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
My Approach to Pay Equity as a Manager
Over the years, I have had more impact on people’s job titles, responsibilities, and–importantly–their salaries.
3 tech resume tips to get seen by the hiring manager
I recently reviewed a handful of resumes for friends and mentees, and I saw the same pattern in each.
Sharing the tools that I use to stay productive
It’s a new year (allegedly*), and I’m finding new ways to share who I am and what kind of work I love to do.
A must-follow rule of resume building
I have helped a lot of people refine a pitch: a one-liner that helps them effectively message who they are and what they do well.
Add competencies to your resume
Job hunting as terrible. I keep writing about it in the hopes of your experience being a little less terrible based on some lessons I’ve learned.
Sharing the Job Hunting Pipeline Blueprint
There is nothing like some unexpected job hunting to send a reasonably confident person into a spiral of panic.
Job hunting tips for nonlinear careers
I originally wrote this post while job hunting in 2018. I knew I needed a change from the work I was doing, and I developed a tool (read: spreadsheet) that helped reinforce a few …
Mac error on pip install ends up being clang and xcode
I have been having intermittent installation errors with Python packages on my Mac.
An (even more) practical guide to open source contribution
I had the pleasure of speaking at DevOps Minneapolis to a great group of people.
Creating a Contributor Experience for Humans
In preparation for the wonderful Open Source 101, I wanted to challenge my assumptions on what makes a great contributor experience by asking.