve ever worked with.
His customer focus is exceptional. He doesn’t just design beautiful experiences—he builds thoughtful, effective solutions by deeply understanding user problems. His empathy consistently shaped our direction in a meaningful way.
Cristian’s work ethic is equally impressive. He shows up with drive, consistency, and a high bar for quality that elevates everyone around him. His energy and commitment helped push the project forward, especially during tough moments.
What sets Cristian apart most is his versatility. He’s a stellar designer who steps into leadership when it counts. When our team hit a point of ambiguity, Cristian led a full-scale customer research project that gave us clear, differentiated insight and reshaped our product strategy.
Cristian is a rare blend of creative talent, strategic thinking, and leadership. I’d work with him again in a heartbeat."
Fernando Vittes
Product Manager, Transplace (now Uber Freight)
"I worked with Cristian as a Product Manager at Transplace. As part of a major product improvement project we ventured into hiring a UX expert.
Cristian open our eyes to the science and processes behind UX design. There is a world more to UX design, than simply creating screen mock ups. He spent time educating the team as well as the rest of the stake holders. Cristian brought a holistic UX design approach as well as countless ideas to improve the user experience and bring uniformity to our application modules.
Cristian is very methodical and detail oriented, he has excellent communication skills and is able to understand and map out complicated business processes into proper flows of screens that illustrate the "to be" user experience. Cristian is able to find the balance between a limited budget with a tight timeline and still deliver excellent quality work. I highly recommend Cristian to any enterprise looking to improve their software application's user experience."
Devin Smith
CEO, Podium Studios
"I had the privilege of hiring Cristian directly out of college into my team and watched him pick up web design quickly. He went from having little training in web design to consistently producing the best interactive visual design on the team while continuing to learn the deeper nuance of UX design. I wish Cristian nothing but continued success and growth."
Ramon Nieves
Co-founder, UniComm Media Group
"I had the great opportunity to work with Cristian on several projects, and he was professional every step of the way. He listened to every detail and captured the vision from the very beginning. He asked the right questions and was highly accommodating to our budget and project needs. I would recommend Cristian for any project."
Life things
Greenville, SC
I live with my wife and our two dogs, Kaine (a blue nose pitbull) and Kovu (a black Pomeranian) in Greenville, SC.
Outside of design, my wife and I stay active together, with a shared love for travel—so much so that she started her own travel agency, which fuels my photography hobby. Capturing nature and the people around us sparks my creativity. I’m also a motorsports enthusiast, having participated in events like the Baja 1000. Fitness and health have become increasingly important to me, and I’ve maintained a routine while also starting a small motivational following called RSLV (Resolve).
