Find the signal
I start with the evidence: customer behavior, research, business constraints, technical realities, and the things a team already knows but has not connected yet.
ABOUT / CHRISTIAN LINARES
I lead with clarity. I stay close enough to make the idea real.
I’m a product design leader and AI product builder based in Nashville, with roots in Chile and Poland.
I’m drawn to complicated situations: scattered evidence, unfamiliar technology, competing priorities, and experiences people have learned to work around.
My role is to find the signal, give the team a direction they can believe in, and help turn that direction into something people can actually use.
01 / HOW I WORK
Strategy becomes useful when people can experience it.
Make it tangible
I turn that signal into a product direction, then prototype enough of the experience for people to understand it, challenge it, and improve it together.
Build beyond the moment
I look for the patterns, principles, and systems that allow a good decision to travel across teams, products, and time.
02 / LEADERSHIP WITHOUT DISTANCE
I don’t believe leadership requires leaving the craft behind.
I lead teams, establish product direction, and build systems. I also design, prototype, write, test ideas, and work directly with product and engineering. Staying close helps me make better decisions and gives the team something tangible to respond to.
At Ariat, my role grew from strengthening UX execution into a player-coach position spanning team development, global commerce, research, design governance, experimentation, and measurable business outcomes.
I have managed a multidisciplinary UX team of up to three, hired designers and researchers, and coached one designer through two promotions into greater creative ownership. My influence also extends beyond my reporting line through design-system and quality governance across partner teams.
Building Osnara from zero keeps me honest about the distance between a promising idea and a functioning product. It has made me a more practical leader.
BUILD THE FOUNDATIONSET THE DIRECTIONCREATE LEVERAGE
03 / HOW I SHOW UP
I’m an activating kind of leader.
I think out loud, ask questions, and create energy around an idea. I’m at my best in workshops and working sessions where a team can put the pieces on the table, talk through what is unresolved, and discover the direction together.
A close teammate would probably say I bring energy and momentum. I know how to amplify a room, but energy alone is not the point. I want people to see what is possible and leave with enough clarity to move.
04 / LIVED EXPERIENCE
I pay attention to how a place makes someone feel.
Outside product design, I care about photography, architecture, interiors, and the atmosphere of a beautifully lit restaurant or cocktail bar. I notice the flow through a room, what it reveals, and how the details change the way people behave.
I think of it as lived UX. Digital or physical, a good experience creates a feeling before someone has the language to explain why it works.
05 / INDEPENDENT PRACTICE
Before product systems, I built brand systems.
I spent years working directly with founders and organizations, shaping identities, websites, environments, and launch experiences from the first conversation through the final artifact.
Explore the independent practice
06 / ROOTS
Some parts of your story become visible only when you return to where they began.
A trip to Poland with my grandmother changed how I understood my heritage. Learning about a place that has endured repeated upheaval and continued to rebuild gave resilience a deeper meaning. It also gave me a new sense of pride in where I come from.
I’m working toward Polish citizenship and hope to build part of my life there one day. My Chilean roots come through my father. I haven’t made that trip yet, so it remains a part of my story I’m still looking forward to experiencing firsthand.
For now, some of that connection happens through food and drink. A Pisco Sour is my staple cocktail, with a Pisco Punch close behind, and lomo saltado is hard to beat. I love Polish food too. Lately, I’ve been using AI to experiment with pisco-and-vodka cocktails and lomo saltado paired with pierogi. It is playful and honestly pretty good. It also feels like a small way to let both sides of my family meet.
07 / NOTES TO SELF
I collect short phrases that make complicated things easier to carry.
- 01Simple is hard. Hard has impact.
- 02The first wheel wasn’t perfectly round.
- 03Nothing changes if nothing changes.
08 / WHAT’S NEXT
The best work starts with a consequential problem and a capable team.
I’m most interested in product and AI-native companies where design helps set the direction instead of arriving after the important decisions have already been made.
I do my best work with ambitious teams shaping a new product, repairing a complicated experience, or turning emerging technology into something genuinely useful.