About Chris Goodwyn
I've been on the other side of the table
for 20 years.
Director of Design. Design Operations lead. Twenty-plus years across companies like Wayfair, Interac, and Wattpad - building teams, running hiring loops, sitting in the calibration meetings where careers actually get decided.
What I saw in those rooms
Here's what I saw in those rooms, over and over: talented people getting passed over. Not because the work was weak. The work was usually strong. They got passed over because they couldn't articulate who they were becoming. They presented their craft and hoped someone would infer the rest. Nobody infers the rest.
I watched it derail good people for two decades. Eventually I stopped watching.
Why I do this now
Leaving design leadership to coach wasn't a clean pivot. I went through the same thing my clients go through - untangling who I was from the title on the org chart, figuring out what I actually wanted versus what the next obvious rung was, and learning to trust that the answer I kept circling was allowed to be the answer.
So when a client tells me they feel like a fraud in interviews, or that they can't explain a layoff without flinching, or that they got the leadership title and lost the plot - I'm not working from a textbook. I know what the middle of that transition feels like, because I navigated it myself. Recently enough to remember. That's the credibility I'm offering. Not that I have it all figured out. That I know the terrain.
How I work
I'm trained in the Co-Active coaching model through CTI - one of the most established coach training bodies in the world. The premise is simple and it shapes everything: you are creative, resourceful, and whole. You're not broken, and I'm not here to fix you. My job is to hold up the mirror and ask the questions nobody else is asking you - not to hand you a map I drew.
That's the coaching half. The other half is mentorship, and it draws on the 20 years: portfolio, resume, positioning, interview prep, reviewed by someone who has actually run the hiring loops you're walking into.
The call is free and the
calendar is open.
30 minutes, no agenda beyond figuring out where you're stuck.
Book a free call →Or email me directly if that feels easier.