I bring calm and confidence to the chaos of growing a startup. I am as excited and invested as you in making it work and helping you scale rapidly but efficiently.
I am focused on both the human and product elements of scaling an impactful startup. Of designing and developing truly remarkable products. I have helped organizations of all sizes solve complex product and people problems. Leading to the best people decisions and the highest quality products. With me you get better teams, better cultures, better processes, better products — and you have a better time building together. I bring a strategic approach and years of experience designing, developing and building teams.
The goal is always truly elegant solutions.
I speak design, development, and business fluently and interchangeably. I’ve spent the last 10 years building a truly unique cache of expertise. I worked my way up from an individual contributor to a development leader and team builder at one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world. I am usually the designiest dev on the engineering team and most technical person on the design team. I’m fluent across software design and development while centering real business problems and user jobs to be done. Over time I’ve fused those skills to help translate across teams and transform businesses for the better. With me you get a very creative technical person who aligns development and design activities to business needs.
I’ve worked with solo founders all the way through teams of 30, 50, 100, 200, and up to 12,000 employees doing ambitious and creative work across industries from cannabis to media and adtech.
But those unique skills aren’t what make working with me special. I make it fun. Growth, scaling, running a hypergrowth startup doesn’t have to be about toil. Because it’s not just what we build, but how we do it that makes the best product. I truly believe that if you team’s not having fun then you aren't' doing it right. And not the forced fun of zoom drinks and meetups, because if you’re doing it right and the way you’re working is fun, you don't need to force it.
I’ve found that I am at my best, enjoy the work I’m doing the most, and my clients are the happiest when we’re solving problems in creative ways and having fun in the process.This can feel scary sometimes but it will also be amazing.
At the end of the day, I help startups get their shit together by putting them on a path to shipping tools that work well, built by teams who love what they’re doing. From chaos to camaraderie with a sense of calm and confidence.
Helping you navigate chaos with confidence and camaraderie to craft great web experiences
Let's solve the big problems
The journey to shipping remarkable products and scaling a
purpose-driven organization can feel chaotic. Missed go-live
deadlines, ballooning project estimates, a patchwork approach
to org and team structures, the drive to succeed and the
pressure to ship your next release quickly + bug-free, the
overwhelming worry about 🚨 WTF to do next? 🚨
That's usually when I get called. I love working to solve
those truly complex business problems in a way that helps
you move forward and build the best products.
How I help
I get you to clarity—helping you build the right thing, the right way.
In my experience, there are important differences between
building great products and building high-performing teams.
I can help you do both while confidently shipping higher quality
products with significantly less stress.
I work with founders and leaders to solve your gnarliest and most
complicated technical, design, product and business problems.
Hands-on development & design support
I'll help bring your design and development teams into harmony by
putting my expertise in front-end and user experience development to work.
I'm happy to get my hands dirty and write + review code,
level up your user experiences with component libraries and design systems,
and embed in your processes and rituals to unlock your team's full potential.
Develop confidence-inspiring prototypes
I'll work closely with you and your founding team to build tasteful prototypes
and high-impact experiments to help raise that next round of funding, prove your idea,
and ensure product-market fit. I bring your team along for the ride:
collaborating on cutting-edge tech and empowering them with long-term ownership of the product.
Make Shopify work for your business
Whether you're setting up shop for the first time or you have millions
in GMV, I'll help you make Shopify work better for your business. Having led the
App Developer Experience team at Shopify for years, I can develop all manner of
custom Shopify apps and storefronts—on my own, or integrated seamlessly with your
team.
Future-proof your team
Tooling, training, and technology to unlock your team's potential.
I can help whether you're remote or hybrid; outsourced or in-house.
Get back to building
Designing, staffing, and managing engineering and/or design orgs so
your day isn't consumed by management tasks.
Manage growth effectively
Engineering, design, and product team process (and risk) analysis so
you can keep up with the pace of growth.
Charlie Stableford
Senior UX Designer
I honestly believe that I would not be where I am in my career or
feel as confident in myself and my career if it wasn't for Martin.
He has this incredible ability to listen to a wide range of
problems from people that are different from him, and problem solve in
a way that keeps who they are at the center of the solution.
Martin leans on his experience without centering himself, and does it effortlessly.
His confidence is infectious. I think this is because of how he communicates,
speaking other people's language to make sure they truly understand.
Luke Andrews
Head of UX at Assembled
Martin is the person you want to work with. He knows design, and knows web and front-end development inside and out. He cares deeply about accessibility, and building great experiences for people.
But no matter what, Martin is just a great person period — a fun and funny collaborator, a confident communicator, and a natural leader who's going to get stuff done.
Ryan Neufeld
UX Design Leader
It's rare to come across a talent that can so effectively combine expertise in development
with the ability to communicate across disciplines. I had the privilege to manage Martin
for almost a year and a half, relying on him as a close confidant in leading the strategic
execution of the product design vision.
Martin's growth from a skilled individual contributor
into a leader who mentored others and drove the maturity of product development processes
was inspiring. His sense of humour and winning personality could cut the tension in any
difficult meeting.
Why me?
Fair question. Simply put, this isn't my first rodeo.
I’m a technical wildcard, which means I’m equal parts software developer, designer, and product strategist. I get everyone speaking the same language across disciplines and bring complexity down to earth.
I’ve led software development and design teams to ship beautiful, functional, and accessible products into the hands of millions of users. I've solved some of the most complex and interesting problems for organizations of all sizes: from solo founders to 25, 100, and 250 person teams—all the way up to a 12,000-person tech giant. I guide teams in rethinking their software development practices and ways of working, driving real business value through my own versions of proven frameworks and strategic approaches.
Most importantly:
I give a shit
I sweat the details
I prioritize empathy (team, customer and user)
I have a proven track record
I bring a designer sensibility to web development and a dev sensibility to design
I show up and bring the very best vibes
And, honestly, I make it fun.
What does working with me look like?
I'm here to solve real problems for real people.
You'll leave our time together with:
Strategic insight
A clear plan and playbook to move forward
The know-how and tools to confidently implement + deliver
A healthier culture to move you forward
It’s not just what I do, but how. I keep it fun, joyful, and creative so we get to the highest-impact solutions to your most important challenges. Whether that's shipping a new product, levelling up your engineering culture, or scaling your team—I've got you covered.
Get in touch at hey@mlaws.ca to discuss projects, problems, or just say hi.