Understand
Listen for the job people are trying to do, especially when their first answer points in the wrong direction.
Founder / Builder / Product operator
Chicago / Working everywhere
I build my way to better answers.
Justin Mayer
I help companies understand what is worth building, then get close enough to the work to make it real. My career has crossed hardware, software, AI, startups, and Fortune 100 businesses.
See how I work
20+Years building
03Companies founded
$420MGlobal product portfolio
09Patents
01Venture exit
01 / The smart water cooler
They rejected the label. Their customers wanted the outcome.
Oasis, a Culligan company, asked me to help shape its product roadmap. The team opened with a firm constraint: no smart water coolers. Earlier research said the market found them too expensive.
The brief
“We don’t want smart water coolers.”
What the research revealed
- Coolers disappeared inside massive buildings.
- High technician turnover erased field knowledge.
- Service documentation failed the people doing the work.
The job to be done
COOLER
→GRID
→DATABASE
Find it. Understand it. Service it.
The customer response
“That’s what a smart water cooler is? I want that.”
The lesson
The first research tested a category name. The second uncovered the work customers needed done. Better questions did not validate the original roadmap. They revealed a more valuable one.
02 / How I work
Curiosity with a build button.
I use Jobs to Be Done, Strategyzer, design thinking, and sprint methods as working tools. The framework matters less than the discipline: understand the problem, make the idea tangible, and learn from reality.
Make it visible
A prototype, model, or working system gives people something concrete to react to.
Ship and learn
Reality produces better information than another month of internal debate.
UNDERSTAND→DESIGN→BUILD→SHIP→LEARN
03 / Range with a purpose
Different mediums. The same discipline.
Hardware made constraints real. Software showed how every system touches another. Running companies made customer truth impossible to avoid. AI makes all of it move faster, including the mistakes.
Fortune 100 / Product leadership
Life Fitness
Led connected cardio and workplace wellness portfolios across a $420M global business.
09
From sketch to IP
InMovement
Moved ideas through research, prototypes, manufacturing, launch, and nine patents.
ACQUIRED
2021
2021
AI / Startup / Go to market
Encube
Turned machine-learning technology into a product Fortune 1000 buyers could understand and adopt.
$200K
→ $20K
→ $20K
Software / Operations
LivNow
Built the operating platform at roughly one-tenth the conventional development estimate.
04 / A working belief
“Great design is rarely decoration. It removes what does not matter and gives the important thing nowhere to hide.”
That applies to a product interface, a roadmap, a business model, or a room full of executives trying to make a hard decision.
05 / The human part
Builder is the shortest description.
I trained as a mechanical engineer, earned an MBA in supply chain, managed products inside global companies, taught business, founded and co-founded three companies, acquired and operated small businesses, and learned to build software without waiting for permission from a traditional development team.
The titles changed. The work did not. Find the real problem. Bring the right people into it. Make something useful. See what reality says.
Ideas I return to
Simon Sinek on purpose. Adam Grant on rethinking. Mark Manson on choosing what deserves your attention.