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 see the system clearly — the platforms, the teams, the decision-making — and then build what’s needed to move forward. Not a slide deck. The actual capability.

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


Create 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 Capability

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.

Convert Insight to Revenue

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.

Architect Systems & Organizations

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.

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

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.