Field PrepGet Field Prepped

Product design strategy & experience

Get your digital products field-ready.

Field Prep provides fractional design leadership for high-stakes digital products, helping product teams uncover friction, develop the right solutions, and ship experiences that deliver meaningful outcomes.

Explore the approach
20+
Years Digital Product Design & UX
10+
Years Global Healthcare Experience
Fortune 500
Design Leadership Experience

The signs you're ready for Field Prep.

Something feels off.

Users are getting through the product, but friction, inconsistency, and accumulated design debt are starting to show.

You don't know what to fix first.

There are plenty of ideas and opinions. What's missing is a clear, evidence-based set of priorities.

Your team needs senior design leadership.

You have people who can execute. You need someone who can establish direction, raise the quality bar, and connect the decisions.

You're not ready for another full-time hire.

Get the judgment and leadership of an experienced design executive at the level and for the length of time you actually need.

Start with an audit. Grow from there.

01

UX Audit

Typically 2–4 weeks · focused assessment

The clearest place to start.

A focused assessment that shows where your product creates friction, what matters most, and what to do next, grounded in usability, accessibility, workflow, and business impact.

What you get

  • Product and workflow assessment
  • Usability and UX review
  • Accessibility review
  • Prioritized issues and opportunities
  • Annotated examples and recommendations
  • Executive findings readout
  • 30/60/90-day recommended action plan
  • Accessibility remediation, design systems, DesignOps, and hands-on product work scoped from findings
02

Fractional Design Leadership

Typically 3+ months · embedded in the work

Senior design leadership inside your team without the commitment of another full-time executive.

Embedded with your product team to own design direction and priorities, coach designers, partner with Product and Engineering, improve systems and quality, and help build or mature the design function.

Fractional = Embedded ownership

What you get

  • Embedded with the product team
  • Owns design direction and priorities
  • Coaches and supports designers
  • Partners directly with Product and Engineering
  • Improves design systems, processes, and quality
  • Helps build or mature the design function
03

Advisory Retainer

Ongoing monthly · strategic guidance

Senior design judgment when your team needs guidance, review, or a second set of experienced eyes.

Regular product and design reviews, roadmap and prioritization guidance, design system guidance, UX critique, leadership coaching, and strategic input without becoming embedded in day-to-day execution.

Advisory = Ongoing guidance

What you get

  • Regular product and design reviews
  • Roadmap and prioritization guidance
  • Design system guidance
  • UX critique
  • Leadership coaching
  • Strategic input without day-to-day execution

How it works

Process
01

Discovery

I start with your goals, your product, your users, and the real challenges your team is facing. Context before solutions.

02

Audit

If you need an expert review of your product, processes, or team structure, I deliver focused findings and practical recommendations you can act on.

03

Tailored Strategy

I build a plan that fits your needs, with scope, priorities, and design direction aligned with where the business is headed.

04

Flexible & Ongoing Support

I’m there when you need me: more during big pushes and less when things are running smoothly. I guide your team, review work, and keep design decisions aligned with your goals over time.

05

Expand

Findings become strategy, design, fractional leadership, or a standing advisory retainer.

Built from experience

Complex Products. Proven Leadership.

Two decades of work across regulated healthcare, national media, automotive, and large consumer marketplaces, where scale, compliance, and real user stakes collide.

  • CVS Health
    Healthcare
  • HIMSS
    Health IT
  • Everyday Health
    Health media
  • theSkimm
    Media
  • Kelley Blue Book
    Automotive
  • Autotrader
    Automotive
  • Lose It!
    Consumer health
  • Castle Connolly
    Healthcare
  • Diabetes Daily
    Health media
  • Cox
    Enterprise

Selected organizations and products supported through in-house leadership, consulting, and design work.

Real results from engagements

150%+
increase in app users for a consumer health app after a 6-month redesign
120%
surge in user program enrollments after introducing an onboarding flow
30%
increase in engagement following a full digital rebrand and website overhaul
Chris Villano, founder of Field Prep Studios
Who's behind Field Prep

Hi, I'm Chris Villano.

I’ve spent more than 20 years leading product design, including the past decade in healthcare at organizations like CVS Health, HIMSS, and Everyday Health. I’ve designed and led the teams behind clinical tools, patient experiences, and design systems built for complex, regulated environments.

I started Field Prep after seeing the same challenge again and again: talented teams moving quickly, but without the senior design leadership needed to connect user needs, product strategy, engineering realities, and business goals. Field Prep brings that experience to teams when they need it, whether that means a focused UX audit, hands-on product design support, or fractional design leadership, for the scope and length of time that actually makes sense.

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Straight answers

Frequently asked questions

What exactly do I get from a UX audit?

You'll get a clear assessment of what's working, what isn't, and what deserves attention first. Depending on the product and scope, that may include usability findings, accessibility issues, workflow friction, design-system inconsistencies, annotated recommendations, prioritized opportunities, and a practical roadmap your team can act on.

Our data is sensitive. Can you even work with us?

Yes. Most of this work, including audits, strategy, and design leadership, is based on how your product works, not what's inside it, so it rarely touches sensitive data at all. On the occasions it does, I sign the same privacy and security agreements your other vendors do before I look at anything.

How is this different from hiring a UX agency?

Unlike a traditional agency model, Field Prep is intentionally senior-led. You work directly with the person assessing the product, setting the direction, and helping your team execute. There are no layers of account management between you and the work.

We're not a healthcare company. Is Field Prep a fit?

Yes, even though I've spent the majority of the last 10 years in Healthcare, that's not where it stops. If your product is complex, high-stakes, or hard to use, the same readiness discipline applies.

Need broader support such as marketing strategy, content, or production?

I work with a small set of trusted partners I bring in as needed, so you get senior judgment without assembling a team yourself.

Let's talk

Find the friction. Fix what matters.