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Hi, I’m John

I am a product strategist passionate about building strong teams that collaborate to create products and experiences that add value to a company’s bottom line while surprising and delighting end users.

I cut my teeth in technology by teaching myself to hand code HTML and CSS while balancing freelance design gigs and working for Apple Retail. At Apple, I taught customers how to use the company’s products by giving six improvised software presentations a day, every day, and managed a team of 30 colleagues tasked with the same. This role included thousands of hours of hands-on instruction, testing, and research, which inspired me to pursue a career in product.

In 2013, I joined a startup named ActiveCampaign where I served as the company’s first product manager. While at ActiveCampaign, I was instrumental in the creation of its flagship automation builder tool, which disrupted the marketing automation industry and set the company on a trajectory of rapid growth; taking the company from $1MM to $80MM annual recurring revenue in about five years. During my tenure with the company, I also redefined the company’s brand voice, reimagined its drag-and-drop email builder, oversaw the company’s implementation of the EU’s privacy regulation GDPR, brought to market its first mobile applications for iOS and Android, and facilitated the localization of the software platform into 15 different languages.

In 2021, I joined the team at Higi, where we are advancing value-based care initiatives in the United States with a next-generation FDA-regulated retail health station kiosk, remote patient monitoring solutions with personal medical devices, and companion web and mobile applications. There, I have revamped the company’s mobile and web platforms to include powerful data visualizations, brought its HRA-survey software to the web, built a patient matching service to pair users with services to help understand and take control of their health, and built integrations with third-party devices.

I am passionate about usability, privacy, and accessibility, and I’m comfortable in highly technical and highly regulated environments. I enjoy working with high-performing teams to build technology that empowers individuals to understand themselves and the world around them better.

I am a graduate of General Assembly’s accelerated Product Management program, I hold a Professional Scrum Product Owner Level 1 certification from Scrum.org, and a BFA in Communications Design from the Pratt Institute.

In my free time, I serve as President of the Board for Midsommer Flight, a not-for-profit theatre company dedicated to making the work of William Shakespeare available throughout Chicago’s neighborhoods, and occasionally do some printmaking and design work for fun.

As a consultant, I’ve worked on projects with many great clients and brands, including The Chicago Tribune, Mercedes Benz, Apple, Sprout Social, Jamf, Purina, The Obama Foundation, ShowPad, BTS Group AB, .Net Magazine, An Event Apart, Happy Cog Studios, Bright Bright Great, MyWifi Networks, Digital Bootcamp, Global Delight, and others.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn, or check out some of my photography and design work.

Cheers!