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Mike Costanzo

Experienced Product & Design Leader

About Me

I love using my full-stack product and 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 & Product Management Leadership

UX Research & Design Leadership

Lean & Agile Software Delivery

People Management

Early-stage Startup Creation & Turnaround

UX Copywriting

Branding

Extensive Consulting Experience

Web Portfolio

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https://www.mcsquareddesign.com

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Work Experience

Linkdrop.com

Product Design & Strategy Consultant Sept. 2020 – Present

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Linkdrop

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(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

Upvotes 100+ times on Product Hunt reaching #22 for the day

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/bobson

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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.

https://www.producthunt.com/discussions/top-learnings-after-first-product-hunt-launch

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My Pain Sensei (Healthtech/Digital Therapeutics)

Head of Product and Design Jan. 2019 – June. 2020

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My Pain Sensei

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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

30-million dollar acquisition by The DNA Company

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...

But results like the testimonial from Rachael below are what I’m most proud of.

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Case Study Brief Here

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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

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ConsenSys

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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

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Rangle

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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

Clarity Canvas

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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

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mcostanzo123@gmail.com