Joe Preston

Product Management Advisor
flying castle labs llc

I teach teams to build, operate, govern, and scale.
Book an intro call today.

Services

The truth is that every team has different needs, and those needs evolve over time. Understanding your customer is always the first step. Let's chat, I'm happy to tailor a service package that maximizes the value I can bring to your organization, which could include any of the following:Strategic Planning
In-Person and Virtual Workshops
Training for Product Teams
Project Deliverables
Customer Research
Platform Design
Process Improvement
Data Analysis
Open Office Hours
and more!

Experience

Over the past 10+ years I have played every position of software development at almost every scale, from founding projects in a dorm room to running six sigma improvement programs at an F5 company, and just about everything in between.

As a board member, founder, and early stage contributor I have an executive's perspective on problems; as a Product Manager, analyst, and developer I have actually solved them. And as many of my teams grew, changed, and rapidly scaled - I have also hired, trained, and managed them to bridge the gap between builders and leaders.For a detailed look at my resume, connect with me on LinkedIn. Or, if you came to this section looking for a version you can download, here it is.

Bio

I grew up in Phoenix with working-class parents. We didn’t have much, and I figured out pretty early that if I wanted stability, I would have to build it myself. I have always been a tinkerer: I made my first PC from salvage parts and first connected to the internet through free trials of AOL, riding my bike 3 miles to Blockbuster each time they expired to get a new license code from the back of an installation CD!
I’ve been building ever since: an early crack at a startup, big data tools at General Motors, internal tooling development platforms at Carvana, decision automation at Modelshop, and now a rich suite of data features for investment managers at Ridgeline.
My sweet spot is complex operational problems where the business has outgrown its tooling. I overhauled document operations systems during Carvana’s hypergrowth, built a platform team from scratch, and learned firsthand how to go to where the work is. When we built tools for the titles team, we did everything our users did, from opening the mail to fixing transfer mistakes with the state. When I came to Ridgeline, I didn't have investment management experience, so I deepened my fluency in finance by earning my Series 65. You cannot build great products or tools without understanding what your users are doing in the real world. It is (and should be) hard. The good news is you do not need to invest tens of thousands of dollars in fancy certifications to figure all of this out. In my experience, only two things aren't teachable: curiosity and grit.
I have also been privileged to serve on the board of a nonprofit called Open Hearts, which serves kids and families like mine in the greater Phoenix area with behavioral health resources. This experience has taught me so much about how complex organizations operate at the top, and growing up in a difficult family environment with mental health issues of my own, I bring lived experience to the boardroom.
Underlying all of this is one belief: people deserve great tools - not just customers, employees and makers too! I care about the connective tissue between product, ops, and data: it is the teams that make everything work. Yes, developing software products can be an exercise in saving a few clicks. But at scale, that all adds up to human time, and that is worth saving.
Outside of work I love to spend time with my family, get outside, write, play guitar, and continue to tinker on endless side projects. I'm currently based on Long Island and work in Manhattan. If you'd like to grab a coffee, shoot some pool, network, or hire me - send me a message!

Contact

I'd love to hear about what you're building.
Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn, email, or book time with me directly.