Turning ambiguous problems into products that scale, from zero to billions.
I spent my summers growing up on canoe trips in Algonquin and Temagami, taking campers into the backcountry. Long portages, wind on open water, full days of paddling. My favourite moment on any trip was watching a 14-year-old pick up an 80-pound canoe at the start of a portage they'd been dreading and walk it all the way to the other end.
Nobody talked them into it. They packed lighter, found a pace they could hold, and leaned on the campers and staff around them. Everyone on a trip hits a point where they're tired and wet and there's still another portage before camp. Almost everyone gets through it, and they come home knowing they can do more than they thought.
I think about those trips a lot at work. Most teams can do more than they expect when they know where they're headed and aren't carrying extra weight. A lot of my job looks like it did on trip: cut what we can leave behind, keep an eye on how people are holding up, and make the next portage feel doable.
Turning user problems into product decisions that actually matter
Strategy starts with what users actually struggle with, not what we assume they need. The hard part is saying no to good ideas so the team can execute the great ones.
The eval set is the product spec
In probabilistic systems you can't write a deterministic spec, so the eval set defines what the model must get right and which failures you refuse to ship. Trust is the product, which means users should understand what happened and fix it cheaply when it misses.
Building repeatable systems that compound over time
Growth isn't a hack. It's finding the moment users get value and removing every obstacle in front of it. Durable growth comes from products people genuinely want to use, not clever tricks.
Getting out of the way so teams can do their best work
Set direction, not tactics. Make the problem clear, explain why it matters, then let the team find the how. Trust is built by surfacing problems early and planning the recovery, not by projecting false confidence.
Removing the friction that slows teams down
Most operational problems are communication problems: too many meetings, unclear ownership, decisions that need five approvals. I find where work gets stuck and simplify until the path is obvious, because the best process is the one nobody notices.
Using numbers to make better decisions, faster
Finance isn't spreadsheets. It's understanding tradeoffs: this feature or that market, the real cost of moving faster. I build models that answer those questions clearly, so teams can decide with confidence. Clarity beats precision.
Swipe to paddle the route · 01 / 06
