Hi, I’m David

I’m a Product Manager at Microsoft and was previously Founding Engineer at Minerva.

My favorite projects have been architecting Minerva’s real-time Active Learning Forum and optimizing Hired’s Search product.

I’m obsessed with learning about my customers—how else can you solve a person’s problem?

The Beta distribution

My favorite ways to learn what they need?

  1. Talk to them! Both directly and through user research.
  2. Analysis—don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and deeply understand your data.
  3. Figure out ways of overcoming your own biases—they get in between you and creating a great product. Confirmation bias, the availability heuristic & cultural biases are all good ones to fight.

I grew up bilingual, which taught me how to bridge the gap between problem and solution…

Ideas and execution, in boxes, aren’t enough.

1. Ideas don’t have mass

2. Execution doesn’t have direction

3. When you work in boxes, the best you can hope to build is a stack of boxes

Because ‘idea’ and ‘execution’ are different languages, and it turns out the toughest problems—they’re won in translation.

Minerva's Active Learning Forum, ca. 2015

So I never stop practicing my favorite languages:

  • Business metrics & KPIs
  • Deep technical know-how
  • UX, statistics, and the way they go together

Want to find out more?

Let's get in touch