Product Growth Leader & Strategic Innovator
Michael Kuhl
Transforming SaaS products through data-driven growth strategies, team leadership, and product-led innovation. Proven track record building top-selling apps, scaling analytics programs, leading high-performing teams, and driving measurable business impact across 70+ products.
Contact
Director of Product Growth at Appfire
Strategic Leadership
Promoted to Director after building Appfire's product analytics program. Scaled function across 70+ SaaS products, standardizing instrumentation and integrating analytics company-wide.
Team Excellence
Built and led team of seven cross-functional data product builders. Transitioned to strategic leader, fostering independence and a high performance culture.
PLG Transformation
Established Product-Led Growth as core methodology. Enabled Growth PMs to drive double-digit improvements in activation and conversion rates through data-driven tactics.
Measurable Business Impact
117%
Activation Improvement
Drove dramatic activation gains for key app through data-driven optimization
70+
Products Scaled
Integrated analytics across the top apps in Appfire's SaaS portfolio
7
Team Members
Built high-performing team across three specialized functions
Integrated product analytics into Snowflake data warehouse, making insights actionable for go-to-market, sales, and marketing teams. Built scalable framework for experimentation, A/B testing, and funnel analysis.
Principal Product Manager Journey
Pioneering Role
Joined as founding Principal PM, reporting to executive leadership during rapid growth from ~60 to 900+ employees and 10 to 150 products.
Product Innovation
Owned strategy for flagship Atlassian Marketplace products including Bob Swift ACLI and Confluence app suite. Led comprehensive UI/UX overhaul with intellisense command completion.
Analytics Foundation
Pioneered company's first product analytics program, setting stage for data-driven decision-making and standardizing practices across portfolio.
Customer-Centric
Conducted direct customer interviews, user research, and in-person events to inform product direction and validate features.
Core Expertise & Skills
Product Strategy
Product-Led Growth (PLG), roadmapping, and go-to-market strategy for SaaS products
Data & Analytics
Product analytics, data-driven decision making, experimentation, and A/B testing
Leadership
Cross-functional leadership, team building, coaching, mentoring, and talent development
Customer Focus
Customer discovery, user research, and data governance with metric standardization
Thought Leadership
Public speaking and industry recognition for PLG and advanced analytics expertise
Technical Versatility
Developer background enabling hands-on prototyping and technical execution
Entrepreneurial Ventures
Atlas Bench
Co-founded to solve talent shortage in Atlassian ecosystem. Built on-demand bench of certified consultants for Solution Partners. Grew to recognized staffing provider before exiting to Appfire.
KratoSoft
Co-founded to serve Atlassian customers outside partner network. Innovated with self-service platform enabling credit card-based professional services procurement, reducing purchasing friction.
Consulting & Sales Leadership
Praecipio Consulting
Led sales and delivery for Atlassian suite implementations. Formed first formal sales team, owned complete sales cycle for deals up to six figures serving SMBs to Fortune 50.
  • Delivered webinars, seminars, demos, and training
  • Implemented SalesForce, HubSpot, SkyTap, and Workato
  • Scoped and sold optimization and adoption services
Enterprise Technology Leadership
1
HomeAway.com - Sr. Manager IT Operations
Led cross-functional teams supporting 2000+ users. Owned global collaboration tools including Confluence (10k daily pageviews) and JIRA (100+ project teams). Led SalesForce.com development for 700 global agents.
2
CloudTrigger - Director Integration Services
Defined data integration practice for SalesForce.com delivery team. Increased average deal size through improved integration services engagement process and scope accuracy.
3
Pervasive Software - Sr. Manager Client Services
Directed team of 17 integration engineers. Managed $2M+ budget with $4M revenue quota. Achieved record sales by re-organizing Sales Engineering with proper methodologies and tools.
Early Career Highlights
Surgient, Inc.
Senior Project Manager leading virtual server management deployments for Fortune 500 customers. Managed highest profile accounts contributing $3.6M+ annual revenue. Defined on-site deployment methodology.
TX Dept. of State Health Services
eGovernment Consultant guiding systems architecture and development. Designed and developed first ANSI standards-based WIC Smart Card POS System. ANSI X9.93 2002 Part 2 committee .
InCircuit Development
Head of Software Development directing team of 8 engineers across three commercial products. Drove major quality improvement resulting in increased customer satisfaction and reduced support demand.
Media and Appearances

Ignite 2025

Boost Trial Conversion with Activation Analytics
Map the user journey from Try it now to Aha! with product analytics. Optimize trials, showcase value faster, and create a seamless activation journey that boosts conversions and long-term adoption.

Amplitude

Amplitude Growth Tour Atlanta
I was invited by Amplitude to speak on driving growth with quality product data.

Amplitude

How Strong Instrumentation Lays the Groundwork for Product-led Growth
A case study on the product analytics data governance framework I built at Appfire.

40:22

Wistia, Inc.

Enabling Product-Led Sales Tactics with Amplitude
How Sales and Customer Success teams use Amplitude behavioral data to deliver real-time product usage insights, driving personalized sales, better retention, and expansion.
Let's Connect
Ready to Drive Growth?
With proven expertise in product-led growth, analytics, and team leadership, I transform SaaS products through data-driven strategies and operational excellence. Let's discuss how I can help your organization scale.