Darrin Johnson

Darrin Johnson

I build clarity where
complexity lives.

Organizations bring me in when they can feel something isn’t working but can’t quite name it. I help them define what success looks like — the platforms, the teams, the decision-making — and then build what’s needed to continue that success when I am gone. Not a slide deck. The actual capability.

Enterprise platforms, product operating models, and the organizational architecture that makes them governable.


See with Clarity

Most organizations don’t have a strategy problem. They have a visibility problem. I surface what’s actually happening so leadership stops guessing and starts acting.

Build What Lasts

I’ve built product teams from zero at five organizations. Not by importing a framework — by listening to what’s broken, hiring for character, and building practices that stick after I leave.

Find the Signal

The signal is usually already in your data, your users, your operations. I find it and turn it into something that generates money. A repositioned 911 platform. A market nobody else saw. A channel strategy that drove half the sales.

Both or Neither

The platform and the org chart are the same problem. I work on both because one without the other doesn’t hold.

Systems Diagnosis

I trained as a physicist. I still think in forces, constraints, and dependencies — I just apply it to platforms and organizations instead of particles.

Governance Without Bureaucracy

Principled guardrails that accelerate delivery rather than constrain it. Structure should create freedom, not paperwork.

Executive Translation

I can talk to the engineer and the CIO in the same meeting without switching slides. That’s not a soft skill. It’s the skill.

Ground-Truth Validation

I’ve read server logs at 2AM, drive-tested devices on highways, and taught myself shell scripting to keep a system alive when I was the last person standing. When I advise, it’s from the details up.

If you need someone to validate a decision you’ve already made, I’m probably not your person. I’m most useful when you actually want to know what’s true.

get in touch ↓
Build for the organization you’re leaving behind, not just the problem in front of you.
Understanding precedes architecture. I don’t redesign systems I haven’t listened to first.
Complexity isn’t the enemy. Confusion is. Make the system understandable and the direction is obvious.
get in touch ↓
$7M

Grew a platform product from v1 to $7M annual revenue — including a channel strategy that drove 50% of total sales.

700+

Applications brought into a governable model for enterprise modernization and service ownership.

10x

Expanded a connected-home user base tenfold by discovering an adjacent B2B market through user research, creating $1.8M in recurring revenue.

75%

Reduced cross-team planning time by consolidating eight product teams into a shared planning increment process.

0 → 1

Built product teams and practices from scratch at five organizations — hiring, coaching, and establishing operating models that outlasted my tenure.

Selected environments

Retail · Telecom · Media · IoT · SaaS · Rail Safety · Wireless · Enterprise Platforms

Selected roles

Director of Product · Group Product Manager · Platform Lead · Strategic Advisor · Transformation Lead

Selected organizations

T-Mobile · Costco · Microsoft · Sears · Sinclair · AT&T · Clearwire · BSQUARE

get in touch ↓

Let’s talk about what’s not working.

I’m selective about the problems I take on. If yours is messy, high-stakes, and consequential — that’s where I do my best work.