Hi, I'm Ashwin
I'm a product manager based in Seattle. I've spent the last decade building platforms and integrations at Microsoft, Snapchat, and Twilio Segment. I care about making complex things feel simple and meeting people where they are instead of demanding they change.
The throughline
Every role I've had comes back to the same question: how do you build products that fit into life instead of demanding attention?
At Microsoft, that meant turning enterprise broadcasting into something anyone could use, not just AV professionals. Teams Live Events scaled to 20 million users. At Twilio Segment, it meant building the platform layer that connects to 400+ tools without forcing customers to change their stack. At Snapchat, it meant surfacing context without requiring a search query.
The problems look different on the surface. The discipline underneath is the same: defaults over settings, clarity over cleverness, systems that succeed on their first encounter.
Where I've been
I started my career at Microsoft in 2011, working on Dynamics CRM and then Bing Search. I built restaurant search experiences, trained ML models for intent-based ranking, and learned how to ship at scale.
In 2016, I joined a startup called Vurb as Head of Product. We were building a search and discovery app. Snapchat acquired us six months later. I stayed on to ship Context Cards and Location Filters to 200 million users, integrating third-party data from Foursquare, TripAdvisor, and Michelin into the Snapchat experience. I write about that work in the case study.
I returned to Microsoft in 2018 to build Teams Live Events from scratch. That became my signature work: unifying three competing teams, solving hard scaling constraints, building a quality program that became organizational standard, and then leading the wartime response when COVID hit and demand exploded. I tell that story in detail in the case study.
In 2022, I joined Twilio Segment to lead platform strategy. I architected the integration layer connecting to 400+ tools, reorganized teams around platform and application boundaries, and shipped APIs that accelerated enterprise deployments by 20%. This was pure B2B platform work: translating technical capabilities into business value for customers who needed their data infrastructure to just work.
The break
In 2023, I made a choice that looked like stepping back but felt like stepping into something.
I left Segment to become the primary caregiver for my son during his early years. It was deliberate. I wanted to be present for the part of his life he would not remember but that would shape everything after. And I wanted to explore a question that had been circling in my head for years: what does it look like to build products for people who have no attention to spare?
Caregiving placed me in an environment defined by interruption. Limited attention. Constant context-switching. Nothing works unless it fits into the flow of real life. That constraint sharpened how I think about products.
I built things to test the idea. Crossover Creamery is an ice cream brand I created from scratch: global flavors designed for gifting and hosting moments, where every decision had to work without explanation. Quillworks is a product thesis I developed around capturing digital value without interrupting analog behavior. I also worked hands-on at Bell's Cookies, learning commercial kitchen operations and what it means when tools either fit the moment or fail immediately.
Outside of work
I like doing hard things that take a long time.
I've run multiple marathons. In 2023, I completed the Seattle to Portland bike ride, 200 miles over two days. I read constantly, mostly nonfiction: psychology, business, history, anything that helps me understand how people actually work.
I'm a dad to a five-year-old who is starting kindergarten this year. Being present for him is the thing I'm most proud of from the last two years.
What I'm looking for now
I'm ready to bring this perspective back into a team environment. I want to work on problems with real scale, alongside people who push the work further than I could alone.
I'm targeting Senior or Staff PM roles in Seattle, ideally in B2B or platform spaces where my experience translates directly. I care about the craft of product management and the people I will build with.
If that sounds interesting, I would love to talk.