Hi, I’m Chris. I’m a software product designer based in Portland, Oregon.

My focus is on data product design and design strategy in both high-growth startups and established enterprises. I’ve designed enterprise social platforms, consumer mobile apps and web-scale analytics products. I work at the intersection of data, cloud computing and finance.

I’m currently designing the next generation of financial planning & analysis tools at Stratify. 

I led the product design team at Apptio where we created Apptio Experience (Apex), a design system that brought a cohesive user experience across the entire product portfolio. Prior to Apptio’s acquisition of Cloudability, I led the product design team working on public cloud cost management tools providing modeling and optimization products for AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.

I’ve spoken on a variety of design topics at ASIS&T’s Information Architecture Summit, EuroIA, JiveWorld, and many local user experience and product design events. I’m the organizer of pdxUX, a 1,600+ strong group of UX professionals in Portland, OR.

When I’m not designing software, I can be found in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest skiing, climbing, or running.

My CV can be viewed here.

I’m also here:

• http://linkedin.com/in/chrisrivard
• http://twitter.com/chrisrivard
• http://www.strava.com/athletes/chrisrivard
• http://instagram.com/chrisrivard
• https://angel.co/chrisrivard
• https://github.com/chrisrivard

I can be reached at: clearwired @ gmail

Colophon
The blog title is named after the lyrical work by Gaston Rébuffat, the late French alpinist and mountain guide.

Rise early. Fix a time-table to which you must try to keep. One seldom regrets having made an early start, but one always regrets having set off too late; first for reasons of safety-the adage ‘it is later than you think’ is very true in the mountains-but also because of the strange beauty of the moment: the day comes to replace the night, the peaks gradually lighten, it is the hour of mystery but also of hope. Setting off by lantern-light, witnessing the birth of a new day as one climbs to meet the sun, this is a wonderful experience.

– Gaston Réfuffat

The header image was taken from Columbia Crest on Mt. Rainier during a successful summit climb of the Disappointment Cleaver route in July 2018.