Chris Gaffey
Product Design | UX | Psych
👋 Hello!
I’m Chris Gaffey
Senior Product Designer
Digging into the messy, human parts of design (that too many designers gloss over) to get the whole team making confident design decisions.
Me
Why Me
What I bring that’s hard to find
Strategy and execution, in both directions
I'm useful whether the problem is well-defined or not. On fuzzy problems I help define what to build and why. On defined problems, I don't lose the "why" when things get tactical.
Good design starts with the right questions
My psych background means understanding that what users say and what they do are often different. This awareness shapes how I probe in research, how I design around uncertainty, and how I de-risk decisions in high-stakes contexts.
From “zero” to “impactful” in unfamiliar domains fast
I've had to get fluent in a wide range of industries, usually within weeks. That builds not just a pool of analogous patterns to pull from when a new problem looks unfamiliar, but nimble tactics for pivoting between complex problems quickly.
Diversity of in-house and consulting experience, thriving on ownership
In 3 years as the sole designer at Health IQ, I owned products concept to post-launch iteration, running experiments that drove 2x conversion, and was accountable to outcomes rather than deliverables. That's the work I'm built for.
CASE STUDIES
Selected Projects
Designing trust into an AI recommendation engine
IDC's expertise was trapped in a consulting model that didn’t scale. I led UX for a platform that changed that, designing confidence scoring, explainability, override mechanics to make high-stakes AI recommendations feel trustworthy enough to act on.
Show me more →
$2B
market opportunity
+80%
assessment speed
–64%
process cost
Designing trust into an AI recommendation engine
These teams had no designer, no design process, and six months to prove their idea or get cut. I stepped in as their founding design partner – getting fluent in the domain fast, establishing a design practice from zero, and helping them validate concepts before they over-committed to the wrong ones. Across 10+ teams simultaneously.
Show me more →
+260%
graduation rate
Founding design support de-risking AI startups on a 6-month clock
Congressional staffers and journalists needed to explore Gallup and West Health's survey data — but the existing interface buried the insights. I led the data exploration experience, including a "View By" pivot mechanic that changed how users interacted with the data entirely.
Show me more →
westhealth.gallup.com
live public site
Designing trust into an AI recommendation engine
IDC's expertise was trapped in a consulting model that didn’t scale. I led UX for a platform that changed that, designing confidence scoring, explainability, override mechanics to make high-stakes AI recommendations feel trustworthy enough to act on.
Show me more →
+190%
conversion
–80%
CPL
2x
ROAS
Chris Gaffey
Product Design | UX | Psych
👋 Hello!
I’m Chris Gaffey
Senior Product Designer
Digging into the messy, human parts of design (that too many designers gloss over) to get the whole team making confident design decisions.
Me
Why Me
What I bring that’s hard to find
Strategy and execution, in both directions
I'm useful whether the problem is well-defined or not. On fuzzy problems I help define what to build and why. On defined problems, I don't lose the "why" when things get tactical.
Good design starts with the right questions
My psych background means understanding that what users say and what they do are often different. This awareness shapes how I probe in research, how I design around uncertainty, and how I de-risk decisions in high-stakes contexts.
From “zero” to “impactful” in unfamiliar domains fast
I've had to get fluent in a wide range of industries, usually within weeks. That builds not just a pool of analogous patterns to pull from when a new problem looks unfamiliar, but nimble tactics for pivoting between complex problems quickly.
Diversity of in-house and consulting experience, thriving on ownership
In 3 years as the sole designer at Health IQ, I owned products concept to post-launch iteration, running experiments that drove 2x conversion, and was accountable to outcomes rather than deliverables. That's the work I'm built for.
CASE STUDIES
Selected Projects
Designing trust into an AI recommendation engine
IDC's expertise was trapped in a consulting model that didn’t scale. I led UX for a platform that changed that, designing confidence scoring, explainability, override mechanics to make high-stakes AI recommendations feel trustworthy enough to act on.
Show me more →
$2B
market oppty
+80%
assessmentspeed
–64%
process cost
Turning 20 years of healthcare survey data into a policy tool
Congressional staffers and journalists needed to explore Gallup and West Health's survey data — but the existing interface buried the insights. I led the data exploration experience, including a "View By" pivot mechanic that changed how users interacted with the data entirely
Show me more →
westhealth.gallup.com
live public site
Founding design support de-risking AI startups on a 6-month clock
Embedded design support for Google incubator for teams with no designer or design process and only six months to develop and prove the value of their idea. I was founding design partner – getting fluent in domains fast, establishing a design practice from zero, and helping them validate concepts before they over-committed to the wrong thing. Across multiple teams simultaneously for 4 cohorts.
Show me more →
+260%
graduation rate
Running 3 years of experiments with behavioral economics as the only designer
At Health IQ I owned the full funnel, from brand and website to product and marketing. The work that moved the needle most was redesigning single-page forms into multi-step conversion flows, tracked question-by-question using Amplitude.
Life insurance companies have a data problem: the more they ask, the more people lie. I worked with actuaries and a behavioral economist to design application flows that used anchoring, social proof, and disclosure sequencing to collect more accurate data without losing users.
Show me more →
+190%
conversion
–80%
CPL
2x
ROAS
👋 Hello!
I’m Chris Gaffey
Senior Product Designer
Digging into the messy, human parts of design (that too many designers gloss over) to get the whole team making confident design decisions.
Me
Why Me
What I bring that’s hard to find
Strategy and execution, in both directions
I'm useful whether the problem is well-defined or not. On fuzzy problems I help define what to build and why. On defined problems, I don't lose the "why" when things get tactical.
Good design starts with the right questions
My psych background means understanding that what users say and what they do are often different. This awareness shapes how I probe in research, how I design around uncertainty, and how I de-risk decisions in high-stakes contexts.
From “zero” to “impactful” in unfamiliar domains fast
I've had to get fluent in a wide range of industries, usually within weeks. That builds not just a pool of analogous patterns to pull from when a new problem looks unfamiliar, but nimble tactics for pivoting between complex problems quickly.
Diversity of in-house and consulting experience, thriving on ownership
In 3 years as the sole designer at Health IQ, I owned products concept to post-launch iteration, running experiments that drove 2x conversion, and was accountable to outcomes rather than deliverables. That's the work I'm built for.
CASE STUDIES
Selected Projects
Designing trust into an AI recommendation engine
IDC's expertise was trapped in a consulting model that didn’t scale. I led UX for a platform that changed that, designing confidence scoring, explainability, override mechanics to make high-stakes AI recommendations feel trustworthy enough to act on.
Show me more →
$2B
market opportunity
+80%
assessmentspeed
–64%
process cost
Turning 20 years of healthcare survey data into a policy tool
Congressional staffers and journalists needed to explore Gallup and West Health's survey data, but the existing interface buried the insights. I owned the data exploration experience, including a "View By" pivot mechanic that changed how users interacted with the data entirely.
Show me more →
westhealth.gallup.com
live public site
Founding design support de-risking AI startups in 6-month sprints
Embedded design support for Google incubator for teams with no designer or design process and only six months to develop and prove the value of their idea. I was founding design partner – getting fluent in domains fast, establishing a design practice from zero, and helping them validate concepts before they over-committed to the wrong thing. Across multiple teams simultaneously for 4 cohorts.
Show me more →
+260%
graduation rate
Running 3 years of experiments with behavioral economics as the only designer
At Health IQ I owned the full funnel, from brand and website to product and marketing. The work that moved the needle most was redesigning single-page forms into multi-step, allowing us to track question-by-question using Amplitude.
Life insurance is a delicate balance: underwriters want/need a lot of intrusive data to de-risk decisions but the more questions you ask, the greater the drop-off. I worked with actuaries to design application flows that used behavioral economic principles (anchoring, social proof, disclosure sequencing) to collect more accurate data without losing users.
Show me more →
+190%
conversion
–80%
CPL
2x
ROAS