Expertise
Consulting, advisory, mentorship, and rapid product development
I have spent the past decade building data products, leading cross-functional teams, and scaling startups from seed to Series D. My current focus is product leadership and spec-driven development (SDD): writing specs precise enough that AI agents can build from them, with the review loops that keep quality high. Whether you need strategic product leadership, a data architecture overhaul, a board-level perspective, or a working prototype built fast, I can help.
How I Work
Spec-driven development is a practice, not a slogan. These are the six rules underneath it: the ones I actually use when I write a spec, review an agent's output, or decide whether something is ready to ship. The full field reports live in the spec-driven development series.
- 1. Evidence over inference. Every requirement traces to a source: an interview, a comment, sample data, a decision someone actually made. I do not infer a status from a date. I check it.
- 2. Validate data before asserting it. I write and run my own SQL and work through the underlying math myself before I make a claim, and I look for side-by-side proof before I draw a conclusion.
- 3. Reversible by default. Back up before you edit. Keep canonical copies version-controlled. Nothing ships that cannot be undone.
- 4. Right-sized rigor. Strip over-engineering. Only build the abstractions that earn their keep. Every feature gets example-based tests for the happy path, the edge case, and the error case.
- 5. Automate the tedious. If I do something twice, it becomes a tool, with explicit triggers, deterministic steps, and a pass or fail check.
- 6. Communication discipline. Concise, direct, get to the point.
Work with me
Four fixed-scope engagements for teams who need senior data product help without a full-time hire. Each starts with a 30-minute fit call, ends with a clear deliverable, and runs nights and weekends so it does not conflict with my day job.
Fractional Data Product Manager
Embedded with your team for 8 to 12 weeks. I run discovery, write the data product spec, define contracts and SLAs, and ship a roadmap your engineers can build against. Best for fintech and capital markets teams between Series A and C.
Deliverables: data product spec, contracts, semantic layer plan, 6-month roadmap.
Data Architecture and Contracts Review
A two to three week audit of your data platform with a focus on AI readiness. I review schemas, contracts, lineage, freshness, and access patterns, then deliver a written report with prioritized fixes ranked by impact and effort.
Deliverables: written audit, prioritized fix list, AI-readiness scorecard.
Data Product Strategy Sprint
Four weeks to go from "we have data" to a real data product strategy. I run stakeholder interviews, map consumers including AI agents and humans, and deliver a strategy document plus an executive readout. Good for new data leaders in their first 90 days.
Deliverables: strategy doc, consumer map, exec readout deck.
Workshops and 1:1 Coaching
Half-day workshops on building data products for AI consumers, data contracts, or PM-engineering collaboration. Or a 6-session 1:1 coaching package for data PMs and analysts moving into product leadership.
Deliverables: facilitated workshop and recap, or 6 coaching sessions plus async support.
Data Products for AI Consumers
Hands-on advisory for teams building data products where AI tools, language models, and machine learning systems are first-class consumers. I work full time on this at one of the world's largest banks and help founders and product teams design data products that AI agents can actually use.
What I bring
- Data product strategy where AI agents, LLMs, and analysts are co-equal consumers, including schema, semantics, and access design
- AI-ready data architecture: contracts, lineage, freshness SLAs, embeddings, retrieval design, and evaluation
- Internal use of AI tools to accelerate data product delivery, from documentation to data quality to discovery
- Spec-driven development in practice: product specs written for AI coding agents to execute, plus the evaluation and review loops that keep the output shippable
- Roadmaps that prioritize the data foundations AI products depend on, instead of bolting AI onto weak data
- Hands-on technical validation: I write my own SQL, work through the underlying financial math myself, and confirm data claims against production before asserting them, rather than taking analysis on faith
From my experience
- Lead four data product teams at a major U.S. bank, including one that is fully AI-engineered through spec-driven development, building capital markets data products across fixed income, equity, and loan servicing that serve both AI systems and human users
- Member of the firm's AI council for global banking and a featured presenter on AI for training at the firm's innovation week
- Specs I write ship directly into production without an engineer rewriting them first, including a bond analytics engine, a database-to-document serving layer, and an instrument pricing service. Processes that used to take a week now take hours; roadmap items scoped for a quarter now ship in weeks
- Founding data scientist on Convoy's pricing team, where the data products I built powered core marketplace economics through a unicorn run
- Quantitative trading background at Bridgewater and Chopper Trading, with statistics and machine learning training from Carnegie Mellon
Fractional Chief Product Officer
Embedded product leadership for startups and growth-stage companies that need senior strategy without a full-time executive hire.
What I bring
- Product roadmap strategy grounded in market analysis, customer feedback loops, and quantitative research
- Pricing model development through competitive benchmarking and sensitivity analysis
- Go-to-market planning and OKR alignment across engineering, design, sales, and operations
- Data infrastructure guidance, from warehouse architecture to self-serve analytics
From my experience
- At Baton Technologies, directed the product roadmap and scaled the company from 8 to 50 B2B enterprise customers (525% growth), managing 80+ feature launches across the full product lifecycle
- At Range Financial, reorganized the Product org around outcome-based OKRs and shipped 5 product launches, including an AI-powered automation tool that reduced planning time by 30%
- At Convoy, built a 3-year financial model supporting the CFO through Series B, C, and D fundraising totaling $650M
Product Team Mentor and Organizer
Hands-on coaching for product managers, analysts, and cross-functional teams. I help teams adopt better processes, sharpen their discovery habits, and ship with more confidence.
What I bring
- Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) discovery interview frameworks and synthesis
- A/B testing and experimentation program design
- Analytics stack setup and dashboard design for tracking success metrics
- Cross-functional team alignment and stakeholder management coaching
- Individual mentorship for junior product managers and analysts growing into leadership
From my experience
- At Baton Technologies, led JTBD discovery interviews that shipped features growing revenue by 10% and achieving 100% net retention
- At Beam Dental Insurance, led a team of three analysts, standing up operational efficiency measurement from scratch and building headcount forecasting models that reduced overtime costs by 22%
- At Convoy, designed and executed A/B testing frameworks for contract pricing models, driving $50M incremental Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) through experimentation
- At Convoy, mentored 2 team members into analytics roles by teaching SQL and data analysis
Vibe Code Executor
Turn your product idea into a working prototype, fast. I combine product thinking with hands-on development to build functional applications, data pipelines, and internal tools using modern frameworks and AI-assisted coding.
What I bring
- Full-stack prototyping with React Native, Expo, Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS
- Backend and data pipeline development with Python, FastAPI, SQL, and Databricks
- AI-assisted rapid development to compress timelines from months to weeks
- Data warehouse architecture and ETL pipeline design
- From concept to deployed application, with product strategy baked in from day one
From my experience
- Built multiple published apps including a personal finance tracker, a book review platform, and a carbon accounting tool for farmers, all using React Native, Expo, and modern backend stacks
- At Range Financial, shipped an AI/ML-powered automation tool for retirement calculations, validating product-market fit in a Series A fintech
- At Convoy, created the company's core pricing tool using JavaScript and Google Sheets, directly contributing to approximately $500M in ARR
- At Chopper Trading, developed quantitative trading strategy algorithms and automated testing frameworks in Python
Company Advisor
Strategic guidance for founders and executive teams navigating product-market fit, fundraising, data strategy, and scaling. I work as a recurring advisor, typically monthly, to help you make better decisions faster.
What I bring
- Product-market fit validation through quantitative analysis and customer signal mapping
- Fundraising preparation, including financial modeling, pitch deck strategy, and investor narrative development
- Pricing and monetization strategy grounded in competitive benchmarking and sensitivity analysis
- Data infrastructure and analytics architecture guidance for early and growth-stage companies
- Organizational design advice for product, data, and engineering teams as you scale
From my experience
- At Convoy, built the 3-year financial model that supported the CFO through Series B, C, and D fundraising totaling $650M, and designed pricing models that contributed to approximately $500M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
- At Baton Technologies, advised on go-to-market strategy that scaled the company from 8 to 50 B2B enterprise customers (525% growth) while maintaining 100% net retention
- At Range Financial, guided the product organization through restructuring around outcome-based OKRs and helped validate product-market fit for an AI-powered retirement planning tool
- Lead data product strategy across bond issuance, reference, and trade/quote systems at one of the largest financial institutions in the world
Board Member
I am open to joining boards of mission-driven companies where I can contribute product, data, and growth expertise. This requires a pitch from your team so I can evaluate alignment with my experience and interests.
What I look for
- Companies in fintech, edtech, data infrastructure, health tech, or sustainability
- Founders and teams with a clear mission and a genuine problem worth solving
- Businesses where product strategy, data architecture, or go-to-market execution are critical levers
- Early-stage through growth-stage companies where board-level input can have an outsized impact
What I bring to a board
- 6 years of active board membership across two organizations: Mouse (national youth technology nonprofit) and St. Edward High School, including strategic curriculum development
- Direct operating experience scaling startups from seed through Series D, with a track record across product, data, finance, and growth
- Large enterprise perspective from a major U.S. bank, understanding how institutional buyers evaluate products and vendors
- A quantitative mindset grounded in statistics, financial modeling, and experimentation
How it works
- Use the contact form below to pitch your company. Include your stage, what you are building, and why you think I would be a good fit.
- I will review every submission and follow up if there is alignment
Data Strategy Consultant
Focused engagements to design, audit, or overhaul your data infrastructure. From warehouse architecture to self-serve analytics, I help companies build data systems that actually get used.
What I bring
- Data warehouse architecture design and migration planning (Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery)
- ETL and ELT pipeline design, including orchestration strategy and data quality frameworks
- Analytics stack selection and implementation, from ingestion through dashboarding
- Self-serve data culture development, including metric definition, documentation, and training
- Database schema design for financial data modeling, time-series data, and complex hierarchical structures
From my experience
- Design and build data transformation pipelines in Databricks daily at a major U.S. bank, creating database schemas for bond issuance, reference data, and trade/quote financial data modeling
- At Convoy, built the analytics infrastructure that powered pricing experimentation generating $50M in incremental ARR, and created data pipelines that scaled with the company from Series A through D
- At Beam Dental Insurance, stood up operational efficiency measurement from scratch, building the data foundation for headcount forecasting that reduced overtime costs by 22%
- At Bridgewater Associates, worked with quantitative data systems at one of the world's largest hedge funds
Speaker and Workshop Facilitator
I speak and lead workshops on topics at the intersection of data, product management, AI, education, and fintech. Available for conferences, company offsites, university guest lectures, and panel discussions.
Topics I cover
- Building data products in financial services and what makes them succeed or fail
- AI in the workplace: practical applications, team adoption, and where the hype falls short
- Product management in ambiguous environments, from startup chaos to enterprise complexity
- Education reform in the age of AI, drawn from my book The Human Curriculum
- From quant trading to product leadership: nonlinear career paths in tech
- Experimentation culture: how to build A/B testing into your company DNA
From my experience
- Author of two books: The Human Curriculum (education reform in the age of AI) and The Accents of Faith (religion examined through science)
- Developed a 10X Strategic Curriculum Plan for St. Edward High School as a board member
- Career spanning quantitative trading (Chopper Trading, Bridgewater Associates), high-growth startups (Convoy, Baton, Range), and large enterprise banking, providing a unique cross-domain perspective
- Carnegie Mellon University graduate with a double major in Business Administration and Statistics
Get in Touch
Interested in working together? Tell me about your project or team, and I will follow up within a few days.