Minimum Viable Process
Use the absolute lowest number of steps, stages, artifacts, stakeholders, and approvals you can get away with. Never add process or guardrails to fix a problem that you wouldn't have if you'd hired better.
Product,
Engineering,
and Culture.
I'm Mike.
I love building products and the small, fast teams that ship great ones.
How Becomes What
How you work is at least as important as what you build, because the former directly shapes the latter. Use excellent tools you find inspiring. Just say no to Microsoft slop.
Roadmaps Are Fake
You have no idea what your adoption, market, competitors, usage, or team will look like in three years. Why pretend like you know what the best product decision will be that far down the road? Have conviction about direction and the next problem or two you want to solve for your users. That's enough.
Shipping Is A Feature
Ship something small, track its impact directly from the database, and repeat until you've delivered something that makes a difference. This is the meta-feature that enables you to build something great, and it's more important than any dashboard or integration or AI summary you could add to your product.
Currently Building
Soundcheck
The best way to give your volunteers a voice. A new team culture platform for churches and touring.
Check it out
M1 MacBook Pro 14"
5 years and running for the best Mac I've ever owned (out of 8, I think?). Unbinned M1 Pro / 32GB / 2TB. Underrated desk setup: this machine and a display. No other peripherals.
On EverymacApple Studio Display
True 2:1 Retina scaling is a must when you stare at text all day. The excellent color is really useful for design reviews (I tell myself). But honestly, it's good to have inspiring tools. The height adjustment is definitely worth it.
Get fancyCleanShot X + Pixelsnap
A duo of irreplaceable macOS utilities for measuring, marking, and taking screenshots. I mean, when Jason Fried is your product's leading testimonial, what else do I have to say?
Airtable
I use Airtable recreationally at this point. It runs my personal financial system, health data, you name it. It's an amazingly versatile tool for anyone who thinks in terms of relational data. Great Claude connector too.
Table timeCode&Quill Origin
An excellent notebook with a combination of dot grid and normal lines. Apparently you remember things better when you write them down.
open the bookPro-Mark 747
My favorite stick for what has to be 15 years at this point. Slightly thicker shoulder for a forward weight. Just the perfect balance across all aspects. Hickory, wood tip (duh).
Pick up sticksSenior Product Manager
2026 — PRESENTAssetMark
Lead product development for new account enrollment, for the at-scale TAMP (turn-key asset management platform).
Senior Product Manager
2023 — 2026ECP
Led the senior living CRM and launched an admissions-focused Move-Ins product, opening a lucrative enterprise growth channel.
VP Product (Startup)
2021-2023MxU
Took the codebase from rails new to thousands of MAUs. Built the PLG motion that led to >100% net revenue retention. Managed small dev team.
Engineering Chief of Staff; Research Program Manager
2017-2021Riskalyze (now Nitrogen Wealth)
Scaled the R+D organization after the company's Series A round. Led our first two SOC 2 audits. Defined a new system of product adoption reporting and tooling.
Before software...
Spent 10 years as a touring drummer, endorsed by Paiste, Evans, and Pro-Mark.
