My Story
I'm Christopher Carter. Most people call me Chris. "Howdy, Carter" is just what happens when a designer from small-town Pennsylvania ends up in Texas. It stuck.
I taught myself to design in a vo-tech program in Butler, PA, and landed my first professional role in 2011. By 2016, I was the sole designer on a product acquired for $128 million. From there I launched Audi Select nationally, built for 2.4 million Pro users at The Home Depot, shipped AI products at Microsoft, and now own AI product roadmaps at JPMorgan Chase as VP Product Manager — shipping 100+ AI components serving 80M+ customers.
In November 2025, at 35, I was diagnosed autistic. My camouflaging score was 152 out of 175, meaning I'd spent 17 years in corporate America performing a version of myself that wasn't real. The pattern recognition, the obsessive depth, the relentless drive. It wasn't a flaw. It was the whole point.
Now I'm 36, building in public, and done pretending. Writing honestly on Substack, launching Camino Institute and Design Dream, and proving that the things that made me different are exactly what make the work better.
