# Adam Christensen > Experience Design Leader · Payments, Banking & AI-Forward · Omnichannel, Physical-Digital & Beyond Location: Moraga, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/adamchristensen I've spent my career at the intersection of complex systems and human behavior — most useful at the front end of a problem, before anyone's locked in on a solution. I use design as a discipline and a language, and I've found that most of what goes wrong in product development traces back to a room full of smart people working from different definitions of the problem. Most recently I've led experience design for a payments platform processing $1T+ annually for 33 million customers, and co-developed an AI fluency program that shifted a design team's relationship with AI from automation tool to creative partner. Earlier in my career I led experience design for enterprise software serving wholesale bankers, physical devices in branch environments, and omnichannel account opening — and contributed to two patents for ATM security innovation. At the leadership level, I'm most energized at the front end of the design process — where the problem isn't yet well-defined, where the right question matters more than the right answer, and where design can shape product strategy rather than just execute it. I've built and led teams of up to 15 designers, researchers, and content strategists, and I've spent much of my career as the translation layer between business intent, technical reality, and human experience. I'm now looking for my next chapter — a design leadership role where design is treated as a strategic driver, not a finishing step. I'm open to industry, drawn to complexity, and most excited by organizations that are genuinely rethinking how their products serve people. ## Work Experience ### Sr. Manager - User Experience Design - Payments + Digital Channels @ Wells Fargo Jan 2022 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Led experience design across Wells Fargo's Payments & Money Movement portfolio, among the highest-traffic areas of the WF mobile app, serving 33M+ active customers and processing $1T+ in transactions annually. Managed a team of 8–12 product and content designers across a concurrent portfolio including Zelle, Bill Pay, Wires, Mobile Deposit, and Account Verification. Product strategy partnership: Collaborated closely with senior Product Management to shape feature strategy across Zelle and Bill Pay, including extending Zelle's capabilities beyond baseline EWS specifications and co-defining the strategic direction for migrating Bill Pay check payments to Zelle. Payments ecosystem vision: Led strategic exploration of an "Integrated Payments" framework — reframing the mobile payments experience around human financial behaviors and money movement goals rather than individual payment rails, informing long-term roadmap thinking across the organization. Platform modernization: Led design for the migration of the Transfer & Payments platform from a legacy 20-year-old codebase to a native front end, partnering with the Design Systems team to establish next-generation native components and interaction patterns while maintaining continuity for tens of millions of customers on one of the bank's most critical platforms. AI adoption leadership: Co-developed "AI Recess", a biweekly program to build genuine AI fluency across the design team. Structured intentionally around the metaphor of a playground: recognizing that people adopt new tools in different ways and at different paces, the program shifted the team's mindset from AI-as-automation to AI-as-creative-partner. ### Manager, VP - Experience Design, Digital Branch & ATM @ Wells Fargo Jan 2016 – Jan 2021 Led experience design across Wells Fargo's Branch Transformation, enterprise CRM modernization, and physical device strategy, connecting digital tools, banker workflows, and physical spaces into a more coherent, human-centered system. Enterprise CRM design leadership: Led design for Wells Fargo's Salesforce CRM consolidation, replacing 15+ disparate banker tools with a single unified platform. Directed a cross-functional team spanning service, product, and content design plus research (~14 people) from journey mapping through shipped functionality. Introduced "Concept Cards" to pressure-test design directions with stakeholders before execution, operating in a fully integrated Agile model serving bankers across 7,200+ branch locations. Branch Transformation: Led experience design for Wells Fargo's branch format pilot, focusing on the digital toolkit and team member experience within each format, connecting physical space strategy to the tools bankers needed to deliver it. Physical-digital device strategy: Collaborated with industrial design partners on branch device strategy — including the Adaptive Teller Station, Branch Locker pilot, and a Collaboration tabletop for banker-customer financial conversations. Named contributor on two Wells Fargo patents for ATM security threat monitoring and notification. Organizational design practice: Introduced journey mapping as a strategic planning tool within the team — adapting it to focus on team member experience. Defined design engagement models within SAFe, scaling quality UX delivery across a large concurrent portfolio. ### Experience Design Manager, VP - Wholesale User Experience @ Wells Fargo Jan 2006 – Jan 2016 Built and led the UX design practice for Wells Fargo's Wholesale and Commercial banking division, growing from individual contributor to design team manager over the course of the decade. Design thinking practice: Introduced structured design thinking methods and facilitation (LUMA-trained) to project initiation across the Wholesale LOB — shifting teams away from waterfall requirements handoffs toward collaborative problem framing and co-design workshops with business and technology partners. Design system standards: Led design and documentation of experience standards for Wells Fargo's Commercial Electronic Office (CEO) platform design system — collaborating with the design system product owner and technology teams to translate coded components into adoptable, org-wide standards. Early native product design: Developed experience strategy for WF Securities Research — one of Wells Fargo's first native tablet applications — bringing mobile-native thinking to enterprise financial software at an early stage of the platform's evolution. ### Digital Product Manager - Wholesale Banking @ Wells Fargo Jan 2006 – Jan 2008 Defined product strategy for the Wholesale Employee Toolkit serving 50,000+ internal users — integrating collaboration environments, search, and RSS feed technologies to enable knowledge-sharing at scale across a previously decentralized organization. Created and socialized experience business cases to executive steering committee, requiring ongoing partnership with Executive Sponsors, Marketing, LOBs, and Technology. ### Experience Designer - Research, Analysis, Production, and Design @ Wells Fargo Jan 2004 – Jan 2006 Designed holistic IA and user experience strategy for enterprise wholesale CRM focusing on integrating features from disparate application portfolio into seamless experience for Relationship Managers. Collaborate with Product/Business & Technology stakeholders to refine and influence requirements while acknowledging technical feasibility realities. ### Academic Technology Specialist - Product Designer @ Stanford University Jan 2002 – Jan 2004 Led creation of Stanford's first digital undergraduate admissions application, transitioning the university from a paper-based process to a fully digital experience. ## Education ### BFA in Painting, Photography University of the Pacific ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/adam-christensen-ux --- Source: https://flows.cv/adamchristensen JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/adamchristensen/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13