TJ Nelson

TJ NELSON · PRODUCT DESIGNER

Beautiful products start with clear thinking.

I frame the problem, make clear calls on what matters most, and stay hands-on through the details. Most recently at RainFocus, across the admin platform and the attendee experience, on web and mobile.

My design philosophy

What shapes the work before pushing pixels

The foundation

How I work 

Screens are the tip of the iceberg. Underneath sit the real problem, the people we're solving it for and with, and the principles we hold when tradeoffs show up. I align product, engineering and the people closest to customers on that before we design screens.

Iceberg: screens are what people see above the waterline; problem, people and principles shape it below.

The risk

Watch for drift.

You set out for what customers need, end up a few degrees off, and ship something else. With AI, a team can build a polished product in days. Polish used to signal that someone had done the thinking. It doesn't anymore.

Drift: a boat's course curves a few degrees off from what customers need and ends at what got built.

What I bring

The 3 C's keep me on course.

Clarity, character and craft: find the real problem, decide how it should feel, then make it beautiful and test it with real people early and often.

I write about them in Philosophy & Design
Clarity, Character and Craft as three legs of a straight course to what customers need.

Talks & Writing

See all
Latest talk · Product Hive · 2026Building with CharacterWatch the talk Confident DriftLatest article · Philosophy & DesignConfident DriftWhy good teams build the wrong thingRead the latest
Portrait of TJ Nelson

A bit about me

I’m TJ, a product designer in Utah with 11 years on enterprise and consumer products. I care most about the thinking underneath the screens, and the people you do it with.

More about me