Atlanta, Georgia

Matt Niemitz

EdTech product & program strategist & leader, aspiring artist & chef, and lifelong learner.

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Matt has 20 years of experience creating innovative education, marketplace, and community products & programs and building high-performing cross-functional teams. He’s the founder and principal of Waypoint Innovation, a coaching and consultancy, and previously worked at Adobe, Skillshare, and in earth/ocean science education.

He dabbles in creating map art out of hand-cut felt and dreams of making it as a real artist. He started a gourmet supper club and serves as his kid’s line cook at breakfast and dinner. He enjoys being a husband and dad, volunteer, amateur maker/home maintainer, traveler, and golfer.

LinkedIn Resume Waypoint Innovation mniemitz@gmail.com

Experience

Waypoint Innovation

Founder & Principal · 2024 to present

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Product coaching & consultancy with 15+ years of experience leading education, marketplace, & community products and businesses. We offer strategy refinement, product growth consulting, coaching, advisory and fractional/interim product leader services. Learn more at https://waypointinnovation.com.

  • ·We provide strategy and growth, coaching, advisory, and fractional services to innovative, mission-driven organizations that are ready to scale.
  • ·Clients include Clean Catalog, Amend, CreatorUp, CareerVillage, and several solopreneurs.
  • ·Integrating AI tools into consulting workflows—using LLMs for research, rapid prototyping, content production, and vibe coding functional products.

Skillshare

Senior Director of Product · 2021 -2024

Head of product management and product strategy, overseeing the growth, member experience, mobile, and teacher experience product teams, and managing a team of product managers.

  • ·Co-leader of the teacher marketplace initiative, a new line of business for Skillshare that generated $550k in revenue in the first 12 months.
  • ·Collaborated with Content and Community teams to develop a 2-year business and product strategy, focused on delivering user value. Executed the effort to revamp the learning and teacher experience in support of this strategy.
  • ·Managed a team of product managers, overseeing Growth and Member Experience product pods.
  • ·Member of the Senior Leadership Team, contributing to cross-functional initiatives and helping set the company-wide business strategy and culture.

Adobe

Principal Product Manager, CC Education & GM, Adobe Education Exchange · 2008 - 2021

Founded and led the Adobe Education Exchange (AEE), the first online marketplace for learning and teaching Adobe applications. I owned the product and growth strategy, user/market research, product design and roadmap, content development, and community management, and built and managed a cross-functional team of 10. I grew the product to 1M+ members, driving 150k new Adobe software users annually. Served as interim lead for the Creative Cloud Education team, managing and leading a design/engineering/product team of 25.

  • ·Zero to one launch of the AEE MVP (2010); Secured additional funding, re-built, and re-launched a custom platform (2013); Researched, designed, developed, and shipped 100+ features, including a custom CMS; Upgraded platform to a microservice architecture written in Node.js/React (2020).
  • ·Built and managed a cross-functional team of 6 engineers, a designer, a curriculum developer, a community manager, and a growth PM.
  • ·Developed a multi-variate analysis model and corresponding personalization algorithm to guide product strategy and increase customer satisfaction from an NPS of 17 to 53.
  • ·Cultivated a vibrant educator community, with 120k+ monthly users.
  • ·Trained 400k+ educators by delivering 500+ online courses, workshops & webinars through a custom AEE LMS.
  • ·Lead marketing efforts to grow the AEE to 1M+ global members
  • ·Launched the AEE in German and Japanese.
  • ·Led new content creation strategy and production; published 2k+ teaching materials.

Education Consultant & Product Designer

Freelance work while completing graduate school · 2006 - 2008

Designed and developed award-winning interactive online education experiences for clients.

Consortium for Ocean Leadership

Program Associate · 2003 - 2006

Co-founded Deep Earth Academy, a multi-faceted program to equip educators to leverage cutting-edge earth and ocean science research in primary and secondary school classrooms.

  • ·Co-founded the School of Rock, a first-of-its-kind oceangoing teacher professional development expedition.
  • ·Designed and developed interactive online education experiences, games, curriculum & instructional resources.
  • ·Marketed program to the earth science education community.
  • ·Authored 3 peer-reviewed publications about the School of Rock model.

Expertise

Product & Growth StrategyProduct ManagementProgram ManagementTeam Building & LeadershipProduct DesignData & AnalyticsInternationalOnline LearningOnline CommunityInstructional Design

Education

2007

Harvard Graduate School of Education

Ed.M, Technology, Innovation, and Education

  • ·Coursework addressed the design, implementation, and analysis of education technologies.
  • ·Selected as a Student Advisor to the HGSE Faculty Appointments Committee.
2003

The College of William & Mary

B.S., Geology

  • ·Studied abroad in New Zealand
  • ·Published senior thesis in Marine Micropaleontology
2020

Reforge

Engagement + Retention Deep Dive

  • ·Program for experienced product and marketing professionals who want to do a deep dive on Retention and Engagement. Curriculum includes qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, and strategies across Activation, Engagement, Churn, and Resurrection.

Labs

A sandbox for trying out new ideas, tools, and processes. Some are musings on the state of my industry. Others end up being used in my work. Some are just for fun.

Life

Husband to Mary Flynn and Dad to Austin (born 2015) & Graham (born 2018)

Family
Niemitz Family Aix-cellent Adventures

Niemitz Family Aix-cellent Adventures

Year Abroad in Provence

Read on Substack →

Get in Touch

👋 I’m always interested in connecting with those who share my interests (and those who don’t). I love to collaborate, kick around ideas, and enjoy a coffee or beer. I’m based in Atlanta but am currently spending a year abroad with my family in Provence.

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