Christian Crumlish

I lead product and design teams with an approach rooted in UX and in getting my hands dirty. I recruit top talent and set them up to try, fail, learn, and succeed. I am drawn to holistic cross-platform experiences, and while I have never seen data design or invent anything, I believe that data-informed product ideation (and rapid iteration based on empirical feedback) is key to getting beyond primitive, brute-force approaches to digital product design.

I directed the product team at CloudOn, a tablet-first mobile productivity startup. In that capacity I also recruited, hired, led, and mentored the design team. We built a gesture-first productivity tool with document editing and social collaboration workflows and then sold the company to Dropbox.

At AOL I helped Matte Scheinker build a consumer experience practice and directed a strategic projects team that roamed the company doing good and avoiding evil. I launched user blogging on (and developed a social strategy for) Patch, assisted in the design of a next-generation mail product, and as senior director of product at AIM I drove the product roadmap and fostered a creative approach to ideation, design, and development.

Some of my writing credits include co-author of Designing Social Interfaces (O'Reilly, '09, second edition in press for '15), The Power of Many (Wiley, '04), and the bestselling Internet for Busy People (McGraw-Hill, '95).

I am a mentor for Code for America's accelerator, and I helped found East Bay for Democracy. I am also an advisor to Mainstreets and Fictionaut.