Services Leadership Portfolio Contact Let's Talk
NPG Leadership

Built on Judgment.
Driven by Outcomes.

The best product leadership isn't measured in hours billed or decks delivered — it's measured in clarity created, decisions de-risked, and products that actually ship and work. NPG brings VP-caliber product judgment to every engagement, amplified by AI and anchored to what matters: outcomes.

Services Portfolio
NPG Values
⚡ Velocity with Integrity 🔄 Signal-Driven Iteration 🏗️ Scale-Ready by Default 🎯 Consistent Experience, Always 🌟 AI as Infrastructure, Not Novelty 📐 Outcomes Over Activity
Brian Pollard
🎓
MIT AI
Certified
2024
NPG Founder

Product Executive.
AI Builder.
Operator at Scale.

Brian Pollard founded Northstar Product Group to bring senior product judgment to founders and teams who need it without the full-time cost. With 15+ years building platforms at Visa, Deloitte, LightBox, and beyond, he brings the depth of a seasoned executive and the hands-on fluency of an active AI builder.

🏦
Senior Manager, Product — Visa (Verifi) Shipped GenAI dispute authoring; 43% YoY revenue growth; 5-year TAM expansion roadmap.
🤖
MIT — AI Business Strategy and Designing & Building AI Products Exemplary badge recipient; applying AI product principles daily with Claude Code, Codex & Gemini.
🏛️
Deloitte Consulting — Digital Transformation Led American Express's 600-person Agile transformation; replatformed Activision globally.
🎓
UCLA Engineering · USC Marshall MBA Technical depth with business rigor — from computer engineering to executive product strategy.
Full Profile
How We Work

NPG Values

Building AI-native products isn't hard to start — it's hard to sustain. Shipping fast, staying coherent at scale, integrating feedback without breaking what works, and building systems users can trust: these are the problems NPG was designed to solve.

⚡

Velocity with Integrity

AI removes the excuse for slow delivery. We move fast — but never at the cost of quality, coherence, or user trust. Speed only compounds when the foundation is solid and the decisions behind it are intentional.

  • AI-accelerated research, scoping, and delivery
  • Scope discipline to avoid drift and rework
  • Decisions documented, not just made
🔄

Signal-Driven Iteration

The distance between insight and action should be hours, not sprints. We build feedback loops into every engagement — turning iteration speed into a compounding competitive advantage over teams that move slower on real signals.

  • Feedback infrastructure built in from day one
  • Assumption tracking and validation cadences
  • Short loops between build, measure, and learn
🏗️

Scale-Ready by Default

AI-native doesn't mean disposable. The hard part of any AI product isn't getting the first version live — it's maintaining security, performance, and coherence as users, data, and AI complexity all grow at the same time.

  • Security and governance designed in, not bolted on
  • Maintainable architectures over clever shortcuts
  • Scalability assumptions validated before launch
🎯

Consistent Experience, Always

Rapid iteration and coherent UX aren't in tension — but maintaining both requires explicit discipline. We hold product principles through every phase of growth so users always know what to expect, and teams know what to build toward.

  • Design systems and UX principles documented early
  • Regression-aware iteration to protect what works
  • Coherent narrative maintained across all touchpoints
🌟

AI as Infrastructure, Not Novelty

The most durable AI-native businesses aren't the ones that add AI to everything — they're the ones that embed AI where it creates genuine, defensible value. We help teams identify where AI compounds advantage, not just where it looks impressive.

  • AI applied where it creates real leverage, not just demos
  • Human-in-the-loop design where judgment matters
  • AI tooling integrated into every engagement — not just the output
📐

Outcomes Over Activity

Features shipped and tickets closed are not success metrics. Every NPG engagement is anchored to outcomes that actually matter — revenue growth, user adoption, competitive positioning, and defensible differentiation — not just delivery velocity.

  • Business impact as the primary success metric
  • Outcome-framed roadmaps, not feature lists
  • Retrospectives anchored to what's actually moving the needle

Let's Work Together

NPG works with founders and executive teams through fractional engagements, advisory retainers, and project-based consulting. If you're navigating a complex product decision, we'd love to hear about it.

📬 hello@northstarproductgroup.com LinkedIn