Chris Petzny

User Experience Designer

London, UK

Recent Projects

Recommendations

Chris is a terrific UX practitioner. Working with him for the last year at Flink I’ve had the opportunity to see him use various approaches to understand user behaviour and help us provide customers with a clear, enticing and highly usable product.

As an iOS developer, it has been a gift to work with Chris. From his discoveries of what users require and what designs will work, we’ve collaboratively worked on how to best fit this to the native platform. This makes for a rapid iterative cycle quickly providing business value.

If more companies employed Chris, or UX practitioners with his proficiency and principled but pragmatic approach, we might all have fewer frustrations in life and be more often delighted by empathetically designed products.

Benjohn Barnes, Senior iOS Developer, Flink

Chris has an extensive knowledge of product and design principles as well as excellent strategic thinking. He looks in depth at product requirements and has provided invaluable guidance to the product design teams. On numerous occasions he has also provided me with insightful recommendations for design improvements. His design ideas were truly wonderful and the final product was top shelf.

Neil Caetano, Product Design Manager, Flink

Really enjoyed working with Chris as the UX Lead to me as Product Manager. He’s very thorough, professional and very knowledgeable in his field. He is keen to listen to feedback from users, SME’s and stakeholders and feed this into his work. He knows the best UX practices and weaves them into his designs. He clearly explains the reasons behind his vision for the product to give the best experience for the user. On top of all that, he’s a really nice guy!

George Peters, Product Manager, Dentsu

I worked with Chris at RBS and recommended him for a position at Sky. He is incredibly talented and inspirational. His background in Industrial Design means that he brings a profoundly interesting perspective to UX design that I haven’t encountered in anyone else before or since. He is meticulous, hard-working and a lovely person to work with.

Wendy Ingram, Senior Research Consultant Behavioural Science, EY Seren

Chris is a solid and very competent UX senior/consultant who I managed at John Lewis in my role as UX/Service Design Manager. He quickly earned my respect and trust as an expert in the field of human-centred design and design thinking. We work in cross-functional agile teams to lean methodologies and I was confident in Chris’s ability to positively influence with authority and pragmatism. We have complex propositions with even more demanding stakeholders and he was a safe pair of hands in this arena. His work rate is impressive and he has a healthy approach to test and learn validation, happy to roll his sleeves up and dig into the data. Chris is an asset to any digital or cross touchpoint team striving to deliver products or services competitively and efficiently.

Greg Woods, User Experience & Service Design Manager, John Lewis & Partners

Chris is a highly valued team member whose passion for UX & creating the best user experience has shone through in all the projects he’s worked on. He produces sophisticated & considered UX solutions – often within very constricted parameters & to tight deadlines. Chris is extremely thorough and his exceptional level of understanding is evident as he juggles different variants of possible solutions in an ever changing environment. I’ve really enjoyed working with him & would love to do so again.

Cris Saunders, Global Head of Digital Service, RS Components

Chris is one of the best information architects and usability professionals I have worked with. Chris has a no-fear attitude to technology, thinks creatively and bases design decisions on evidence. If Chris is involved, the end-user experience will be second to none.

Darius Kumana, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Wrisk

Chris’s ability to plan and develop high quality User Experiences is exemplary, using his knowledge of web technologies and skills in Information Architecture, Interaction Design and Usability to great affect throughout the project lifecycle.

Chris not only has the ability to apply User Centric Design practices for any scale project, but importantly balances this with a superb ability to communicate the process and its deliverables to all levels of the client team as well as the design and development team.

It is difficult to write a reference that puts Chris’s standing as an IA into perspective but having worked in this field for 11 years, Chris is among a very elite few that I would trust implicitly and would always value working alongside.

Richard Marsh, User Experience Consultant

Chris is a great team player who shows up every day with a winning attitude and a sharp focus on the outcomes for the day. He’s got an easy going and collaborative style of working that I believe is essential to any successful team.

Justin Pybus, Senior UX & Creative Consultant, Deloitte Digital

I worked with Chris on a variety of projects for Sky Shop. We primarily looked at a winback sales journey with the aim of encouraging customers to return to Sky. Chris is quick to get his ideas across. Clear in his instruction, being able to work closely with me straight to design. Chris was well organised and able to determine and even predict requirements for the business. On top of that he was a pleasure to work with.

James Turner-Blackman, Product Designer, Global

I had the opportunity to work with Chris in a very complex, high profile digital paneuropean project and it was not only a pleasure but a learning experience as well. Chris’ outstanding professionalism, his vast digital knowledge and User Centric design expertise alongside with his great personality, helped to build strong foundations for a long lasting Client engagement. Chris is certainly a plus to any team and I hope to have a chance to work with him again at some point in the future.

Gianna Palyvou, Business Director – Performance Lead, Ogilvy UK

Chris and I worked together on an intensive project which – for our part – lasted the best part of a year, and where Chris had overall responsibility for the user experience deliverable. The most enjoyable part of working with Chris was that he’s massively experienced – which made him great for bouncing ideas off, he has good ideas in how to bring out creativity from within the team, and he’s incredibly calm and good-humoured – even in the most testing of situations. Furthermore, the way he managed client relations helped us – as a UE team – focus our efforts on delivering the best possible solutions.

Alex Ng, User Experience Consultant

Chris brings a vast range of knowledge and experience to projects and is able to quickly develop a strong rapport and level of trust with the client. I have both managed and worked with Chris and I can say it was a pleasure. Chris has an incredible focus on detail and this when combined with an impressive level of innovation makes him a great person to have on your team. I would happily recommend Chris as an IA / UE expert and would be very happy to work with him again.

Chris McGahan, Principal UX Manager, Vodafone

I have had the pleasure of working with Chris at multiple agencies where he has always been a great collaborator and source of knowledge, the man with the key to many UX kingdoms. His vast experience, ideas, strategies and adaptability always helped enhance the overall visions of projects, especially in complex situations and then translate them to robust and valuable realities. As a team leader, his approach empowers individuals to rise to the occasion with support and influence; he is all-inclusive and non-cliquey. Above all this, Chris is a great guy who I wouldn’t hesitate to work with again.

Chris Brett Jones, Creative Director, EY

If you’re looking for a highly skilled, tenacious and experienced UX, then Chris is your man. I worked with Chris on a challenging project (in terms of creative ambition, scale and technical implementation) where his calm efficiency was instrumental in helping bring together numerous critical elements. Throughout it all, Chris remained calm and in control, leading UX delivery that will give our client a critical advantage when it goes live.

Martin Oliver, Head of Content Design, Ministry of Justice

Chris has always proved to be a fantastically productive and insightful User advocate.

He has a deep level of technical knowledge that compliments his logical information architecture and allows him to bring schematics and concepts to life, quickly. This, in combination with Chris’ calm, confident client-facing manner makes him a very effective communicator of ideas and solutions.

I was very lucky to have Chris on my team for a number of high profile client engagements.

Alan Davies, Head of Client Business Transformation, WPP