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Mike Costanzo
Experienced Product & Design Leader
About Me
I love using my full-stack product design experience in leadership, design, research, strategy, and lean/agile software delivery to help companies move faster and make smarter product decisions. I also believe that to build great products, you have to build great teams. This means I value and work to foster cultures with high levels of autonomy, accountability, diversity, and respect.
Skills
Product Design Strategy & Product Management Leadership
UX Research & Design Leadership
UX Copywriting
Branding
People Management
Lean & Agile Software Delivery
Extensive Consulting Experience
Early-stage Startup Creation & Turnaround
Web Portfolio
Work Experience
Linkdrop.com
Product Design & Strategy Consultant
Sept. 2020 – Present
(formerly Bobson) is a powerful web document creation tool that gets everything and everyone on the same page. You can gather content from any source and share it in a link to get instant intelligence on opens, views, clicks, and more.
I’ve been working with the founder and lead developer to take the product from idea to MVP launch and am currently working to refine the product with early adopters to gain traction and validate product/market fit.
Went from idea to launch in 5-months
My post on
Top-10 learnings after first Product Hunt launch
reached #11 in popular posts for the year and currently sits in the top-50 posts of 2021 leading to dozen more account creations.
My Pain Sensei (Healthtech/Digital Therapeutics)
Head of Product and Design
Jan. 2019 – June. 2020
is a mobile chronic pain app and program designed to help people suffering from chronic pain make meaningful improvements in their quality of life. I worked to define a new product strategy, redesign the app, and install a proper product development process to achieve product/market fit. In just over a year we were able to re-design and build the product, find product/market fit, and take the company through to a
...
But results like the testimonial from Rachael below are what I’m most proud of.
Lead the entire product and design functions while managing the engineering team for eight months until we were able to hire a dedicated head of engineering
Lead the development of an innovative virtual pain management program from zero to launch in less than two months
We were able to decrease the pain impact experienced by chronic pain patients by 40-60% and dramatically improve other measurable aspects of their wellness and productivity
Managed a remote customer support employee to ensure the entire service design experience maintained a high level of quality
Redesigned the My Pain Sensei branding and rewrote all marketing copy to reflect a more contemporary look and feel that would appeal to the target audience and differentiate us in the market
Responsible for directly sourcing and hiring key engineering talent, growing the team to three engineers all working remotely with some team members being outsourced contractors in the Ukraine
ConsenSys (Blockchain/Cryptocurrency)
Design Principal
Sept. 2018 – Dec. 2018
is an industry leader for the development and creation of Ethereum blockchain and supporting infrastructure and startups. I join to learn first-hand about the nascent technology and its emerging applications and help the leadership team to build out the Toronto office.
Worked closely with the business development team to structure and pitch potential working engagements for prospective clients
Responsible for helping grow the Toronto team by evaluating new applicants for key roles in product, design, and engineering
Helped internal product teams prototype and validate solutions for early MVP initiatives using customer development process and lean startup principles
Onist Technologies (Fintech)
VP Product
Feb. 2018 – Aug. 2018
Onist was an early-stage Fintech startup trying to build a solution for high-net-worth individuals to build a collaborative platform and bring the benefits of a family office to the masses. I was hired to replace the VP of Product and help turn the company around.
Implemented an effective customer development process to identify who would be the ideal target audience for the initial product and was able to identify and align the team around key reference users leading to the first revenue streams
Lead and executed a strategy to improve the visual design and UX of the application to reflect the market needs
Shifted the product strategy from a freemium direct-to-consumer model to a B2B model targeted at independent financial advisors, acquiring our first paying clients and growing MRR revenue
Aggressively scaled back large team size across all functions to increase runway while improving company culture and maintaining high output
Helped to break down the division between product, design, and engineering, which lead to a more effective, enjoyable, and collaborative work environment
Mike is an amazing person with a truly unique and diverse skill set. He cared tremendously about the product and completely took the burden of the “product” off my shoulders and onto his. He commands respect from all team members through thoughtfulness, execution, and compassion. Simply put, he is a rockstar.
— Brad Kotansky, CEO Onist Technologies
Rangle.io
Head of UX & Product Design:
Jan. 2017 - Jan. 2018
Product Design Lead:
Mar 2014 – Dec 2016
is a cutting-edge JavaScript consultancy built to capture the eventual explosion of Angular and React web technologies to build next-generation software. Hired as Rangle’s first designer and 13th employee, I was instrumental in defining the early company culture and the role of product design within a rapidly growing agile consultancy. I grew the design team to 15 people, lead and advocated for the practice of collaborative cross-functional product teams, and was
instrumental in helping the company grow to over 160 people and $25 million annual revenue.
Directly responsible for hired over 20 designers. Importantly developed a hiring process to remove bias from interview evaluations including a standardized evaluation rubric, ensuring job descriptions were written in a non-biased language, and maintaining a diverse evaluation panel both in gender, race, and seniority level. This lead to one of the only company functions that achieved and maintained a 50/50 gender split.
Lead the development and implementation of the
process which dramatically improved initial client engagement, team alignment, and project success.
Worked with software delivery directors to staff projects correctly and help unblock project teams
Worked with sales and client services to scope, pitch, and present to clients for new business positioning our design services as an essential resource to increase project revenue
Provided thought leadership in the space of design and innovation through writing, mentoring, teaching, and conference talks
Worked as part of the executive management team to define and execute company strategy as we evolved from a 13 person dev shop into a 150+ person digital transformation consultancy
Created and implemented a complete redesign of the company’s branding and marketing collateral including advertisements, conference banners, pitch decks, and corporate identity
Mike's thought leadership on product design cross-cuts user experience and interface with the software delivery process to achieve results. He was always able to communicate clearly and in an engaging manner whether presenting his concepts to high-level project stakeholders or simply having a one-on-one conversation. It would be a fantastic opportunity to work with him again.
— Igor Kamenetsky, Group Technical Director Rangle
Part-time Instructor
George Brown College Continuing Education - Intro to Web Design and Development:
Sept. 2017 - Nov. 2018
Taught 30 students the necessary skills to design and develop a website from scratch
Miami Ad School - UX Bootcamp - Intro to UX:
April 2018
Lead a full-day bootcamp for 12 students about the history of user experience design and how they could learn to apply its principles to their work
Education
Niagara College
, Post-Graduate Diploma, Interactive Multi-media 2004-2005
Brock University
, Honours BA, Fine Arts 1998-2003
Contact Information
416-554-7670
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