Brian Erickson

I'm a PM at Mailgun working on the tools developers use to build with email. This site is a collection of my work — case studies, projects I'm tinkering on, and some writing.

About

PM. Builder. Occasional tinkerer.

I started in software engineering and ended up in product. Turns out I like the whole problem, not just the code. I've worked across messaging, security, and developer platforms, mostly focused on the unglamorous middle: turning what customers actually need into things they adopt and keep using. This site is where I collect that work, plus whatever I'm tinkering on.

Thoughts

On product, software, and building things.

  1. Building and releasing an app with agents

    A motorcycle trip plan became a web planner, a data pipeline, and an iPhone app. What I learned about directing agents, owning the result, and knowing when to stop.

  2. Taste Is All That's Left

    raf on what's left to matter once AI can make anything: They will be able to make anything, and unable to tell (or stop to think) whether they should. Taste is built the slow, stupid, humiliating way…

  3. How We Do Spikes

    Sophie Déziel gives a great summary of her team's approach to research spikes. We handle them in a similar way at Closely but I especially liked her simple…

All writing