Jack Beaton

I research the needs of users and customers, design products that satisfy them and profit the business, and work with developers to get it built and delivered.

I've worked as a product manager, designer, researcher, and programmer. I've worked on software for fintech, healthcare, adtech, aerospace, automotive, and several other industries. I've worked inside tech giants, and launched startups. I've worked half and half on the agency side, and the client side.

I've published academic research on user research methods.

I live and work on the Los Angeles Westside today, but I'm actually a Marylander who spent his 30s in NYC. I came to LA to bring my children next door to their cousins, and they're just so happy now.

I'm known for taking a lot of notes.

These are all things I do:

• research with real users and customers from outside the building
• focus on the winning ideas, pruning out the duds before they cost you time and money
• design products that excite clients and stakeholders
• make friends across silos and bind everyone together into a happy project
• get products out into users' hands fast, so we can enjoy the results sooner - and validate the truth of its predicted value

Here is what I bring to software companies:

• methods to find products that make clients excited on sight
• more synchronization and less siloing between groups involved in the product
• sympathy and understanding for every member of a cross-functional team (I've been in their shoes)
• faster, cheaper, smoother development process, with fewer nasty surprises
• ironclad focus on the leanest incremental delivery to the users
• rapid prototyping of new products, cheaper and faster than you're probably used to
• expert-level knowledge of Lean, Agile, Product, and UX, balanced by practicality

Unusual experiences you can ask me about:

• built a no-code prototype in one morning and collected the first $3,000 of what became $1,000,000 of revenue per day after scale-up
• survived two pandemic quarantines - Covid was number two and I was prepared
• researched the usability of Nokia touchscreens in 2008, compared it to the iPhone, and promptly quit
• got roped into running 3x/weekly meetings for 100+ people because they thought I was funny
• worked on research to help build Siri, the iPhone voice assistant, when it was still a military AI
• interviewed a NASA scientist with a giant flamethrower (he had the flamethrower)
• introduced several dozen people in rural India to the Internet