Lead Product Manager · Australia · Remote

I lead product strategy — and build the proof myself.

A decade turning fuzzy problems into commercial outcomes — across health, fintech, mobility and AI, from 0→1 startups to a $490M enterprise P&L. I lead the strategy, then go build the prototype to prove it.

10+ yrs
building digital products
Career
$490M
business P&L led, 5 squads
Bupa
+164%
purchase NPS (28→74)
Bupa Optical
0→10k
users, idea to acquisition
Medibio · 0→1
Selected work

Real products, real decisions, real numbers.

A few I'm proud of.

Healthcare · eCommerce
Bupa Optical & Hearing

Doubled digital's share of a national optical business

Senior PM 2022–24 · Lead PM 2025–present

Challenge

A stores-first omnichannel retailer where digital was ~12% of revenue and treated as a brochure, not a channel customers actually transacted on.

Approach

  • Built the ROI-backed investment case that secured the largest CAPEX since the site launched.
  • Set a multi-year roadmap integrating complex dependent systems (Shopify Plus + practice management) behind one clean, fast CX.
  • Rebuilt the two highest-value journeys: glasses purchase and appointment booking.
  • Stood up an experimentation program so conversion gains compounded instead of stalling.

Outcomes

78%
of revenue growth now driven by digital, across 49 stores
$4M
incremental annual revenue found & shipped
+164%
purchase NPS (28→74)
$3.40:1
experimentation ROI, year one
Startup · HealthTech · 0→1
Medibio / Australia's Biggest Mental Health Check-in

Took a mental-health idea from 0 to 10,000+ users

Product Manager · 2016 — 2018

Challenge

A clinical insight and an idea — but no product, no audience, and stigma as the core barrier to people ever engaging.

Approach

  • Built a psychometric check-in from clinically validated, open-source instruments (LimeSurvey, PDF Docker).
  • Co-created "Australia's Biggest Mental Health Check-in," a national campaign engineered to drive reach and reduce stigma.
  • Led end-to-end delivery: UX, statistical modelling, content, fulfilment and reporting.
  • Converted the check-in into a revenue-generating corporate wellbeing program.

Outcomes

30→10k+
users in 2.5 years
94%
would recommend it
0→1
built from idea to product
Acquired
by ASX-listed Medibio
Startup · AI/ML · Product-Led Growth
Cuttable

Led the pivot that opened an AI ad startup's market

Principal Product Manager (Fractional) · 2022 — 2024

Challenge

An AI ad-generation platform aimed at large brands — a small TAM, slow time-to-value, and weak adoption.

Approach

  • Joined as first product hire; ran discovery to find a larger, underserved segment.
  • Led the pivot from enterprise brands to lower-budget eCommerce shops.
  • Designed self-serve growth loops and a free-trial flow with ready-made ad templates.
  • Re-shaped onboarding to get new customers to value fast.

Outcomes

Weeks→hrs
time-to-value for new customers
↑ TAM
larger, underserved market opened
Self-serve
growth motion designed in
1st
product hire — set the foundations

Also shaped product for Zoox, Lexus, Scrypt and the University of Newcastle.

What makes me different

Most PMs brief the build. I can do the build.

Ten years of strategy, discovery and team leadership taught me to spot the right problem. The newer part is that I can go and build a working answer myself — AI prototypes, RAG systems, agentic engineering — instead of waiting a quarter to find out if the idea holds. It makes my strategy sharper, my estimates honest, and my teams faster.

Optical AI pilotBupa

Built a pilot that generates campaign assets in-house. If rolled out, it removes a six-figure dependency on external creative agencies.

Mindplace POCBupa

Stood up a working site and an AI patient-therapist matching engine — a RAG chatbot plus bespoke matching logic — for a brand-new business line.

This siteCurious Ape

Hand-coded, no template, no page builder. The thing you're reading is the proof.

The lab

Small things I've built to learn, prove a point, or just because I was curious.

● Live

Mental Health Check-in

An interactive rebuild of the 0→1 product that became Australia's Biggest Mental Health Check-in.

Built by hand + AI · Try it →
● Coming soon

Drum Machine

An interactive beat maker. Tap a pattern, hit play.

Built with AI
● Coming soon

Reaction-time game

Test your reflexes against the clock.

Built with AI
How I work

Four principles I keep coming back to.

01

Insight sharpens instinct

Strong opinions, loosely held. I'm comfortable forming a clear point of view from incomplete data and operating in the grey — then updating fast as evidence sharpens the picture. Conviction and curiosity, not one or the other.

02

Make the thinking visible

People commit to decisions they can see the reasoning behind. I make the why visible — the customer, the data, the trade-off — so a team aligns through understanding, not compliance.

03

Clarity creates momentum

Decide what matters and cut the rest. A team that knows the one thing it's optimising for moves faster than one hedging ten. Define success early, prioritise ruthlessly, and the path gets obvious.

04

Genius is between people

The elegant solutions to hard problems rarely live in one head — they come from diverse people under a shared mission, challenged safely. I build that, then get out of the way.

The throughline

Systems and behaviour, pointed at product.

I came into product from two directions. Years managing information systems in resources and construction taught me — from the inside — what good and bad software actually feels like to use. I became the person who knew the systems best, and the one who noticed where they quietly failed people. Alongside that, a psychology degree gave me the other half of the picture: how people really decide. Product is where those two threads meet — building systems that work the way people actually think. A decade in, that's still the job; lately it's sharpened toward growth and commercial outcomes.

2009
Information systems · resources & construction
2016
Medibio · 0→1 mental-health tech
2019
Fix4me · marketplace
2020
Mudbath · product agency
2022
Bupa Optical & Hearing
2025
Bupa · Growth & Acquisition lead

Strategy & Vision

  • Product strategy
  • Roadmapping
  • Vision narratives
  • Investment cases
  • Stakeholder alignment

Discovery & Research

  • User interviews
  • JTBD
  • Fake-door tests
  • Surveys
  • Journey mapping

Data & Experimentation

  • A/B testing
  • Funnel analysis
  • Cohort segmentation
  • Impact forecasting
  • Statistical analysis

Delivery & Ops

  • Agile delivery
  • Dependency mapping
  • OKRs
  • Risk flags
  • QA

Growth & Monetisation

  • Activation & retention
  • Referral loops
  • Pricing
  • Growth loops
  • Omnichannel retail

AI & Building

  • RAG systems
  • Agentic engineering
  • Prototype builds
  • Generative-AI evaluation
  • Cursor · Replit · Claude Code
In their words

People I've worked with.

Ian has a rare ability to translate a bold vision into a clear, omnichannel roadmap — and then deliver it. He brought real ambition and clarity to our digital strategy, worked seamlessly across the business to secure funding and priorities, and led his team through genuine uncertainty to record results. Curious, strategic and always focused on continuous improvement — I'd recommend him for a product leadership role without hesitation.

Adrian Kemp
Director, Bupa Optical & Hearing

Whip-smart thinking and a calming presence on any team he joins. From high-level product planning to down-in-the-weeds wireframing, Ian's been the definition of a safe pair of hands — and brought warmth and energy to our agency too.

Ken Chan
Head of Strategy, Hardhat Digital

Ian has the ability to predict client needs ahead of time and deliver when required. Under pressure, he knows the right thing to say and do to reassure the client and bring clarity to the team. Our projects succeeded in large part due to his thoughtful, collaborative leadership.

Annie Rentos
Delivery Principal, IE Digital
About

A product leader with a psychology degree and a builder's hands.

I've spent more than a decade at the intersection of customer, technology and business — across health, fintech, mobility and AI, from scrappy startups to a $490M enterprise. My background in software and psychology is the unfair advantage: I read behaviour, motivation and bias as fluently as I read a funnel, which is why the products I work on tend to feel obvious once they ship.

What sets me apart is range. I can set a strategy a board will fund, then open an editor and build the prototype that proves it. I'm a generalist by design — equally at home in a roadmap, a research session, or a codebase.

Outside the screen I'm a dad and husband on the NSW coast. I'm into cold water, breathwork, bushcraft and sustainable food. I spent seven years as a lived-experience educator with Beyond Blue and mentored Indigenous students through AIME — both taught me more about people than any framework has.

Ian Hunt — Lead Product Manager
Let's talk

Let's build something people actually use.

Always up for a good conversation about product, data and AI.

Open to senior / lead product roles. I also take selective fractional product work.