My name is Chris Mendez. I am a product designer and Senior Director, UX at VidMob.
VidMob is an AI-powered creative effectiveness platform. I joined six years ago as Employee #19 and their lone product resource. Since then, I’ve grown the UX team to three disciplines—product design, content design and research—across three continents and, together with my product and engineering counterparts, lead a group of 100+ talented people executing against the same roadmap. What started as a collaboration tool is now a suite of marketing products, from analytics to production.
Digiday crowned us Most Innovative Technology Platform. Business Insider named us one of the most promising AdTech startups in 2022. We’re official marketing partners with everyone from Google to Reddit, and we’ve been featured in publications like Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch and Adweek.
Part of my job at VidMob is working with our leadership team to translate our business strategy into an actionable product and design strategy. From quickly spinning up new products in response to the market to rethinking our platform architecture to better align to a new pricing model, I’m consistently relied on to articulate and sell the dream, then work backwards in order to realize it.
Speaking of which, I also focus on implementing and improving team structures and agile processes with those product and engineering counterparts I mentioned. In an industry where one discipline tends to outshine the other two—which one, depends on the company—I led an effort to define our product principles and brand ourselves “The Tripod”.
Then, there’s everything I do to promote design excellence. I’ve made us more user-centric by maintaining personas and establishing our research practices. I’ve made us more scalable by proposing, developing and operationalizing our design system and content guidelines. These tools not only helped the product org, but our product marketing, creative and customer support teams as well - bringing consistency across the larger CX.
And of course, I spend a lot of time overseeing the development of new features—many of which are AI and machine learning-based—or when the opportunity arises, designing them myself. Though my management style is rooted in empowerment and autonomy, I’m never too far from the action and never too big to fill-in resource gaps.
Before VidMob, I was Head of Design at Wine n Dine. While there, I established their UX and creative capabilities, implemented several new features for iOS, expanded their product suite to include Android and iMessage, launched a partnership and integration with Resy and rebranded the company. Wine n Dine reached over 6,000 cities across 120 countries during my tenure, and was acquired by Dorsia in 2022.
Prior to that, I worked at Ogilvy - where I pitched and produced products for brands like American Express, BlackRock, DuPont, E*TRADE, IKEA and Patheon. Highlights include the Amex Rewards Calculator, an internal SMB sales tool. After a successful North American launch, it was localized and adopted by all global markets. Another is the redesign of Patheon.com - which helped announce their IPO and soon after, acquisition by Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Along the way, I have also worked with some amazing freelance clients—like Cablevision and Jitjatjo—and co-founded a startup of my own, Workhorse.
I have been an advisor to Z-School’s Design Thinking Program (which, at the time, was in partnership with Pace University). I have sat on the jury for the American Advertising Federation’s Most Promising Minority Student Award. My teams have won at Cannes Lions, The One Show and Effies.
Feel free to reach out. cjm5107@gmail.com
Email / LinkedIn