I turn complex product decisions into direction teams can build from.
I lead product strategy and design where the roadmap is full and the hard part is choosing. I start with the strategy and how the backend works, then design and prototype against the real system, so the work is technically grounded and informs product direction. With a team, I set the bar and coach designers into owning what they ship.
- Now
- Bayesian Leaf. Fractional product and design leadership for AI-native companies.
- Recently
- Product strategy, then Fractional Head of Design, for an applied AI platform, through Bayesian Leaf.
- Previously
- Pinterest · Meta · Opendoor · CNN
- Education
- MBA in Applied AI & BFA in Design
Work
Strategy to launch for a geospatial AI platform.
Six weeks of product strategy, then design through a public launch. Product took up a brief before every build, engineering built from working prototypes instead of pictures, and the next version took two days.
Automated campaign setup for Pinterest ads.
Builds a campaign from a goal, a budget and creative. I led its design across creation, delivery and reporting. $600M+ annual run rate at general availability.
I led its design end to end. $600M+ annual run rate at general availability.
Value preferences for automated bidding.
Lets advertisers say what is worth more, and bidding leans toward it. I set the direction and coached the designer who shipped it. Bid Multiplier shipped first.
One navigation for Pinterest’s ads tools.
Menus organized by team became columns organized by advertiser jobs. I led it across eight organizations. 25% fewer navigation opens at the same page visits.
I led it across eight organizations. 25% fewer navigation opens.
A platform blueprint for Opendoor operations.
Thirty-five operator sessions shaped a twelve-capability blueprint for internal tools. I co-led the research and co-authored the blueprint, then took ticketing to version one.
One Audience Manager for Meta advertisers.
Three versions across four URLs became one surface, with a panel showing where each audience runs. I set what got built first and designed both tracks.
A recommendation framework for Meta Ads Manager.
One framework so any team could ship mid-flight campaign advice, plus feedback the ranking model could read. I designed both. Snooze, mute and dismiss shipped in 2021.
A generative audio drama with lore governance.
Claude writes each scene, ElevenLabs voices it, and the listener can redirect the story while it plays. I designed and built it end to end with Claude Code. Public beta at sageorange.fm.
Endorsements
“Always 3 steps ahead, Hew is a true mastermind and strategic connector who innately identifies gaps, opportunities and patterns across a product.”
“Formally titled a designer, but constantly acting as a little bit of everything: a strategic researcher, a technologist, a product manager.”
“From an engineering perspective, we pivoted to a more integrated UI and backend design as a direct result of Hew calling out the need for better transparency, the need for easy evidence inspection, and making complexity accessible behind a simple UI.”
“Influencing roadmaps with the optimal set up framework, it's difficult not to feel the impact you've had. You've become a leader that our cross-functional partners want in the room.”
Additional reviews and endorsements on ADPList, LinkedIn, IGotAnOffer and Bayesian Leaf.
Practice & Ventures
Bayesian Leaf
My product and design practice for companies building with AI. As fractional Head of Design for an applied AI platform, I reframed the core interaction model, specified the analytics events the product was missing, and built working prototypes against the real codebase.
Human Commons
My product studio. Most products build a world and ask you to move into it. These enter the one you already live in. Two products so far, both built solo, and both start from a person and a place.
Writing
Essays on decision infrastructure and building AI-native products.
Read moreSupportive and collaborative are phases, not ranks.
About
I'm a child of journalists, so I grew up in and out of newsrooms. A newsroom does one thing. It takes something complicated and makes it usable to somebody who has to act on it. I have done that work ever since. The ad platforms at Meta and Pinterest, the operations behind Opendoor, mobile news at CNN. The same instinct now runs through Bayesian Leaf, where I apply it inside other companies, and Human Commons, where I build products of my own.
I think in systems, in the frameworks and governance that orchestrate the work. Frameworks other teams chose to build against, at Meta and again at Pinterest. The Pinterest framework began before the work had a mandate. A governance process that continued deciding what shipped after I left. A leveling framework a growing design team will hire against. A designer who now leads a product line of their own. The design that sits on top is craft. I write code because a picture of a thing will not tell you whether it works.