A Story in Progress.
I build products, games, communities, and live experiences.
Different mediums. The same curiosity.
The Through-line
I've never been particularly interested in one industry.
I've always been interested in the systems that shape how people think, create, learn, play, and connect.
That curiosity has taken me in a lot of different directions. I studied anthropology and philosophy because I wanted to better understand people. I made electronic music because I was fascinated by emotion and atmosphere. I spent years doing black and white street photography because I loved quietly observing people and the stories unfolding around them. Eventually those same interests led me into games, product design, AI, advertising technology, and improvisation.
On paper, those interests seem unrelated. To me, they've always felt like different ways of exploring the same questions.
Why do some communities thrive while others fall apart?
Why do some games stay interesting for years?
Why do people come back to certain experiences again and again?
How do simple rules create surprisingly complex behavior?
What makes collaboration feel effortless?
Most of the products I've built aren't about technology. They're about participation. NHL Breakaway explored how collecting could become an ongoing experience instead of a transaction. Run It grew from watching my wife navigate the invisible work behind creating content. Quiztopia began by making character quizzes for my daughter and evolved into a much bigger idea about world building and identity. Dreamwave continues to explore how an improv form can evolve through years of shared practice.
I don't think of these as separate projects. They're different expressions of the same curiosity.
This website is where I collect them.
My Journey
Anthropology & Philosophy
Anthropology taught me to look at systems instead of individuals. Philosophy taught me to question assumptions instead of accepting them. Together they gave me a way of looking at the world that has shaped almost everything I've built since.
Music & Photography
Long before I worked in product, I made electronic music as Coastlines and spent weekends wandering with a camera shooting black and white street photography. Both taught me to pay attention. Music taught rhythm, pacing, and emotion. Photography taught observation and patience.
Coastlines album artwork 2016–2019
Machine Learning Advertising Systems
Transitioned from advertising solutions and operations into product management while building machine-learning products, audience systems, advertiser tooling, and a real-time demand-side platform for mobile games. This period fundamentally shaped how I think about incentives, marketplaces, prediction, and systems design.
Games & Product
Games became the place where all of those interests came together. I've spent my career designing products, economies, progression systems, creator tools, and advertising platforms, always drawn toward products that reward curiosity and participation rather than passive consumption.
Dreamwave
Dreamwave started as an improv team and slowly became an ongoing creative project. We've spent years exploring and evolving the JTS Brown form, treating improv less as a fixed structure and more as something that continues to change through rehearsal, performance, and experimentation.
Independent Work
Some ideas don't fit inside a company. Those eventually become independent projects. They usually begin with a question I can't stop thinking about and evolve through rapid prototyping, iteration, and conversations with people I trust.
What I Believe
Design for participation.
The most interesting systems aren't the ones people consume. They're the ones people help shape.
Creativity needs structure.
Constraints don't limit creativity. They give it somewhere to grow.
Great systems teach.
The best products quietly make their users better over time.
Curiosity is a design tool.
The best ideas usually begin by paying closer attention to something that's already happening.
Every detail teaches people how to feel.
Visual design, interaction, pacing, and language all communicate long before someone consciously notices them.
Build things worth returning to.
The products I admire most become richer through continued participation instead of simply demanding more attention.
Current Explorations
Lately I've been thinking about why some participatory systems become richer over time while others plateau. That question has led me into studying games, communities, education, creative practice, open source software, and improvisation through the same lens.
At the same time, I'm continuing to build games, creator tools, and collaborative software while experimenting with AI as a creative partner rather than simply an automation tool.
Most of these ideas eventually become products. Some become essays. Others remain questions for years before finding the right project.
Outside Work
Outside of product, you'll usually find me performing with Dreamwave, bodyboarding, listening to live music, making electronic music, or photographing the world around me.
I don't think of those as hobbies.
They've influenced how I think about pacing, collaboration, observation, improvisation, rhythm, and creative process just as much as any product I've ever worked on.
What I'm Building
- Dreamwave
Dreamwave explores how longform improvisation can continue evolving through thoughtful experimentation.
- Run It
Run It helps creators spend less time organizing ideas and more time making them real.
- Quiztopia
Quiztopia reimagines the character quiz as the beginning of a living world instead of the end of a result.
- meldwork
meldwork explores better ways for creative groups to coordinate, collaborate, and make decisions together.
- ClownJewels
ClownJewels is an ongoing experiment in elegant game mechanics and rapid prototyping.
I've never been interested in building a career around a single title or industry.
I'm much more interested in following good questions wherever they lead.
This website is a place to document that work, share what I'm learning, and leave behind a record of the things I've been fortunate enough to build along the way.