Hey, Schaefer
A design and product partner for consumer startups

People try your product. Let's find out why they don't come back.

  • Players try your game, then drift away.
  • Subscribers sign up, then cancel.
  • People try it, but they won't pay.

Every one of those moments gets designed. By you, or by default.

Hey, I'm Schaefer. I've led design and product, from early startups to games played by millions. I'm close enough to know the work, and far enough out to see what your team can't.

Let's talk How I help
Aimlabs Blizzard Entertainment Los Angeles Times Netflix Games Zynga
Christy Schaefer outdoors, with the city and ocean behind
How I help

Before you put more money into the marketing furnace, find out why people aren't staying.

It looks like a design problem. But it's usually a direction problem.

Find the real problem

We look at the product, the data, the team and how work gets done. Then we name what's really holding you back.

Test before you bet big

We pick a few small experiments and test them with real customers in days, not months.

Get your team moving together

Product, design and engineering work from one shared picture of where the product is headed. People stop pulling in different directions.

You don't need a design hire or more marketing spend yet, just someone who's seen this before.

What changes when we work together

  • Momentum comes back, and the team stops spinning its wheels.
  • Decisions stop stalling, because you have a senior voice with no stake in whose idea wins.
  • You lose fewer months to rework. With AI, code is cheap. Time, focus and customer trust are not.
  • You gain a thinking partner who challenges assumptions and tests ideas as the vision takes shape.
  • You stop acting as the stand-in Head of Design and get back to being CEO.
Working together

Start with a clear read. Keep going as long as it helps.

Initial assessment

Fixed price
  • A close look at your product, data, team and how you work together
  • Where you're drifting, and why
  • A small set of experiments to run first

Ongoing advisory

Month to month, after the assessment
  • Honest feedback on direction, scope and what to cut
  • Vision and strategy workshops that get the whole team pointed the same way
  • Regular sessions with you to work through product and design decisions
  • Help hiring and growing your first designers
  • Someone in your corner between sessions
Results

I've worked beside startup CEOs, and sat at the leadership table of big names in games and media.

I change how teams work together. Then the change sticks.

26M
monthly players on Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment's game platform
15%
lift in engagement and retention at the LA Times
20+
person design team built from scratch at Zynga

Aimlabs

Chief Experience Officer

Aimlabs was small, so I partnered with the CEO on strategy and also worked hands-on with the team. Product and design both reported to me, as one team.

The CEO brought me in to fix the user experience. Aimlabs had just passed 25 million players.

I thought the job was the app. But only part of the team was working on it. The rest were spread across health apps, web products and esports coaching.

Then the market turned, and growing at any cost was over. Our leadership team sat down with the roadmap and the runway, and made the hard calls.

We shrank the portfolio to what helped players get better at the games they love. From there, we ran small revenue experiments and kept what caught on.

The one that stuck was a training tool for Valorant. It became the basis for the subscription Aimlabs still offers today.

Netflix Games

Design Manager

Netflix sounds like a big company. But Netflix Games runs like a startup, with lots of unknowns and changes in direction.

At first, a handful of designers each worked on their own. The pieces didn't fit. I built them into one 9-person team for the Netflix Game Platform. They work hand in hand with product and engineering. That team is still in place.

Blizzard Entertainment

Head of Design, Battle.net

I led a 40+ person design team on Battle.net, the game platform behind World of Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch.

When I joined, a massive redesign was about to start. The business, the user research and the game teams each wanted something different. The game teams weren't being heard.

I ran a workshop with Battle.net leadership, then with the product, design and engineering leads. Together we shaped one shared vision of where the platform could go.

That vision opened Battle.net to games beyond Blizzard's own, like Call of Duty. It also brought in new ways for players to discover games and stay engaged. Both are still part of Battle.net today.

Los Angeles Times

Design Director

Before the relaunch, I sat down with the leadership team. We got clear on what we were really building.

After the relaunch, engagement and retention rose 15%. Subscriptions rose 2%. I've run that same session ever since, including at Blizzard.

Christy Schaefer smiling outdoors, with green hills and the ocean behind
About me

At Blizzard, I told the whole business unit that the way product and design worked together was broken.

Most companies treat design and product strategy as separate conversations. But they never should be.

Great products come from people who trust each other and share a picture of where they're going. When product, design and engineering point the same way, a change in direction gets easier.

I'm best known for doing both: shaping the product vision, and leading the daily work that makes it real. What I'm proudest of is building teams that trust each other enough to do hard things together.

One team. One picture.

Contact

Your users won't wait for the next roadmap.

Most founders wait until the numbers force the question. But by then, people have already decided whether to come back.

Let's talk about what you're building and where people drift away.

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