Hello there.

My family calls me Brian. My friends call me BMC*. I am a father 👧🏻 👦🏻, husband 👩🏻, New Yorker 🗽, ️cyclist 🚲, divemaster 🤿, fusion chef 👨‍🍳, world traveler 🌎, and digital product maker 👨‍💻.

Portrait of Brian

Short for "killaBMC", my genuine wu-tang-name betrothed by the GZA

Rid The World of Crummy Software

For 20+ years I've tried to design, build, and manage software that is useful to people – from supply-chain tools in the music industry, to the creator-economy for podcasters, and even communal viewing for streaming. I've proven that designing to meet human needs will drive business impact.

The most powerful project you can design as leader is the team that makes products. Over the last 10 years, I've designed high-performing teams that can deliver through ambiguity at any scale. Mentoring & coaching new leaders, shaping organizations, and building culture has been some of the most rewarding work.

Currently, I'm working with mission-driven startups to bring new products to market and level up their design literacy.

CV & Resumé

 

Recent Highlights

 

Design Principles

These three principles guide how I navigate design tradeoffs—the tension between what we need and what we want.

1. Durability

Build interfaces that won't need constant redesign. Use familiar patterns users already understand. Choose solutions that scale and evolve rather than chasing trends.

Navigating tradeoffs:

When stakeholders want flashy interactions, durability asks: will this matter in two years? When you're tempted to reinvent common patterns, it reminds you that familiarity reduces cognitive load. It distinguishes between solving real problems and creating maintenance debt.

2. Versatility

Design for multiple contexts without building separate solutions for each. Anticipate different devices, user needs, and edge cases with flexible components that adapt gracefully.

Navigating tradeoffs:

When designing for your primary user, versatility asks: what about everyone else? It prevents over-optimization for one scenario at the expense of others. It tells you when one adaptable solution beats multiple specialized ones.

3. Efficiency

Remove unnecessary steps. Reduce cognitive load. Get users to their goals with minimal friction.

Navigating tradeoffs:

When someone wants to add "just one more field," efficiency asks: is this truly necessary? It questions whether features add value or clutter. It forces hard conversations about whether something justifies its cognitive cost—designing for user goals, not our desire to showcase capability.

•••

These principles work together. Durability without versatility creates rigid systems. Versatility without efficiency creates bloat. Efficiency without durability doesn't scale.

The Design Process Is Storytelling

Good product design is good storytelling. Storytelling is about transformation. Users are transformed by your product. User Scenarios, Jobs-To-Be-Done, and Linear Issues all exist because they force critical thinking about user transformation (when used correctly).

To avoid some of the pre-conceived notions attached to these methods, and maybe the influence of Disney, I've recently begun leaning on a classic writing tool, the "Story Spine". It maps very well to design:

Once upon a time there was  ,
Every day __________,
One day __________,
Because of that __________,
Because of that __________,
Until finally __________,
And ever since that day __________.

An effective design depends on character development, conflict, and resolution; just like a compelling story. We need to understand our users (characters), frame their problems with evidence (development), ideate broadly on solutions (resolve conflict), and prove those solutions through testing (resolution).

Once upon a time there was User Persona,
Every day User Scenario ,
One day Problem Discovery ,
Because of that Hypothesis ,
Because of that Prototype ,
Until finally Solution Validation ,
And ever since that day Outcomes .

The true value of the Story Spine is unlocked when you use it in tandem with other design processes. There are many wonderful design frameworks to guide the design process such as the Double Diamond, Honeycomb, or The Loop™. These frameworks help designers navigate from ambiguity to clarity through a prescribed sequence of activities. There are more similarities than differences between them.

Many musicians will tell you that the loudest note in music is the rest note. Fine artists step back and squint their eyes. Athletes build recovery into their training. These moments of inaction provide intentional contrast to their respective processes. I've always thought design frameworks could assist designers more with the critical thinking that happens at junctures between each phase. The Story Spine provides a rubric for evaluating the continuity and efficacy of the work at each of these steps.

As a design leader, I focus on bringing together the right people at these inflection points to collaborate on making sure the narrative of the design makes sense. If the story makes sense, the design invariably follows.

Design Leadership

Leadership Philopsophy

Each of these points contains multitudes, but taken together enable me to rally teams around ambitious goals. I lean on my personal strengths as a coach-mentor style of leader more than a charismatic figurehead. This leverages my strongest skills of strategic insight, personalized coaching, and systems thinking.

Leadership Values

How I show up as a leader is inspired by lessons from nature, science, and history. There are highly effective leadership models in the animal kingdom that demonstrate the values I want to embody as a leader:

Blog post: Leadership Models in Nature

Orca, Lion, Bee

Management Framework

As a functional expert I created a framework for nurturing high-performing teams that I call Triple-C.

Puzzle

Culture

I believe culture can be designed by rewarding behavior that reinforces our values, intentional hiring, and clear performance management.

Supporting Elements

Culture

 

Craft

Making things that meet high-quality standards requires learned skills applied in a repeatable process.

Supporting Elements

Craft

 

Commerce

Design is a business function built on creativity. The acts of research, ideation, and delivery are used to make an impact.

Supporting Elements

Culture