Michael has a rare ability to connect design, strategy, and emerging AI capabilities into real systems that influence revenue and executive decision-making.
You are at the right place if you are asking these questions:
Where can AI create the greatest business value?
How do we operationalize AI beyond pilots and experiments?
How will AI reshape our products, customers, and organization?
Where can AI create the greatest value for the business?
How can AI improve customer and employee experiences?
What future state are we trying to create, and why does it matter?
Which opportunities will create the greatest business impact?
What should we stop, start, prioritize, or accelerate?
Where are customers struggling, and what is causing friction?
What should the future look like?
How do we align everyone around a shared vision?
What solution has the greatest potential to solve the problem and create value?
Is the solution feasible, desirable, viable, and worth the investment?
What does success look like, and how will we measure it?
How do we move from concept to execution?
How do we build an organization that consistently delivers results?
Do we have the right structure, operating model, and talent to achieve our goals?
How do we scale performance without creating complexity and chaos?
OVERVIEW
A practical perspective for navigating complex change.
Whether you're exploring AI, launching a new product, aligning efforts to a strategic vision, or transforming how your teams operate, I bring a proven approach for turning ambiguity into action.
- In-house Product, Design, and Marketing Teams
- Executives, Owners and Technology Integrators
- Flexible timelines from 2 weeks to 90 days
- Use the proven service offerings below and customize them to your specific needs.
Featured Program: AI Transformation Accelerator
Turn AI ambition into measurable business impact by combining engagements into a single end-to-end transformation program.
I help organizations create programs, products, services, and experiences that drive growth, strengthen customer relationships, and deliver measurable business outcomes.
Why work with meBRANDS I HAVE WORKED WITH
...and many, many more.
WHY WORK WITH ME
Strategy grounded in hands-on product and design leadership.
Michael established critical programs at Adobe that our teams still rely on today. He provided invaluable insights for both our teams and our customers.
Nissan Dachs
Manager, Strategic Accounts, AdobeThere is nobody better at generating innovative ideas and quickly creating a plan to execute them.
Jaiden Price
Customer & Product Innovation, AdobeMichael pioneered and scaled offerings that enabled our consulting team to help clients reimagine customer experiences and accelerate growth.
Jodie Cheung
Digital Strategy, AdobeHis ability to work with business leaders and product teams to conceptualize products and craft solutions that achieve desired outcomes was truly first-rate.
Gregory Bayer, Ph.D.
VP, Behavioral Health, HumanaMichael's talent for creative problem-solving and seeing beyond the obvious makes him invaluable to any team seeking innovation. He excels at breaking complex problems down to their fundamentals and finding elegant solutions.
Chad Audet
Technical Program Manager, RiveHis creative vision is stellar, and he consistently delivers for his clients. Having Michael involved makes any project run smoothly.
Abe McCallum
Head of Consumer Product | Former Walmart, Venmo & ZelleMichael was an innovative partner who challenged me to think bigger and solve problems through collaboration and critical thinking.
Ryan Dietz
Solutions Consulting Leader, AdobeMichael is an exceptional leader, creative thinker, and innovator who inspires teams to go above and beyond while encouraging curiosity and out-of-the-box thinking.
Amy Cha
Digital Strategy, AdobeMichael excels at presenting complex concepts to clients and is both inspiring and effective in helping teams move ideas forward.
Robin Suchman
Business Analyst | Product ManagementMichael understands clients, aligns teams, and communicates complex ideas with clarity.
Luke Nalker
Design DirectorMichael is an excellent leader with a keen eye for innovation and intuitive user experiences.
Tara Beaton
Change Agent | Inclusion & Diversity AdvocateMichael combines creative excellence with strong business acumen. He builds high-performing teams and brings a thoughtful, innovative approach to every client engagement.
Jeremy Stover
Talent Development, Gong
For over 25 years, my career has spanned startups, nonprofits, government agencies, growth-stage companies, and Fortune 500 organizations. Along the way, I have led product innovation initiatives, built and transformed design organizations, developed digital strategies, and helped teams align around bold visions for the future.
A proven track record:
- Global Head of Design & Innovation at Adobe's Digital Strategy team: Helped leading brands accelerate innovation and transform customer experiences.
- Head of Product Design for Zelle: Launched the largest and most secure peer-to-peer payment platform in the United States.
- Founder of an award-winning product design agency serving startups, nonprofits, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies.
My role is simple: Drawing on my career in product design, customer experience, GTM strategy and developing high performing teams, I help leaders create clarity, alignment, and momentum navigating innovation, transformation, and organizational change.
COMMON ENGAGEMENTS
Proven methods to move from uncertainty to momentum.
Strategic Advisory Engagement:
Vision & Strategy
Bring together leadership, internal stakeholders, and customers and align around a shared vision, strategic direction, and actionable roadmap.
Questions we will answer
- Where are we going?
- What matters most?
- How do we get there?
Deliverables
- Leadership interview findings report
- Stakeholder alignment workshop
- Strategic opportunity map
- Initiative prioritization matrix
- Executive roadmap
- Transformation action plan
Ideal For
- Transformation initiatives
- Leadership alignment
- Product strategy development
- Organizational change efforts
- Navigating growth or disruption
Case Example:
Big Brothers Big Sisters
I worked with Big Brothers Big Sisters to align leadership around a future-state vision for digital engagement, service delivery, and organizational growth.
VIEW CASEThought Leadership:
CREATING A SHARED VISIONEmbedded Collaborator Engagement:
Experience Transformation
Uncover opportunities that elevate the experience throughout your customer's journey. Identify unmet needs, align teams around a future-state CX, and demonstrate opportunities that strengthen customer relationships and improve business outcomes.
Questions we will answer
- Where are customers struggling?
- What improvements will create the greatest impact?
- What should the future experience look like?
- How can AI help?
Deliverables
- Focused CX assessment
- Stakeholder interview findings report
- Customer and market analysis
- CX Opportunity map
- Journey friction analysis
- Future-state experience demo
- Use case prioritization
- Executive alignment workshop
- Strategic recommendations
- Prioritized roadmap
Ideal For
- Organizations exploring new tech (AI)
- Understanding customer pain points
- Aligning CX issues to practical solutions
- Moving from business strategy to CX
- Leadership alignment
- Connecting CX to business metrics
Case Example:
Zelle
Led product design for Zelle, helping transform a bank-to-bank transfer capability into the largest and most secure peer-to-peer payment platform in the United States.
VIEW CASEThought Leadership:
NAVIGATING INNOVATIONEmbedded Collaborator Engagement:
Innovation Sprint
Identify and validate solutions to specific product challenges through prototype-driven exploration. Get clear recommendations, defined requirements, prioritized backlog items, roadmap integration, and ownership alignment to ensure promising ideas become actionable initiatives that move to market.
Questions we will answer
- What is the best solution to this problem?
- Can we build it?
- Will customers use it?
- What are the requirements, features, and capabilities?
- What does success look like?
- What exactly needs to be delivered?
Deliverables
- Problem and opportunity assessment
- Concept exploration prototypes
- Product strategy recommendations
- Feasibility assessment
- Product requirements definition
- Prioritized backlog
- Innovation roadmap
Ideal For
- New product initiatives
- Growth opportunities
- Innovation programs
- Strategic planning efforts
- Organizations seeking new revenue streams
Case Example:
Cineplex
Led a product innovation initiative for Cineplex focused on the future of entertainment experiences. Facilitated research, strategy, and concept development efforts that identified new opportunities for growth, customer engagement, and digital service innovation.
VIEW CASEThought Leadership:
NAVIGATING INNOVATIONEmbedded Collaborator Engagement:
Product Design & Development
End-to-end product strategy, design, development, and launch services that transform ideas into market-ready digital products powered by modern AI and technology.
Questions we will answer
- What product should we build?
- How can AI improve the experience?
- What does the MVP need to include?
- How do we move from design to launch?
Deliverables
- AI & Product Opportunity Assessment
- Validated Product Strategy
- Production-Ready Experience Design
- Engineering & AI Delivery Blueprint
- Executive Launch & Scale Plan
- Product Development & Launch Services
Ideal For
- AI-driven startups
- Product incubators
- Augmenting enterprise product
- Scaling product teams
- Business leaders with vision
- Innovation initiatives
Embedded Offering:
AI Product Launchpad
Launch AI-powered products faster with a secure, enterprise-ready application foundation that eliminates months of infrastructure work.
Includes
- Secure authentication & user management
- Customizable, responsive design system
- AI agents & multi-LLM integration
- File storage, media & vector search
- APIs, webhooks & third-party integrations
- Production launch & operational handoff
- Ongoing partnership & support
Retained Leadership Engagement:
Team Leadership
I help teams establish a culture of cross-functional collaboration, implement effective operating rhythms, align work streams with executive priorities, and create data-driven operating models that connect performance metrics to business outcomes. Through organizational design, service design, workflow optimization, and people development, I help teams improve alignment, accountability, delivery effectiveness, and overall organizational performance.
Questions we will answer
- How do we move faster and deliver higher quality?
- How do we improve collaboration?
- How do we measure performance?
- How do we scale effectively?
- How do we build a high-performing team?
Services Include
- Coaching and mentoring
- Team structure and org design
- Product & design operating models
- Workflow optimization
- Cross-functional integration
- Hiring and team development
- Design systems
- Agile coaching
Ideal For
- Organizations with a leadership gap
- Newly formed organizations
- Teams experiencing growth or change
- Organizations seeking higher performance
- Teams seeking to improve delivery
Case Example:
Adobe Strategy Group
Led a cross-functional team of researchers, strategists, designers, and technologists to create Adobe Strategy Group's customer intelligence capability that transformed customer research into a strategic platform used to guide executive decision-making and enterprise customer engagements.
VIEW CASEThought Leadership:
A NEW ERA OF LEADERSHIPCUSTOM ENGAGEMENTS
Common starting points, flexible packages.
While many clients begin with one of the structured engagements above, every organization faces unique challenges. I frequently partner with leadership teams on custom initiatives including:
- AI strategy and transformation
- Product and digital strategy
- Product innovation programs
- Customer experience transformation
- Product and design organization design
- Service design
- Executive workshops and facilitation
- Leadership coaching and mentoring
- Fractional executive leadership
- Strategic advisory services
- Product and design operating model development
- Hands-on technology & design projects
Whether you need a focused sprint, executive facilitation, organizational transformation, ongoing advisory support, or a completely custom engagement, services are tailored to your business objectives, team structure, and timeline.
LET'S TALK
Facing a complex product, innovation, organizational, customer experience, or AI challenge?
Together we can identify opportunities, align priorities, and create a practical path forward.