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.

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What i'm up to lately
Granite Peak Consulting

Amplitude Solution Partner leading PLG transformation engagements for enterprise SaaS teams. Applying data-driven retention, expansion, and cross-sell strategies.

PLG Transformation

Leading product-led growth engagements for enterprise SaaS clients as an Amplitude Solution Partner.

Data-Driven Strategy

Applying retention, expansion, and cross-sell analytics to drive measurable outcomes.

Enjoying optionality

Open to senior leadership roles that promise new, exciting challenges

most recent product leadership role
Director of Product Growth at Appfire
Strategic Leadership

As Director built 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.

Case Study

Amplitude

How Appfire Developed and Evangelized a Common Activation Methodology

Read how adopting Amplitude Analytics helped Appfire standardize their activation methodology across 38 apps.

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 at the start of 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
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.

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.

Media and Appearances

45:23

YouTube

Revenue is not a North-Star metric

In this episode of ThriveCast, Michael Kuhl shares how AppFire shifted from obsessing over revenue and churn to building a growth engine powered by leading indicators.

38:49

YouTube

The Collapse of the Old App Era

In this episode, I sat down with Josh Golosinskiy — founder of Gryd.io — to unpack what’s really happening in the Atlassian Marketplace right now.

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.

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.