About
I'm Cristiana, a seasoned design leader in the wild world of brand and product design. With a design career spanning over a decade, I've dedicated my time and expertise to shaping the visual and functional landscapes of cutting-edge financial technology companies.
Work
Carta
Rebrand x2
Robinhood
Advanced Charting, Options Chain
Modern Treasury
Payments Infrastructure
Light Energy
White-Labeled Energy Plans
Experience
Founding Designer
Light Energy
2024-2025
As the Founding Designer at Light Energy, I designed the 0-1 product experience for embedded, white-labeled electricity plans, designing mobile and web experiences for partners like Palmetto, Hyundai and Stellantis. I also led user research, established Light’s brand identity, and helped secure key partnerships that expand access to renewable energy.
Staff Product Designer
Modern Treasury
2022-2023
Reimagined the future of money movement by redesigning both the user experience and interface of the product, creating a cohesive and intuitive platform tailored for the realm of B2B payments infrastructure.
Senior Product Designer, Options Foundations
Robinhood
2021-2022
Led the design and product management for Robinhood’s first Advanced Charting tool for mobile. The launch of this tool increased Options Trades volume by 3x. Additionally led initiatives for users to learn how Options work, through projects like Options Chain and Options Watchlist.
Manager, Web Presence
Carta
2017-2021
As employee #60 at eShares, I led the rebrand to Carta, shaping its user-centric experience on a global scale. Today, Carta is valued at $7.4 billion and holds 95% of the market share in cap table management. I'm incredibly proud to have played a role in building Carta into what it is today.
Reference
CEO of Carta, Henry Ward
“I had the privilege of knowing and working alongside Cristiana during her tenure as an early product designer and eventual leader at Carta. Throughout Cristiana’s time helping grow Carta, Cristiana consistently demonstrated unwavering dedication, commitment, and a relentless passion for all things design. Her ability to lead by example, inspire her team, and drive innovation in design in the company was truly exceptional. Cristiana played a pivotal role in shaping our brand design into a powerhouse, and her dedication to our company's mission and values was evident in every project they undertook. I wholeheartedly endorse Cristiana as a loyal design leader who is not only a valuable asset to any organization but also a visionary in the field.”
Product Design Manager at Robinhood, Alvin Lee
“Cristiana was crucial to the success of the Options Foundations Team and the creation of the Advanced Charting tool at Robinhood. She is highly capable and adaptable, taking on many responsibilities beyond design to lead the team to create a high quality product that traders use and love. Her leadership, focus on team collaboration and culture, and effectiveness in designing elegant experiences was extremely valued."
CEO & Co-Founder of Light Energy, Baker Shogry
"Cristiana brought a real spark to Light during her time with us. She tackled an impressively wide range of design challenges, from creating our initial brand identity, to bootstrapping our user research toolkit from scratch, to managing relationships with product teams at our partners. She wrangled a complex consumer experience and built us a strong design system to manage it. She's a natural collaborator who's always at-cause and willing to do whatever needs doing, whether it's familiar or new territory. She brought a genuine passion for our mission and team every day, thank you, Cristiana!"
Head of Brand at Modern Treasury, Frank Chimero
"Cristiana brings a unique blend of collaboration and adaptability to our design team. Her diverse skill set, spanning from solving intricate product problems to the art of data visualization, has been a key asset. Her ability to demystify complex finance concepts has proven invaluable as we explore new product areas. What sets Cristiana apart is her eagerness for feedback and her innate skill in connecting disparate ideas. Her approach is not just about designing; it's about rethinking and refining the foundations of our work to drive meaningful improvements."
Head of Product at Carta, Ry Sullivan
“Cristiana’s work at Carta helped us rethink, transform, and elevate user experiences across an impressively broad spectrum. Whether it was engaging with founders, investors, law firms, analysts, or others, Cristiana took the time to understand and empathize with these users and their needs. She consistently looks to build bridges across people and teams to surface the best solutions to a problem－not just the most convenient one. By understanding the “why” behind a problem and cultivating a spirit of collaboration, she identifies design solutions that solve user needs and give users confidence. Over the years, Cristiana brought these skills to numerous projects at Carta－creating product designs for many of our critical user flows and helping us capture Carta’s culture and ethos in our marketing approach. She has a mental toughness and positive disposition will carry her through any challenge. I’m excited to watch her grow in her career as a designer.”
Co-Founder at Light Technology, Adam Compain
"Cristiana led the design of our initial marketing presence and our first consumer product at Light. At that time she was our first and only design team member. Cristiana is a competent and very well rounded designer, and her skills span many aspects of both marketing & product design. She’s a very hard worker, consistently focused on optimizing her work product and continually expanding her design capabilities as a motivated self-starter. Cristiana is highly collaborative, maintains a can-do attitude amidst uncertainty or challenge, and is a true pleasure to work with. I recommend her!"
Staff Product Designer at Robinhood, Ye Liu
“Hands down, Cristiana is one of the best designers I had the privilege to work with at Robinhood. She’s a fast learner and passionate about design. Her design sensibility is incredible, and the attention to details is 💯. She’s definitely a great inspiration in the team!”
Senior Design Technologist at Carta, Guilherme Bollman
“Cristiana is an amazing designer and people manager. She almost single handedly conceived and executed the Carta rebrand marketing website, when the company rebranded from eShares to Carta, in 2019. It was a massive design project, involved dozens of internal stakeholders and teams, each one wanting their "slice of the pie", and Cristiana managed to get everyone pleased while still being through to Carta's design philosophy, and delivering an amazing product. I can't think of any one person at that time in the company who could have accomplished that. She is truly skilled and amazing. Any team will be incredibly lucky to have her.”
Head of Engineering at Light Technology, Tyler Mann
"Cristiana has played an important role in helping take a new product and company from zero to one at Light. She effectively handles a wide range of tasks, from UX research to product design, with dedication and skill. Her versatility and strong work ethic make her a valuable part of our team, and her positive attitude makes collaboration easy."
Quality Assurance Engineer at Robinhood, John Quandt Roman
“Creative, empathetic, and amazing team player. Cristiana does it all! From day 1 she was able to what seemed effortlessly make an impact to the Options org at Robinhood. Cristiana has an amazing eye to detail. The project could be a small tweak, or a multi-month long feature that would start out as an experiment. We knew that our users would love the feel, look, and ease of use thanks to her work. She’s a great teammate when it came to helping with our bug bashes to make sure that any detail wasn’t missed or overlooked, whether it was an old design system font or copy that needed to be updated. Cristiana was a great designer to work with and I can only hope that our professional career paths cross again in the future!”
Head of Design Systems at Carta, Gilmar Lira
“Collaborative, relentless, and curious. Cristiana has a talent for people. She emanates positiveness, constantly recognizes contributions from others, and has an authentic and effective way of communicating. She did not shy away from dry and complex projects at Carta, and delivered results even when the odds were against her. Always pushing herself, with curiosity, and perseverance.”
Engineering Manager at Carta, Matt Mayo