Designing for beyond the horizon.
I'm Charles Sanderson: a product design leader who looks past the feature request to the problem that actually matters. I make complex products clear, accessible and measurable. And, I build the systems and teams that keep them that way, by shaping human-centered experiences across SaaS, marketing, and consumer products.
About me
Clarity in complexity.
Beauty in function.
I make complex things clear. I find the real problem beneath the request, and bring clarity to competing needs. I help teams turn ambiguity into purposeful, effective product experiences grounded in evidence.
I bring an unusually broad perspective to the work, spanning product design, creative direction, brand, and front-end development. That breadth lets me connect strategy with execution, align teams, bridge design and engineering, and set a high bar for the experiences we bring to life.
- Enterprise UX
- Product strategy
- Design systems
- Field research
- Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA)
- Design leadership
- Data-informed design
Selected work
Proof at every
altitude.
How I lead
Mission control,
not command.
At PrePass I lead design across several product teams, setting the UX direction and the quality bar even where I'm not the one designing. At its largest, the work ran through two in-house designers, one senior and one junior, and three contract designers on separate products at once. I work hands-on beside some and guide others through design critique. Either way the goal is the same: people who think for themselves, and work that's as good as we can make it.
Coaching the big picture
I coached a designer who turned every interview comment into a design change. We met weekly to identify patterns, form hypotheses, and challenge unnecessary complexity. People tell us problems; solving them is our job, not theirs. Simplify ruthlessly, but never at the expense of clarity.
In the trenches
I won't ask anyone to do work I don't understand or won't jump into myself. Being that close to the detail, I work just as hard at the other half: handing over real ownership. The designer closest to the problem makes the call, and presents and defends it, with my support behind them.
Question everything
Is this step, screen or process necessary? Can it be done with less? Never fall in love with a design, mine included, and never forget the human on the other end. That goes for requirements too: the story is a promise to converse, not the answer.
Direct, and gentle
I don't beat around the bush, and I'm never harsh. I rarely say “no”; I say “let's explore that and see where it breaks.” There's usually an exception worth finding. Clear feedback, given with care, is how people grow.
And I don't pretend to know everything. This field never stops moving, so neither do I.
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