Fundraising
$1M+
Kai John-Blunch · Product manager
I use customer research and product tests to decide what to build next.
I am a Pier cofounder. In our three-person team, I lead product work: customer research, workflow definition, onboarding design, roadmap decisions, quality assurance, and engineering priorities.
Pier builds AI-assisted tools for qualification and evaluation work. Users can review interview information and workflow inputs before they make a decision. I led more than 100 customer conversations and user interviews. I built the process that carried what we learned into product, market-positioning, and engineering decisions.
Founder experience
Fundraising, customer research, and pilot partnerships at a three-person startup.
At Pier, fundraising, customer research, and product delivery all affected the same small team. I prepared investor materials and financial analysis, then pitched investors during the raise. The case studies show how I used customer research to make product decisions.
User and customer discovery
100+
customer conversations and user interviews across Pier's product iterations
Partner commitment
2
signed pilot-partner LOIs across education and commercial cleaning
Selected product work
Three examples of my product work
These cases show employer onboarding, customer research, and a revised pilot test.
Product episode
Designing User Onboarding for Pier's Employer Workflow
Pier lets employers create an opening, invite candidates to an AI-assisted interview, and review the evaluation before making a hiring decision. I defined signup requirements, designed the flow and error states, worked with engineering, and tested the experience before release.
Result: released onboarding and partner guidance that matched the paths I tested.
Open case studyProduct episode
Building A Customer-Intelligence Learning Loop
Across more than 100 customer conversations and user interviews, I designed and ran a process that turned transcripts into findings the technical cofounder could trace to the source and use in product decisions.
Result: a repeatable research process for product, positioning, and MVP feature decisions.
Open case studyProduct episode
Changing The Test Path When Pilot Signal Stalled
When pilot-partner responses stalled, I asked a trusted friend and a strategic advisor to test the employer setup and share flow. Their feedback changed our roadmap, engineering work, and product positioning.
Result: we used feedback from two outside testers to make specific product decisions while pilot-partner testing remained separate.
Open case studyWider proof library
Explore the PM work by responsibility.
Compare roadmap decisions, customer research, workflow design, team coordination, and launch learning across five case studies.
Choose a skill to see how I applied it at Pier. Each view highlights a different part of the same five projects.
Choose a skill
Lens in focus
Roadmap and prioritization
Case study · Roadmap Shaping Through Product Evidence
Using research to plan the launch
I used customer research to plan the launch: small-business positioning, candidate value, website copy, and MVP scope.
Choose the research that can change the launch plan.
Open case studyCase study · Changing The Test Path When Pilot Signal Stalled
Using pilot feedback to set the next priority
After SmartApply shipped, I used what partners could try and trust to plan demos, follow-up, and the next build priority.
Use pilot feedback to update the next build decision.
Open case studyCase study · Building A Customer-Intelligence Learning Loop
Using interviews to set build priorities
I turn user interviews into findings we can use to choose the next build priorities.
Use discovery to change the roadmap.
Open case studyCase study · Testing A Construction Workflow Thesis
Narrowing a broad direction into a testable product path
I narrowed broad procurement language into a specific subcontractor-activation workflow we could test without overclaiming.
Prioritize the workflow specific enough to test.
Open case studyCase study · Daily Agile Rituals And Team Coordination
Turning priorities into visible owner decisions
In team check-ins, we assigned an owner, next action, due date, and follow-through for each priority.
Turn priority decisions into assigned work.
Open case studyWriting
Selected writing
Essay · June 5, 2026
The Next $1T Company
An essay about AI services, insurance claims, and who gets to define completed work.
Read essayEssay · June 4, 2026
The Industrialization of Cognition
An essay about AI as a production system: who owns the tools that shape thought work, what happens to human skill, and why concentration and access have to be understood together.
Read essayAgent workflow
Watch my agent build this website and QA its own work.
A sped-up recording of the workflow: the agent reads the plan, executes a task, updates the tracker, verifies against the requirements, and repeats that loop until the work is complete. Only then does it open the PR.
- 01 Read plan
- 02 Execute task
- 03 Update tracker
- 04 Verify against requirements
- 05 Open PR