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
Dont Confuse Your Skills with Your Job Title
Don’t Confuse Your Skills with Your Job Title “The map of reality is not reality.
Work as a Game – Both Finite and Infinite
Work as a Game: Play as Both Finite and Infinite “A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.
Make Obsidian a Digital Garden
Growing Ideas Like Mycelia In 2010 I was told “if you ever have to explain something more than once, write a blog post.
Make Obsidian inline dataview properties prettier with this CSS
I’ve found it far more useful to use Obsidian properties when I see them.
My Path to Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)
My Path to Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) I spent years trying to build the perfect system.
Takeaways from reading Transformed by Marty Cagan
I recently finished “Transformed” by Marty Cagan and team, and it’s helping me connect some crucial dots about how modern product organizations actually work.
My Product Management Learning Path
I’ve been thinking a lot about my learning path as a product leader.
Tips for your first 30 days of remote work
I have spent over 10 years working primarily remote, and they have taught me practices I will implement from day one of a new job.
So You Lost Your Job: Now What?
Some of the most talented, thoughtful, and effective people I have ever worked with were recently laid off.
Building Product Community — How to think about brand association
Thinking through how close you wish a community to be to your brand–an affinity or upstream community–is an exercise that will pay off in the long run.