Chris Hartley

Senior Product Designer | Using AI + systems thinking to turn ambiguous problems into confident, trusted, shipped decisions.

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

About

I'm a Senior Product Designer based in Indianapolis with over a decade of experience shipping digital products for clients ranging from early-stage products to household-name brands. At SEP — a software product design consultancy — I work across the product life cycle: discovery, interaction design, design systems, artifact execution, and user testing. I care deeply about craft — the kind that shows up in the details of a component, the clarity of an interaction, the consistency of a brand experience, and how thoughtfully AI is used in the work. I've led design on pre-market products across multiple industries, and I've gotten good at earning stakeholder trust quickly, which matters a lot in a consulting environment because the cost of failure is great. Beyond client work, I've invested in the SEP design practice itself: maturing UX culture inside an engineering-led org, building systems that help cross-functional teams collaborate, and shaping how we hire and support designers. Before tech, I worked at and later co-owned a specialty marketing agency — which means I've been the person responsible for both the work and the business outcome. That background makes me a more effective partner to PMs, engineers, and stakeholders.

Experience

  • SEP (Full-time · 6 yrs 1 mo)
    • Senior User Experience Designer
      Sep 2021 - Present · 4 yrs 10 mos

      Led end-to-end design and testing on pre-market products across industries including IoT, water treatment, defense, and pharmaceuticals — earning stakeholder buy-in on an agile design process in environments where trust has to be built fast. Rearchitected an inherited design system to scale across multiple platforms and products — covering visual foundations (color, spacing, typography), language standards, and brand voice. Grew UX maturity inside an engineering-led consultancy — leading on design systems, emerging tools (design tokens, Lottie, AI), and cross-team collaboration, while reshaping how we hire, support, and promote designers.

    • User Experience Designer
      Jun 2020 - Aug 2021 · 1 yr 3 mos

  • Designer & Photographer at Chartley Creative
    Jun 2009 - Present · 17 yrs 1 mo

    Freelance creative practice running alongside my full-time career. Recent work includes marketing design and on-premise sales materials for Constellation Brands' Hispanic marketing campaigns, and recruiting campaign photography for one of the world's largest CRM platforms.

  • Catalyst Group Marketing (Greater Indianapolis)
    • Partner + Creative Director
      Mar 2016 - Oct 2019 · 3 yrs 8 mos

      Led design and business operations for a specialty marketing agency serving accounting and legal firms nationwide — managing client relationships, project teams, and budgets while delivering measurable outcomes. Results included an IPA Top 300 website with 78% growth in monthly sessions and 98% growth in pageviews. Select Clients: Baker Tilly, Warren Averett, Association for Accounting Marketing, Baker Newman Noyes, Abbott, Stringham & Lynch, and USA Diving.

    • Senior Designer
      Apr 2014 - Feb 2016 · 1 yr 11 mos

      Led design and worked directly with clients across website, brand, and marketing engagements — delivering work across the full brand system, from visual identity to content. Also led the agency's transition from a niche consultancy to a full-service specialty agency, including vision/strategy, design system, and website.

  • Graphic Artist at Monarch Beverage
    Jun 2012 - Apr 2014 · 1 yr 11 mos

  • Intern at The Shooting Gallery Asia
    Jun 2011 - Jul 2011 · 2 mos