Chris Alvarez

Product Design & Strategy

Product design • Strategy • Fractional leadership

Senior product designfor messy problems.

I help teams turn ambiguous 0→1 bets, tangled existing products, and consequential AI decisions into clear direction and work they can ship.

Available for focused projects or as an embedded fractional partner.

0→1 • PRODUCT RENOVATION • AI

Trusted by product teams at

Penton

SeaWorld

Sovos

Pivotal

Google

CPS Energy

SendGrid

Medtronic

Derive

Penton

SeaWorld

Sovos

Pivotal

Google

CPS Energy

SendGrid

Medtronic

Derive

Selected work

The decision is often the real deliverable.

A small selection spanning enterprise strategy, product renovation, applied AI, and design leadership. Additional detail is available on request.

Sovos Filing Center interface and product portfolio strategy artifacts

Sovos · Enterprise product strategy

Creating coherent direction across a fragmented regulatory portfolio

+20%NPS and revenue

The problem

Acquisitions had left an $80M regulatory portfolio with fragmented products, tech stacks, and customer experiences. Later, two SMB eCommerce products also needed significant modernization.

What I did

I used customer research to set direction across AI-assisted tax categorization, enterprise onboarding, and tax filing, then led strategy and modernization for two eCommerce products in a $20M portfolio.

“The job was larger than redesigning workflows. It required creating coherence across regulatory complexity, legacy technology, distinct organizational histories, and immediate commercial needs.”

The result

Moved multiple initiatives from ambiguity into delivery. The eCommerce tax-filing redesign increased NPS and revenue by 20%; a redesigned tax-ID verification service increased revenue by 15%.

Naviam mobile product redesign showing field workflows, inventory management, and revised application structure

Naviam · Product renovation

Rebuilding a decade-old mobile product around the work

2 modulesone scalable system

The problem

After a decade in market, Naviam's flagship IBM Maximo mobile application had accumulated complex workflows and navigation. Distinct work-order and inventory needs were competing inside the same structure.

What I did

I audited and documented the product, reworked key workflows and information architecture, separated major modules by user need, created a scalable Material Design 3 system, and built advanced prototypes.

“This was a high-visibility redesign tied to a fixed launch timeline and commercial goals. The hard part was simplifying a mature product without losing the capabilities existing customers depended on.”

The result

Reduced persistent navigation and app chrome by roughly 50%, creating substantially more room for the work itself and leaving the team with a scalable system and high-fidelity interaction model for development.

AI-powered adaptive learning prototype shown as an interactive knowledge graph

Education client · Confidential · Applied AI

Turning an AI assessment risk into a better way to learn

POC → producttestable direction

The problem

Generative AI created a new risk for a training platform serving highly regulated industries: learners could produce the right answers without actually demonstrating understanding.

What I did

I helped reframe the risk as a product opportunity, turned an early developer POC into a working LLM-powered experience, and refined it with researchers, subject-matter experts, and customers.

“This was not simply an AI feature. The product had to teach and engage more effectively while creating credible evidence that a learner had achieved the intended outcome.”

The result

Turned an abstract strategic bet into a tangible, testable product direction with positive early feedback from stakeholders, SMEs, and customers.

Derive product work spanning trip analysis, calibration data visualization, performance telemetry, and vehicle hardware

Derive Systems · Product and design leadership

Modernizing a legacy product while building design into the company

Design → strategyorganizational influence

The problem

Derive needed to modernize a complex legacy product while building a stronger design capability across the organization.

What I did

I led a major redesign of its Windows application—including advanced data visualization and hardware connectivity—while building the team, introducing research, and establishing collaborative product practices.

“I joined to improve the product experience and ended up helping shift design from downstream execution toward influencing product direction, internal processes, and company strategy.”

The result

Left Derive with a redesigned product direction, stronger design practices, a growing design capability, and broader executive involvement of design in company decisions.

What I offer

Senior product expertise, applied to your hardest strategic problems.

Build something new

Turn ambiguity into a product.

For 0→1 products, new workflows, major features, and early concepts that need a shape before a team can confidently build them.

Product definition
Core journeys and prototypes
Scope and delivery sequence

Fix what's not working

Untangle the product you've already got.

For mature products carrying UX debt, difficult workflows, accumulated complexity, or teams circling the same problems.

Workflow and system diagnosis
Product renovation strategy
Hands-on redesign

Figure out AI

Put AI where it actually improves the product.

For teams deciding where AI belongs, how much autonomy it should have, and how the product should behave when the model is uncertain or wrong.

Opportunity framing
Control, failure, and recovery
Prototypes and evaluation

How I work

Senior judgment, hands-on delivery.

I move between strategy and execution because the hardest product problems rarely respect the boundary between them.

I surface the real decisions early

Excitement around new ideas can obscure harder questions about the customer, the business, and what the product should become. I surface those questions early.

I work in the room with your team

I stay close to product and engineering, share work before it feels finished, and use prototypes to make difficult conversations concrete.

I leave your team with clear direction

The outcome of my work is decision clarity, a stronger product direction, and work the team can carry forward.

How we'll work together

The way we work should fit the problem.

Sometimes the right answer is an intense, bounded piece of work. Sometimes it is a senior partner who can stay close to the decisions as they unfold.

Focused project

When a defined problem needs concentrated senior attention.

Best when there is a product decision, workflow, concept, or renovation that needs to move from ambiguity to a concrete direction.

Clear problem and outcome
Hands-on design and prototyping
A defined arc and decision point
Artifacts your team can carry forward

Fractional partnerEmbedded

Senior continuity from someone who's done the work.

Best when product and design decisions keep arriving, but the work doesn't require—or isn't ready for—another full-time hire.

Embedded product and design leadership
Critique, mentoring, and decision support
Ongoing hands-on contribution
A stronger quality bar across the team

Latest thinking

Notes from the messy middle

Senior enough to see the system. Hands-on enough to change it.

I’ve spent two decades working across product design, UX, strategy, product management, and design leadership—including roles as UX Director at Derive Systems, Staff UX Designer at Pivotal Labs, and Lead Product Manager and UX Architect at Sovos.

That range lets me connect business constraints, customer needs, design quality, and engineering reality—helping teams align around a direction they can actually execute.

You’re hiring me to help the team see the problem clearly, align on a direction, and make meaningful progress.

Start a conversation

Bring me the problem you keep circling.

A defined project is welcome, and so is the product question nobody has managed to frame clearly yet. You don’t need a finished brief; thirty minutes is usually enough to see whether I can help.

Book a 30-minute intro call→

Or send a short note about what is difficult, stuck, or uncertain.