About

Before I knew product management was something you could do for a living, I was a web developer asking the questions that come before anyone decides what to build.

What problem actually needs to be solved?

I started my career designing and building websites, and later ran a small web design business. Our tagline was "making the web work for you," and we meant it. A website was never the goal. More leads, more sales, or less time spent on something done by hand was. Before we designed anything, we talked at length with the client about what the business expected to get out of it.

That carried into product management at ITX, a software consultancy, where I worked with enterprise clients in HR technology, healthcare, and research publishing. At Skillsoft I owned the admin experience and badging for the Percipio learning platform. Today I'm a Principal Product Manager at SafeSide Prevention, which provides suicide prevention training, where I'm bringing AI into our products and the way we work.

The domains have varied, from e-commerce to learning platforms, but the underlying theme has always been a relentless focus on understanding what people really need. And then building it.

A few places to start

• Badging for customers' own contentOpening up verifiable badges to the content customers upload themselves.
• A guide instead of a featureA small in-app guide that moved a number without any developer time.
• The Broken Windows Customer ExperienceWhy small signs of neglect in a product matter more than they seem.
• Good enough gets it doneAn idea I never shipped, and what I took from that.

Outside of work

When I'm not working, you can find me mountain biking, hiking, exploring with my camera, and generally enjoying life.

I also volunteer as a certified crew boss, leading teams in the field, with Massasauga Search and Rescue Team.