Constance Chan

Principal product designer. First design hire, grew with a startup to $200M ARR, ships end to end.

The market’s closed, so I’m drifting on the wave it left behind. Last reading: SPY (S&P 500 ETF) +0.4% · Oct 19 About this wave

The wave is real market data from SPY, a fund that tracks the S&P 500: one point a week since 2007, lit up as each role’s years scroll by. The day’s move sets the sea, from calm under 0.3% to a storm over 3%. Heavy volume bumps it up a level, so calm turns breezy. Your clock sets the sky: she surfs by day and floats by night.

The ripple under your cursor is data too. It runs harder over the market’s more volatile years.

Career so far

    • Lead Designer, Design Engineer 2026–today

    Stealth startup

    • Experiment in progress: how and what do we build in the new agentic era?
    • Moved from JTBD research to a full-customer rollout in about 9 weeks, with a greenfield build and design system.
    • Off the clock 2025–today

    conbot, my home lab

    • I took our home off the cloud! One mini PC runs our automations, a fully local voice assistant (bye, Alexa), and my own agent.
    • A small model keeps voice replies instant, and a bigger one handles chat, which is the same speed-vs-smarts tradeoff I design for at work.
    • Principal Product Designer 2023–26
    • Senior Product Designer 2018–23

    Iterable

    • I joined as the first designer at Series B and stayed through Series E, while we grew from about 100 to 700 people and past $200M ARR.
    • I hired our first designers, helped structure our first career ladder, and kept designing the whole time. Design had an early seat at the table with our CEO and VP of Engineering. Case study Grew the team from just me to 15+.
    • Marketers ran their business on Journeys every day, so nothing could break. We redesigned Journey Studio, moved from Angular to React, built our first design system, and opened the platform up to less technical marketers. Case study Modernized the platform without breaking it.
    • Every corner of the product had its own query builder. I audited them all, got design, product and engineering speaking the same language, and designed one builder for Segmentation, Lists and Journeys. Then we used AI to help lists explain themselves. Case study Rebuilt segmentation, then taught it to explain itself.
    • Presented on stage at Activate 2024, and won Hack Week in 2021 and 2024.
    • Design Director 2015–17
    • Designer, Frontend Developer 2014–15

    thoughtbot

    • Led research and design discovery for entrepreneurs, early-stage startups and universities at this product agency.
    • Prototyped in code, validated on device early, and shipped production front-end. Contributed to our much-loved open source projects.
    • As Design Director, grew the regional Boston team and represented Design with prospective clients.
    • Product Designer 2012–14

    Airbo

    • One of four people at a small, self-sustaining startup. I designed the early product, a workplace benefits game, and its brand.
    • Front-end Developer 2011–12

    The Boston Globe

    • Front-end development for the Globe's digital properties.
    • BFA, Graphic Design & Interactive Media 2007–12

    Northeastern University

    • Where childhood hobbies became a career: design foundations, motion graphics, programming and music theory.