Product management · product development
I take products from customer to release.
I start with the people who’ll use a product, prototype it with AI, write down what’s still a guess, then build the whole thing and keep it running. Over three years, while working full time, I took computer-science courses at Oregon State. I’ve been adapting to new technology since 2003, and AI is the newest tool, not the first.
- 2003Right Media, one of the internet’s first ad exchanges. Auctions at scale.
- 2007The publisher side of Right Media’s Direct Media Exchange at its launch, then product marketing at Yahoo after it bought the company.
- 2008Real-estate software at IDX, from business development into product: its first WordPress plugin, then the Platinum platform, and all the hats in between. I ended up running the company.
- 2017Licensed Realtor. Contracts, clients and deadlines that don’t move.
- 2022Product manager for gated-community access control. Computer-science study on the side.
- 2023The trades: a couple of years in disaster recovery.
- 2025Building my own products with AI, starting with 50RH.
- 2026Product owner by day. My own products the rest of the time.
What the real world taught me
Judge the number. On job sites I heard estimates said out loud and had to decide whether they were right.
Hit the date. In real estate I managed the contracts, and the people on every side, against dates that don’t move.
Stay steady with people. After a loss, every kind of personality shows up. I kept them, the crews and the insurers moving.
From customer to release
Customer. I start where I’ve seen the problem up close, and I write down what I’m only guessing.
Software. I build it myself with AI, through one pipeline: plan, audit, build, review.
Beta. Testers get numbered builds and plain notes. So far only DeHoardMe has had testers.
Release. Released means live and checked, not merged.
Then I keep it running. In 50RH: deploys from every merge, nightly backups proven by restoring them, a daily probe, a cap on what AI may spend. How it’s kept running
Then the loop back to the customer, which no product has closed yet: no one has subscribed to 50RH, and no family has used Lantern. Each stage in detail
AI is inside three of my products and behind all of them. AI in the work
670
pull requests merged across my products in 2026.
Read .
The products
From the demo account.Live50RHSealed bidding for property repairs. I built the marketing site, the app and the API, and I run all three. No customers yet.From judging spoken estimates on job sites.
A seeded demo family.PrototypeLanternCare coordination for the family around an aging parent. One shared log, one list of what needs doing, and plain rules for who sees what.From my own family.
A seeded verdict and quip, from a local demo build.BetaDeHoardMeAn iOS app for deciding what to keep. Photograph something you own and get a keep-or-toss call, with a one-line quip.From seeing hoarding up close on restoration jobs.- clioThe system behind my products: the context my AI work gets, what every run costs, and me at every gate.
- WPHostGuyWordPress hosting and care, run by one person. I move a site onto a server I run, then keep it updated, backed up and watched, and answer requests myself.
- Small toolsTwo tools for my own AI work. ccf switches Claude Code to the right account for the folder I start in, and a pager is meant to text me when a long job needs me.
What I shipped lately
· This site
This site now says how 50RH is kept running after release, deploys to restore drill, and how the work hands off to other people; every number sourced.
· This site
The site is open to search with a sitemap, except the résumé, which also stopped naming a city for each role.
· This site
I started this site: products first, a design system in light and dark, and tests that fail if a number has no source.
· WPHostGuy
I repriced WPHostGuy’s plans, and both now include a monthly test that each site’s contact form still works.
Say hello.
I’m glad to compare notes with people who build products. Send me a message, or find me on LinkedIn and GitHub.