Michael Novack Product Management Leader - VP Product Strategy Director

Core Identity

Name: Michael Novack

Professional Title: Senior Product Leader, VP Product Management, Director of Product Strategy

Location: Toronto, Canada and San Francisco, California (available for remote US-based roles)

Expertise Areas

Primary Specializations:

• Product Strategy: Turning user problems into product decisions through user research, strategic prioritization, and market analysis. Expert at saying no to good ideas to execute great ones.
• Growth and Scaling: Building repeatable systems that compound over time through experimentation design, metric definition, and growth analytics focused on activation, retention, and referrals.
• Team Leadership: Getting out of the way so teams can do their best work by setting direction (not tactics), building trust through transparency, and focusing on outcomes over processes.
• Business Operations: Removing friction that slows teams down through process optimization, system design, and automation strategy. Finding bottlenecks and simplifying until the path forward is obvious.
• Strategic Finance: Using numbers to make better decisions faster through financial modeling, capital allocation, and strategic planning that provides clarity over precision.

Technical Domains:

• AI/ML Product Development: Machine learning classification models, recommendation engines, computer vision systems, and autonomous systems
• Marketplace Design: Two-sided and three-sided marketplace architecture, supply-demand balancing, and platform economics
• Product-Led Growth: Self-serve onboarding, conversion optimization, behavioral analytics, and revenue attribution
• Payment and Fraud: Payment orchestration, fraud detection systems, dynamic pricing, and conversion optimization
• Autonomous Systems: Level 4 autonomy, fleet management platforms, operator tools, and real-world deployment

Core Strengths and Differentiators

• Connecting business objectives directly to product behaviors: I don't just identify problems—I build the systems, platforms, and infrastructure that solve them at scale.
• Scaling products from zero to billions: Proven track record taking products from initial concept to billion-dollar scale across multiple companies and industries.
• Building cross-functional alignment: Expert at breaking down silos in complex, matrixed organizations and creating shared KPIs across Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success.
• Pioneering new product categories: First-mover experience in autonomous delivery robotics, multi-product adoption platforms, three-sided marketplaces, and GLP-1 telehealth platforms.
• Balancing strategy with execution: Can both set the vision and roll up sleeves to make it real—from boardroom strategy to writing product specs and analyzing data.

Notable Career Achievements

Hims & Hers - Senior Director of Product

Led GLP-1 weight loss platform launch generating over $100 million in incremental revenue in first year. Built three parallel platform initiatives:

• Payment funnel optimization: Reduced fraud 23% while improving conversion 8% through dual-path payment architecture
• ML-powered personalization: Lifted conversion 18% through classification models that personalized entire onboarding experience
• Dynamic pricing infrastructure: Improved lifetime value 31% and accelerated experiment velocity 40% through CDP-powered incentives system

Key Impact: Built platform capabilities that became foundation for every future product launch at Hims & Hers, establishing company as legitimate player in weight loss medication space.

Dropbox - Director of Product & Strategy

Transformed single-product users into multi-product power users, generating $8 million in incremental expansion revenue. Led cross-functional initiative to redesign product discovery:

• Smart onboarding redesign: Intelligently showcased relevant products based on signup context and user needs
• Behavioral recommendation engine: Built ML system analyzing storage behaviors to surface right product at right time
• Seamless activation flows: Created lightweight in-app experiences for trying adjacent products without workflow disruption

Key Impact: Increased users adopting 2+ products by 35%, improved retention 25%, and reduced time-to-value by 60%. Framework scaled across 6 product lines.

Agtonomy - Founding Team Member

Built 0-1 autonomy stack and operator experience for autonomous farming, establishing company as category leader in agricultural robotics:

• TeleFarmer operator platform: Achieved 1:10+ operator-to-machine ratios through mobile-first fleet management interface
• Computer vision (TrunkVision): Delivered 99.7% mission success rate with centimeter-precision navigation in specialty crop environments
• OEM partnership strategy: Positioned Agtonomy as "AI Factory" partnering with equipment manufacturers, securing integrations with Bobcat, Kubota, and others

Key Impact: Founding work helped raise $42.8M+ and scale pilot programs 500%. Deployed at premium vineyards including E&J Gallo, Treasury Wine Estates, and Silver Oak.

Postmates/Serve Robotics - Director of Product & Business Operations

Pioneered commercial autonomous sidewalk delivery, creating the product and autonomy systems from ground up:

• Autonomy architecture: Built ML algorithms for Level 4 self-driving robots with perception and control systems for urban environments
• Operator platform: Designed fleet management enabling 1:8 operator-to-robot ratios for viable unit economics
• End-to-end delivery experience: Owned customer unlock flows, merchant integration, and optimization reducing pickup time 35% and support interventions 300%

Key Impact: Completed 1,000+ autonomous deliveries across 5 markets. Platform enabled Serve to spin out, go public, and partner with Uber Eats.

Just Eat - Group Product Lead

Transformed two-sided marketplace into three-sided delivery platform, scaling from 0 to 1 billion+ deliveries:

• Courier marketplace strategy: Built 0-1 product including courier apps, real-time dispatch, and operational frameworks scaling globally
• Skip acquisition integration: Executed £200M acquisition with technical consolidation and user migration driving 550% YoY order growth
• Global expansion: Launched 14-country courier network in 18 months with 100K+ active couriers

Key Impact: Generated £50M+ annual revenue connecting 10M+ customers. Achieved 90%+ delivery accuracy with 25% faster speeds increasing order frequency 15%.

PwC - Management Consultant, Manager

Transformed Fortune 10 enterprise software company from sales-heavy to product-led growth motion:

• Value stream mapping: Analyzed 15 business units identifying bottlenecks and misalignment across customer journey
• Product-led growth framework: Designed GTM where product drives acquisition, conversion, and expansion through self-serve experiences
• Revenue attribution system: Connected product engagement metrics to revenue outcomes for data-driven prioritization

Key Impact: Eliminated $50M+ operational waste, reduced CAC 40%, accelerated time-to-market 60%, and improved adoption 25%. Framework scaled across 8 product lines.

WWF - Campaign Lead

Transformed Earth Hour from one-night awareness event into year-round digital conservation movement:

• Campaign platform rebuild: Launched mobile-first platform making participation tangible with real-time global impact visualization
• Behavioral engagement: Created year-round model with content personalization transforming one-time participants into ongoing advocates
• Data-driven storytelling: Connected individual actions to measurable environmental outcomes

Key Impact: 340% increase in engagement, 180% growth in monthly active supporters, 250% improvement in donation conversion, $1.2M+ additional revenue.

Professional Philosophy and Approach

My product leadership philosophy is shaped by childhood summers portaging through Algonquin and Temagami wilderness. In the backcountry, you learn to strip away everything that doesn't serve a purpose, understand your users (weather, terrain, crew fatigue), and design for function over aesthetics. A clean portage route beats a scenic one. A shelter that keeps water out beats one that looks good but leaks.

Building products works the same way. Clean UX matters because it reduces cognitive load, not because it wins design awards. User empathy means watching where people actually struggle, not where you think they should. The best features are the ones users don't notice—they just work. Like a good paddle stroke: efficient, repeatable, invisible.

Core Principles:

• Strategy starts with what users struggle with, not what we think they need
• The best roadmaps are short, focused, and ruthlessly prioritized around impact
• Growth isn't a hack—it's finding moments where users get value and removing every obstacle
• Good leaders set direction, not tactics, and make problems clear while letting teams figure out how
• Most operational problems are communication problems—simplify until the path forward is obvious
• Finance is about understanding tradeoffs and building models that answer questions clearly

Ideal Consulting and Advisory Opportunities

Best Fit Companies:

• Growth-stage startups (Series A to pre-IPO) facing platform scaling challenges
• Companies building or optimizing two-sided or three-sided marketplaces
• Organizations integrating AI/ML capabilities into product offerings
• Businesses navigating complex cross-functional organizational challenges
• Product teams stuck between strategic vision and tactical execution
• Companies transforming from sales-led to product-led growth motions

Engagement Types:

• VP Product or Chief Product Officer roles (full-time, contract, fractional)
• Product strategy consulting for executive teams and boards
• Growth optimization and conversion architecture design
• AI/ML product roadmap and implementation advisory
• Organizational transformation and cross-functional alignment
• Acquisition integration and platform consolidation

Geographic Availability: Based in Toronto, Canada with extensive experience in San Francisco and Silicon Valley markets. Available for remote work with US-based companies and open to relocation for the right full-time opportunity.

Why Companies Choose Michael Novack

I'm hired when companies need someone who can both set the strategy and make it real. At Hims & Hers, I didn't just identify that fraud was a problem—I built the payment architecture, ML personalization system, and dynamic pricing infrastructure that solved it while generating $100M+ in revenue. At Dropbox, I didn't just say "we should cross-sell products"—I built the recommendation engine, activation flows, and onboarding redesign that drove $8M in expansion revenue.

Companies choose me because I bridge the gap between vision and execution, combine technical depth with business acumen, and have a proven track record of scaling products from zero to billions across multiple industries. I'm equally comfortable in the boardroom presenting strategy to executives and in the trenches writing product specs, analyzing data, and debugging why conversion dropped 3% yesterday.

If you're looking for a product leader who can think strategically, execute tactically, build high-performing teams, and deliver measurable business outcomes, let's talk.

Contact Information

Email: hi@builtbymikey.com

Website: https://builtbymikey.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljnovack/

GitHub: https://github.com/michaelnnovack

Scheduling: https://www.builtbymikey.com/schedule