Thinking out loud, mostly about technology.
I'm Matt. I started out in software delivery, probably stayed there too long, and have moved back and forth into product ever since, with a bigger dose of marketing than I ever expected. This is where I get things off my chest, as honestly and fairly as I can.
Writing
Newest first. I'm shipping these rough and honest rather than polished, and patching them as I go. Yes, I see what I did there. Each one is marked with where it lives: here, on LinkedIn, or both.
Thinking out loud · Product
Clay first, chisel later
I built this site in two days, and it has more in it than it should. That was on purpose. Mostly…
Series 1 · Seeing the problem
Security is a group project
I tell my kids not to go looking for problems or making new ones. Let it go, or fix it. AI, like my kids, doesn't listen…
- The bet
- Seven questions
- Who may act, and who may know
- A path, not a verdict
Coming up
Things I'm working on and hope to write about. No dates. I'd rather finish them than promise them. The tag says where each is headed.
Series 2 · Solving it
Choosing your walls
How it could be solved, depending on how far you decide to go…
- Smarter in your space
- The one-way mirror
- Doors in the walls
- Where agents fit
What to build, and who builds it
Product and delivery are both hard, and you never do either one alone…
Big company, startup, backed company
I've worked in all three, and I don't think there's a right answer, just tradeoffs that shift with where you are in life…
Explained at the kitchen table
I built a Rube Goldberg machine as a kid, and I still remember it clearly…
An experiment
Same ideas, different readers
Something I'm playing with: versions of each piece for different readers. First up, one for my kids, about clothes and towels on the floor. One for my mom, who still asks what I do, is coming…
What politics can teach us about product
Nothing. Moving on.
About
I've worked at big companies and small ones, on the vendor side and in-house, and in a company of my own. Delivery taught me how things actually get built. Product taught me to ask why, which I didn't do often enough back when someone else handed me the what. Somewhere along the way I spent more time near marketing than I planned, long enough to learn that a good idea nobody understands doesn't get far. That's part of why this site exists.
More about me
CTPO is the name I write under. I try to write the way I'd explain things to a friend who doesn't work in tech, and to be straight about what I don't know.
Off the clock, most of my time goes to my kids, which these days means a lot of sports and a fair bit of coaching. I also own far more tools than my carpentry skills justify. Fishing is on the list of things I want to learn, along with plenty of others I'm still trying to find time for.
I'm a proud user of AI, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd get these thoughts out without it. I think out loud first, and it helps me edit down. We also argue, a lot, which I realize sounds a little crazy. It pushes back on me, I push back on it, and what's left is what I actually mean. It isn't me handing it a topic and posting whatever comes out. There's enough of that on the internet already, and I'm trying not to add to it. The ideas and opinions are mine, and so are the mistakes.
What I write here is my own view, not my employer's or that of any company I'm involved with. I don't promote products here, including my employer's. Nobody writes it for me, either.
Get new posts by email
Just new writing, when it's ready. No spam, nothing else. And if you reply to one, it comes straight to me.
Contact
If something here is wrong, or you've seen it from a side I haven't, the best place to say so is the discussion on LinkedIn, where most pieces get posted. For the ones that live only here, message me there. And if you're part of a community that would get something out of building on this together, I'm up for that.