Hey 👋. I’m Matt.
I help developer tools companies become the obvious choice.
I’ve spent 15+ years figuring out why some developer tools become beloved and others are avoided. Three things I’ve learned:
- Developers buy from people who understand their problems, not people who pitch solutions
- The best growth engine is a product operating model that understands its users, helping them look smart at work
- Community isn’t a marketing channel—it’s your product’s immune system
How I can help: Leading product and developer-oriented storytelling teams to scale developer experiences, design internal platform products, and improve how organizations build, ship, and operate software (especially in AI-augmented workflows). Currently open to Director/Principal/Head roles in product, growth, and developer relations teams.
Impact stories
Unifying an Internal Developer Platform — At Target, I led a data-driven pivot from a 3-year ServiceNow-based “single pane of glass” to a unified internal developer platform (TAP). Using Kano surveys and GQM analysis, I enabled VP/SVP decisions to EOL the failing initiative and focus 300+ engineers on a common vision. TAP scaled to 95%+ developer adoption, unified 1,200+ engineers, and introduced “developer capacity unlocked” as the northstar metric that influenced how all developer experience value, including GenAI, was calculated.
Establishing Product Management Standards at Enterprise Scale — I built a cross-functional working group to define modern PM standards anchored in SVPG’s strategic positioning. Over 2.5 years, we developed a new skills assessment, trained and aligned 700 PMs, 300+ leaders, and 30+ executives on a common definition of product, transforming how Target evaluated and developed PM talent.
Repositioning Communities as Growth Engines — At Red Hat, I led Digital Communities (23 people driving traffic comparable to RedHat.com). I repositioned these sites from publishing for page views to strategic awareness and acquisition engines. Using SEO/persona analysis to focus on high-intent topics, I redesigned four teams into a unified product-driven org, built a Salesforce integration POC connecting community behavior to pipeline signals, and influenced ~$25M in single-year bookings.
Expertise areas
Community leadership
Communities I’ve built — Co-founded DevRel Collective (2,000+ members). Co-hosted The Geek Whisperers podcast (140 episodes, 100K+ listeners). Designed Opensource.com Correspondent program, CHAOSScast, and Enable Architect. Led community programs for Sensu, Snap, EMC Elect, and Basho.
Open source contributions — Led the Kubernetes SIG contributor experience product marketing sub-group. Defined CHAOSS value metrics. See my GitHub contributions for more.
Learning communities — Deep in systems thinking: Team Topologies, Wardley Maps, John Cutler. Product management: Melissa Perri, SVPG. Technology: Kubernetes, CNCF, DevOps, Python, Go.
Recent insights
Finding My Way Back to Open Source Contribution
Finding My Way Back to Open Source Contribution Content Warning: This story includes loss and grief later on.
How I Used AI to Audit My Job Search
How I Used AI to Audit My Job Search (And You Can Too) I recently found myself with a pile of loosely connected materials–a dozen different resumes, LinkedIn edits, half-formed …
Falling in Love with AI Coding Agents
Falling in Love with AI Coding Agents I’ve been tinkering with AI coding agents lately—GitHub Copilot, Claude, Augment Code—and I’m kind of obsessed.
GenAI is magical
GenAI is magical at the intersection of ideas “If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent.
Why Product Teams Fail
Why Product Teams Fail (And It’s Not What You Think) I recently finished reading Product Operations by Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles, and it hit me like a revelation I …
Continued Relevance of Lean Thinking in Product Management
The Enduring Power of Lean Thinking in Product Development Why the core principles of lean startup remain essential, even as the tools and tactics evolve
From Project to Product Management
From Project to Product: A Shift That Changes Everything I’ve watched countless organizations struggle with a fundamental change they don’t quite realize they’re …
When Platform Products Fail: About Maps, Domains, Topologies
When Platform Products Fail - About Maps, Domains, Topologies I’ve been thinking about why platforms fail during organizational evolution, and I think the answer lies at the …
Loving GitIngest for Repo Exploration through LLM Grounding
I’m Loving GitIngest for Repo Exploration through LLM Grounding I’ve added a new tool–GitIngest–to my digital toolchain, and it’s been foundational to how I …
Applying Team Topologies to Marketing and Community
The following is a long post I’ve thought about for years.