Tristan Douville

Tristan Douville

Senior Product Manager

Product leader with 5+ years driving B2B SaaS from 0β†’1 launch through growth-stage scale. I oversaw product improvements that saw revenue 20x. I work directly with executive leadership on strategy and I've built product functions from the ground up: hiring teams, designing operating models, and establishing processes that let development move fast. I also build LLM-powered workflows.

About Me

My Background

After studying computer science and technical writing I started my career in IT before transitioning into product management. My technical foundation means I can go deep with engineering teams while still keeping the user front-and-centre.

What I Enjoy

I thrive building 0β†’1 products: taking ambiguous problems through discovery, defining the right scope, and shipping solutions that drive real customer value and user delight. I especially love being a translator between technical and non-technical teams.

What's Next

I'm looking for a Senior PM or Lead PM role at a growth-stage small business or established organization where I can own a product area end-to-end, learn an entirely new domain, and upskill both technically and professionally.

Skills & Tools

Product Leadership

Agile, Kanban, & Scrum AI Strategy Attribution Modelling BI & Data Analysis Competitor Analysis Customer Interviews

Technical Skills

Data Modelling HTML/CSS Prompt Engineering Python React SQL SR&ED Reporting TypeScript

Tools

AWS Figma GitHub Hotjar Jira Metabase Mixpanel Notion Zapier

AI & Automation

ChatGPT Claude Cursor Magic Patterns MCP n8n OpenAI API Vercel
Case Studies
Building a Product Function from Scratch Designed and shipped a full SDLC from the ground up; solo PM to 3-person team. 25% reduction in production bugs.
Partnered with leadership to shift engineering to a startup mentality, laying foundations for a 0β†’1 platform launch.
Process design 0β†’1 Risk decrease

Context

When I joined Pivott, there was no product function. No process, no team, and no path from idea to shipped. Engineering was experienced, but it had come from a stable, profitable business built around maintenance. The mandate was a new SaaS product at startup pace.

Problem

A 0β†’1 launch without a product function is a structural risk. Work defaults to ad hoc decisions, unclear requirements, and reactive engineering.

Core tension: Move fast enough to compete, and still build the process that can sustain it.

The team's instincts were set for stability, not speed. Process change without credibility rarely sticks.

My Role

  • Assessed the gap between how the team worked and what a startup delivery model required
  • Designed a complete SDLC from idea submission through post-release review
  • Used my CSPO certification to bring in agile frameworks and an outside view of team rituals
  • Built the business case for dedicated product and QA hires
  • Partnered with the CEO so the cultural shift had executive backing

Key Decisions

1. Design the full lifecycle before hiring
I mapped 17 phases, from idea submission to review and success monitoring, before growing the team. New hires started inside a working system.

2. Secure CEO alignment before rolling out to engineering
The cultural gap meant a process change needed executive weight. With the CEO aligned first, the shift was company direction, not only a PM's opinion.

3. Use certification frameworks as a starting point, not a constraint
Planning poker, sprint rituals, and backlog governance were the baseline. I adapted them to Pivott's stage instead of applying them by the book.

Execution

  • Documented the SDLC: idea submission, prioritization, requirements, design, hand-off, development, testing, release, and post-launch review
  • Hired and onboarded a PM, a product designer, and a QA engineer. Solo PM to a 3-person product team
  • Established agile practices and team rituals from the ground up
  • Introduced Jira defect tracking so quality had a measurable baseline

Outcome

  • A working product function in under 6 months
  • Production bugs down 25% after QA and formal acceptance testing
  • Engineering moved from maintenance mode to a startup delivery cadence
  • That operating model became the base for the 0β†’1 launch of the contract management platform
  • The same setup later supported engineering growth from 5 to 8
Rebuilding a Marketing Website for Team Velocity Led a full marketing site rebuild using AI-native tooling; prototype in 1 week, launched in under 4 weeks.
Enabled non-developer marketing contributions for the first time and reduced monthly tooling costs by ~40%.
AI Speed increase Cost decrease

Context

Pivott's marketing site ran on Webflow, from a purchased template. Marketing could not build new pages on their own. Custom interactions needed a developer. A planned redesign was getting harder to justify.

Feature landing pages were stalled. A pricing page, with collapsible comparison tables and an interactive plan structure, kept getting deferred. In Webflow, the effort was not worth prioritizing.

Problem

The constraint was the platform, not the design. Webflow handled basic copy. A new component, an interactive pricing layout, or a feature page each needed a developer or a Webflow specialist. Pivott had neither available for marketing work.

Core tension: The site had to grow with the product, but every meaningful change was its own project.

Webflow was also retiring its legacy editor. The status quo was temporary either way.

My Role

  • Spotted the constraint and built an alternative before taking it to leadership
  • Wrote the business case: Webflow versus React on Vercel, across cost, capability, and flexibility
  • Led the implementation: repo, design system, components, and deployment
  • Set up the AI-native workflow with Magic Patterns, Claude Code, and Cursor
  • Wrote the project plan: content audit, infrastructure checklist, and DNS migration
  • Showed the prototype to the CEO and Head of Sales, and moved the 2027 redesign to 2026

Key Decisions

1. Pull the 2027 redesign forward by more than a year
A competent Webflow rebuild was about the same effort as React, with worse long-term outcomes. Leadership approved moving immediately. A year-plus plan became a few weeks.

2. Use Magic Patterns as the design tool
Instead of hiring a designer or a Webflow consultant, I used Magic Patterns to produce an on-brand React prototype before any production code. It included a component library, brand tokens, responsive behaviour, and accessibility compliance. Leadership could click through it before committing engineering time.

3. Choose Next.js over Vite and React Router
Next.js gave server-side rendering for SEO, file-based routing, and native metadata. On Vercel, deployment, staging branches, and preview URLs were essentially zero-config.

4. Design for non-developer contribution from day one
A Marketing Manager needed to contribute, not only review. Named Tailwind tokens, a clear folder structure, and a CLAUDE.md file let Claude Code and Cursor match the codebase. Copy updates, new pages, and image swaps no longer need a developer.

Execution

  • Ran 60+ Magic Patterns iterations for an approved design system: 10+ page templates and a component library covering homepage, pricing, sign-up, feature template, About, Contact, Integrations, Terms, and a brand reference page
  • Stood up production: Next.js 15, Vercel with staging and production branches, Vercel Blob for assets, and Formspree with spam filtering and Zapier
  • Wrote CLAUDE.md for Tailwind tokens, component patterns, routing, images, and SEO, so Claude Code and Cursor could contribute without rework
  • Generated 17+ pages from Magic Patterns exports, Claude Code, and Cursor, using CSV inputs for batch feature pages
  • Set a repeatable path: brief in Magic Patterns, export TSX, integrate, and Vercel deploys a preview URL
  • Wrote the project plan for the content audit, infrastructure, third-party migration, and DNS cutover

Outcome

  • Site launched in under 4 weeks, against a planned 12+ months
  • Marketing can draft pages in Magic Patterns, push updates with Claude Code, and review on Vercel preview URLs without engineering
  • Two product launches that were stuck on the old platform were built and ready for content
  • New feature pages are a content swap inside a shared template, not a new project
  • Monthly tooling cost down about 40% versus the Webflow plan and seat fees
  • 99% Lighthouse score, and answer engine optimization (AEO) on the new site
Eliminating Team Bottlenecks: A Scalable, Internal AI Knowledge System Built an internal AI assistant now handling hundreds of support queries per month.
Eliminated a recurring bottleneck for the product team without adding headcount or process overhead.
AI Speed increase Cost decrease

Context

Customer support kept pulling the product team into Slack, email, and calls. Documentation, PRDs, and BI tools already existed. Customer Success was not using them.

Problem

Support asked the product team instead of looking it up. That meant constant interruptions, slower replies while people waited on a PM, and documentation that sat unused.

Core tension: Let support reach product knowledge on their own, without making the product team the bottleneck.

My Role

  • Owned internal documentation strategy
  • Interviewed Customer Success on how they actually handled live tickets
  • Found the gap: not missing documentation, but access and synthesis
  • Tried process changes first, then tooling

Key Decisions

1. Validate non-technical solutions first
I improved the docs and ran a lunch and learn on self-serve questioning, adapting PM-style interviews for support. It helped. It did not reduce reliance on the product team.

2. Invest in a scalable system
AI could aggregate and synthesize what we already had. I proposed an internal Product Concierge for real-time, self-serve answers.

3. Prioritize trust and accuracy over breadth
The assistant cites its sources, shows how old the information is, and holds back when confidence is low.

Execution

  • Specified a Slack assistant connected to internal docs, PRDs, code repositories, and selected BI queries
  • Checked the approach with developers before building
  • Built it and iterated on prompts and data connections
  • Added tracking for usage and response quality

Outcome

  • Product Concierge handles hundreds of internal queries a month
  • Fewer direct interruptions to the product team
  • Faster, more consistent support replies
  • Less dependence on any one person for product knowledge
  • A base for later internal AI tools
Rebuilding Contract Extraction for Every Paying Customer Built and shipped an OCR and extraction pipeline that reads contract PDFs and turns them into structured terms.
Live for 100% of paying customers, with accuracy above 95%, AI issues down 80%, and cost down by two-thirds.
AI Cost decrease Risk decrease

Context

Buyers expected Pivott to read their contracts with AI. Early tests handled basic details and missed complex clauses. I owned the work from that first test through a full rebuild of the extraction pipeline, and the initiative shipped.

Problem

The early pipeline called a model up to ten times per contract. That was slow, expensive, and hard to trust when a field was wrong. A narrow first test was the way to learn. It was not the product we shipped.

Core tension: Prove the AI could extract real contract terms, then rebuild it so the cost and the accuracy could hold in production.

My Role

  • Created and owned the OCR and AI initiative from the feasibility test through the shipped pipeline
  • Wrote the PRD to rebuild extraction as a single structured model call
  • Stress-tested bulk upload on real customer contracts before a wider release
  • Served as Incident Lead when an OCR failure hit production. The feature was flagged off, AI was re-run, and no customer-facing message was needed

Key Decisions

1. Start with a small demo, then ship the real pipeline
The first test accepted a vendor processing limit and extracted only contract name and date. That limit was the demo. The shipped pipeline is the rebuild.

2. Keep automation conservative where trust mattered
Recurring tasks stayed on simple patterns, with odd cases sent to manual review. A vendor was not created from a name alone.

3. Rebuild as one structured call
Replaced up to ten model calls per contract with one. Added per-field reasoning, a staff review panel, a provider fallback, and OCR caching.

Execution

  • Wrote requirements so generated summaries append to existing user notes rather than overwrite them
  • Moved the rebuild through requirements, design, and hand-off
  • Owned prompt quality as ongoing work, not a single release

Outcome

  • The initiative shipped. The rebuilt pipeline is live for 100% of paying customers
  • Extraction accuracy held above 95%
  • Internal and external reports of AI-related issues dropped by 80%
  • Processing cost dropped by roughly two-thirds, short of an 80% cost target
From a Cheap Prototype to a First Enterprise Pilot Owned the AI Resident Lease Auditor from a feasibility prototype through a first enterprise pilot.
F-score of about 0.9, and roughly 300-unit properties audited in under four hours versus days or weeks by hand.
AI 0β†’1 Revenue increase

Context

An enterprise property operator audited leases by hand for accuracy, consistency, and omissions. The work needed many people and a lot of time. The question that started the work: can existing document AI read a lease and compare it to expected values?

Problem

A full audit product, with customer access, saved output, and every field, would have been a large bet before anyone knew whether the model could match a lease to expected values. The sales motion was not self-serve. Staff would run audits on a prospect's real leases before any purchase.

Core tension: Learn whether the audit was real without building the commercial product first.

My Role

  • Owned the initiative from the feasibility prototype through go-to-market planning
  • Wrote the feasibility PRD, the Phase 1 MVP page, and the later PRDs
  • Scoped the first build as a sales-call tool: no customer access, two fields hard-coded, saved output out of scope
  • Owned demo preparation for the first live enterprise demo: goals, script, notes, and action items

Key Decisions

1. Test the cheapest version first
The prototype split PDFs into 15-page pieces, sent them to a document AI service, and compared the results to expected values, treating a currency value written two ways as one match.

2. Sell through staff-run concierge audits
Chose a go-to-market model of staff-run audits ahead of product-market fit. Hid staff-only screens from customer roles and skipped guided self-serve onboarding.

3. Make a dollar difference the headline
The engine stored match or no-match, not the size of a discrepancy. A dollar figure persuades more than an item count, so storing that difference became a prerequisite for the reporting work.

4. Validate on known answers before more sales use
Designed a three-dataset plan: synthetic seeded errors, a known-flawed real property, and an unaudited property. Success was full reconciliation: every real discrepancy flagged, and no correct value flagged.

Execution

  • Wrote the PRDs for roll-up reporting, exports, UI simplification, document identification, and source-document traceability
  • Got the document AI trained on the customer's lease format once that need showed up in a check-in
  • Wrote the demo plan and the follow-up to fix known bugs before the next customer audit

Outcome

  • The demo converted into a pilot. The team began auditing properties the customer was preparing to sell. This is a pilot, not a signed contract
  • The engine audited roughly 300 unit properties in under four hours, versus the days or weeks the customer described for a manual pass
  • Trained documents reached an F-score of about 0.9
Shipping Product-Led Growth, from a Sandbox to Self-Serve Designed and shipped product-led growth from a sandbox and concierge upload to self-serve sign-up.
Freemium tiers, spreadsheet upload, and pricing and packaging shipped with that motion.
Product-led growth 0β†’1 Strategy

Context

A prospect had no way to sign up for Pivott alone. Sales qualified the lead, and staff created the company and user by hand. I owned the plan to change that, and the work shipped.

Problem

Full self-serve sign-up was the larger build. There was also no permanent place to show the product without copying a company for every prospect. Starting with the full sign-up would have spent the roadmap before anyone had used the product on their own.

Core tension: Learn whether self-serve demand was real, then ship the sign-up, rather than stopping at the test.

My Role

  • Created and owned the initiative, from the plan through the shipped sign-up
  • Chose a sandbox-first path, then carried it through to self-serve onboarding
  • Owned pricing and packaging, and tracked conversion and attach rate
  • Wrote the requirements for the sandbox, the automatic invite, the concierge upload, and self-serve sign-up

Key Decisions

1. Validate with a sandbox, then build sign-up
Asked new users to try a sandbox first, so demand was visible before the harder build. Self-serve sign-up shipped after that. It was the sequence, not the end state.

2. Make the sandbox permanent
Redesigned it from a per-prospect copy into one always-on environment. That removed sales-conversion pollution and the work of managing duplicate companies.

3. Protect account privacy
When someone signs up twice with the same email, the flow sends a login link rather than confirming that the account exists.

4. Ship concierge upload on the way to full automation
Customers see automatic contract processing. Staff entered the details behind the scenes as the smaller first step. Spreadsheet upload shipped with the rest of the motion.

Execution

  • Presented the plan to the product team and wrote the requirements for what shipped
  • Prioritized the automatic sandbox invite, then the self-serve flow

Outcome

  • Shipped: the sandbox, the automatic invite, concierge upload, self-serve sign-up, and spreadsheet upload
  • Freemium tiers, self-serve onboarding, and time-to-value work landed with pricing and packaging I owned
Recent Work Experience

Senior Product Manager

Pivott Software Β· Victoria, BC
May 2025 – Present
3-person product team, 8 developers
  • Built and deployed an agentic AI workflow that reads contract PDFs via OCR and extracts key terms into structured, normalized data for tens of thousands of contracts a month.
  • Ran the roadmap for Pivott's multi-module SaaS platform end-to-end, taking products to market on multiple occasions.
  • Collaborated directly with the CEO to define product vision, translate business strategy into a prioritized roadmap, and identify new revenue opportunities. Oversaw product improvements that saw revenue 20x.
  • Designed a formal product, design, and engineering operating model, including hiring and onboarding a 3-person product team, establishing department processes, and managing professional development, and scaled engineering from 5 to 8.

Product Manager

Pivott Software Β· Victoria, BC
Jan 2024 – May 2025
Team of 8 developers
  • Led 0β†’1 launch of a contract management SaaS platform from market analysis through to revenue in under a year.
  • Designed and executed a product-led growth (PLG) strategy including freemium tiers, self-serve onboarding, and TTV optimizations, owning pricing and packaging and tracking conversion and attach rate.
  • Implemented a sandbox environment and sign-up workflow to demonstrate features to new users and convert them to freemium or paid.
  • Ran go-to-market launches alongside marketing; tracked feature adoption and release cadence weekly.

Product Manager

PostEngine Β· Victoria, BC
April 2021 – Dec 2023
Team of 6 developers
  • Owned product for a Chrome extension and desktop platform automating rental ad posting at scale, pulling live listings data and auto-publishing to Craigslist and other channels across 3M+ ads annually.
  • Worked with the team on cross-channel lead attribution, connecting phone, email, text, and web inquiries back to the specific ad that generated them, turning ad performance into a number customers could actually act on.
  • Owned Property Portal, the customer-facing reporting product surfacing ad performance and exportable attribution data, in place of raw activity logs.
Volunteering

Mentor, PM Mentorship Program

ProductBC Β· Vancouver, BC
September 2024 – Present
  • Mentored 3 product managers across separate 6-month engagements, ranging in roles from Associate PM to PM through hands-on support and career coaching.
  • Held bi-weekly 1:1s focused on real-world product challenges, team dynamics, and career development.
  • Fostered a space for candid conversations, giving perspective without assuming solutions.
Education & Certifications
Degree

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science

Faculty of Engineering, University of Victoria
September 2014 – August 2019
Certification

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)

Scrum Alliance Β· Credential ID 001394694
July 2022
Get In Touch

Open to opportunities.

If you're building something interesting, I'd love to be a part of it. Reach out to me at the links below.

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