Chris Knutson

I’m a product designer and recovering Mountain Dew addict. Born in Seattle, raised in Minnesota, shaped in Omaha, and after years in Denver, I recently made the move to Tulsa to be closer to my sister, brother-in-law, twin nieces, and my parents.

I’m passionate about creating thoughtful digital products that make people’s lives better, simpler, and a little more human.

Intro

I’ve worked across a lot of industries over the years — sports, banking, real estate, agencies, startups, and in-house teams. Different problems, different people, different constraints.

That variety is a huge part of how I grew as a designer. I’ve also worked across just about every medium imaginable, and that versatility has kind of become my thing.

My mission

I care deeply about doing work that has real impact. I’ve never been interested in just shipping features or collecting paychecks — I’m driven by improving experiences, solving meaningful problems, and making things better for customers, teams, and businesses alike.

How I work

1. Passionate doer

• I like to get things done

• Approach problems methodically and systematically

• Collaboration is key to working well

2. Systems thinker

• Understand products within the larger context of the systems they interact with

• Dissect problems into manageable components

• Understand how a product fits into lives, routines

3. Empathetic designer

• Creating products that truly meet users needs

• Sparking creative solutions, pushing the boundaries of design and problem-solving

• Foster effective teamwork and communication, leading to better design outcomes

Designing with AI

I design AI products, and I design with AI. At Liminal, I lead design for a multi-model chat platform that lets teams in regulated industries use OpenAI, Claude and Gemini safely, plus the governance, policy and insights tools behind it. The hardest problems there are trust, transparency and control.

AI is part of how I work, too. I prototype in code with Claude Code and Figma Make, so teams can react to something real instead of static frames, and good ideas get tested much sooner.

Where I'm from

I was born in Seattle, spent time growing up in Minneapolis, then headed to Omaha before spending over a decade in Denver. Recently, I made the move to Tulsa to be closer to my sister, brother-in-law, twin nieces, and my parents.

Things I like: riding my 50cc scooter around town, basketball and baseball, a cold beer on a sunny patio, skiing, hiking, biking, DJ’ing the occasional random weekend, traveling to random U.S. cities, playing acoustic guitar, Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Medium Point (0.7mm) pens, sh*tty movie podcasts, watching a movie every morning and logging it on Letterboxd, Tottenham Hotspur, Seattle Mariners and the Denver Nuggets.