Introducing: Product Management and Design at Truss

Photo courtesy of José Alejandro Cuffia

Building great software and great teams requires a well-rounded approach and we’re thrilled to be adding two new disciplines to team Truss to make that a reality: product management and design.

Product management

Our product management practice is led by Michael Torres, who over the past ten years has created and led product teams in a variety of contexts in the private sector as well as government. While at 18F, he built and led a team of 15 product managers to help government agencies build and deploy user-centered solutions to problems in the domains of human services and defense. He brings broad expertise of agile, user-centered product development methods, and is focused on quickly getting real outcomes for clients as well as helping them regain ownership of their mission by establishing product management best practices in house.

Truss product managers work with client stakeholders to establish the product vision and strategy, and then ensure our delivery teams are working in lockstep to execute on that shared mission together. An equally important piece of product management at Truss is making sure our clients are well-positioned to carry the torch after we’ve gone. Helping build the product is only part of the work; ensuring client teams can continue iterating and improving without us there is just as important.

Research and design

Working in tandem with product management is our new research and design practice, led by Jesse Taggert. Jesse brings extensive experience leading design teams in the government and private sector. She led design for California Child Welfare Digital Services and was a lead strategist at 18F, an in-government consultancy bringing user centered design and agile software development to government agencies. Before focusing on government work, she worked at Pivotal Labs, an international firm specializing in agile software development, and various technology startups.

Truss designers bring experience in product strategy, user research, user experience design, visual design, and content strategy. Our designers help organizations succeed by identifying the right thing to build and then building it right—in that order. They advocate for the user and create experiences that are inclusive, accessible, responsive, and backed by research. Like product management, the work doesn’t end when the product is delivered; Truss designers are dedicated to teaching their process and empowering our clients to continue good design practices inside their teams after we’ve gone.

Our first big project

Read more about our first major project with research, design, product management, and engineering working together to build a new system to help move military service members and their belongings — MilMove.