Moving fast and breaking things is what got us here. I bring order back, so people can trust what’s new. Right now, that means figuring out how people and AI work together, for good.

I’m Chris Pallé. I grew up with a keyboard in one hand and a joystick in the other. Today I design and build products, mostly where new technology meets the people who have to live with it. I’ve done it as a consultant, as a founder and inside large organizations, and I’m still doing it every day. I live in New Jersey with my dog, Lieu, short for The Lieutenant.

What gets me out the door

I do my best work when there’s a mission behind it. Some of the work I’m proudest of:

  • Junior Achievement, which helps young people get ready for work and life. We worked on their platform for years, and they kept asking us back.
  • World Vision, which serves children and families in some of the hardest places in the world. I led product design there and helped the team start using AI in its everyday work.
  • IEEE, the engineers and researchers who work on technology for humanity. We designed a research platform with them.
  • Bell Works, the old Bell Labs building in Holmdel. In 2015 I co-founded the first coworking space there, so startups and small businesses had a place to grow inside a building with a long history of invention.

There’s more of it on the Work page.

How I work

Most of what I do is structure. I start by framing the problem. Then I go listen to the people it affects, in their own words. Then I build the path to something that works for them. I came up through information architecture, interaction design and user research, and I still lean on all of it.

I’ve bootstrapped my own ventures and worked inside some big organizations. I get the bootstrappers and the powers that be.

I’ve also spent a lot of time helping other designers grow. I taught as an adjunct at Rutgers and Parsons, lectured at NYU, helped develop curriculum at General Assembly, was a local leader for IxDA in New York and edited at Boxes and Arrows.

Faith

I’m a Christian. It isn’t the headline of my work, and it isn’t sidelined either. In practice it means I’m honest about what technology can and can’t do, I care about the people on the other side of the screen, and I’d rather work with organizations doing something worth doing. If we work together, that’s part of what you get.

Harnesses and leashes

I’m also a professional dog trainer, and most of that job is coaching the family, not the dog. I won’t take a client who wants to hand the dog off. The people are usually part of the problem, and they’re always part of the fix. A dog earns more freedom as it shows it can handle it, and the family learns when to give more line and how to call it back.

I think about AI the same way now. How much freedom do we give it, and how do we call it back when it matters?

What I’m working on now

PayPaw is my own product: scheduling and payments software for independent pet care pros. I’m one of them, so I use it myself. Its assistant, Lulu, is named after Lieu. Lulu prepares the work and a person decides. I build it with AI coding agents, which keeps me close to what the technology can actually do this month, not last year.

I’m also writing again, about building products, about how people and AI come to trust each other, and about life with dogs.

What I want to take on next

  • AI that people can trust with things that matter, like their money and their livelihoods, because the person stays in charge of what the agent is allowed to do.
  • Mission-driven organizations that need new technology to serve people better, not just faster.
  • The small businesses and independent pros who get left behind by every wave of technology.

Let’s talk

If you’re working on any of these, or you just want to compare notes, I’d like to hear from you. Connect with me on LinkedIn.