micah berman
I grow people-first teams that turn frontier technology into products that make our world better. The less obvious the answer, the more interesting the question.
Today, I'm building the modern benefit for frontline workers at Ezra. Previously, I looked after platform-wide safety product for Android, so your phone is there when you need it most: earthquake alerts, emergency calls, and more. I've run AI-focused product and technical teams that collaborated with nonprofits around the globe at Google.org, and started my career working on Google Search ranking. I also teach product management seminars at Columbia University's Graduate School of Engineering.
I believe technology can make life better, but not by default. Great product requires forest and trees: a philosopher's rigor in first-principles thought and a woodworker's care in crafted detail. It is as much about what we do as how we do it.
When I'm not building, I can't resist an adventure... a motorcycle through an afternoon monsoon in Kathmandu, a cross-country ski to the next hut on the Icelandic tundra, harnessing into a tree-climb in the Sumatran rainforest, and a morning run to the neighborhood coffee shop. I love nurturing a family of friends, flying airplanes, and soaking in hot springs. And I'm out to leave this place a bit better than I found it.
What about you?
Teaching
Publications
Patents
Selected projects
Built a suite of travel tools that I've always wanted.
One factory tour each month, for a year.
A 14-person houseboat cruise on Lake Don Pedro, complete with boat flag, boarding passes, interactive website, and lots of swag.
Ezra was an unpaid side hustle to start, so most of my project energy was focused here.
Installed a hot tub and landscape lighting (digging trenches, mostly).
Went to 14 in one summer, so counting it as a project.
Bought two old houses on one lot, set them up to live with ~6 friends supernuclearly, with numerous subprojects from wall modifications to painting.
Hand-collected 200+ donated tablets, supplied with accessories and stands, delivered to physicians to power patient+family connections.
Organized friends to hand-write 2,000 GOTV postcards in parks over 3 weekends.
An antique New Hampshire farmhouse window and many pounds of preserved moss to open a windowless bathroom.
Adjustable sit/stand desk finished from a remaindered walnut slab, with large walnut bowtie inlay.
Finding the cheapest meeting place for people from multiple origins and turning meetings into adventures. A new version is available via wrld.li above.
Collected redwood scraps, reworked into moss-laden table lamps, gifted to friends and family.
Closed community travel recommendation site where password access rewards good deeds. A new version is available via wrld.li above.
Self-guided group excursions including houseboating, river tubing, scavenger hunts, and desert hot spring trips.
Spent a year making small containers. Still have some left to give away, just ask.
Custom rental property CMS and application processing portal.
Gap year working at a Habitat for Humanity affiliate in northwest Mississippi.
Complete course scheduling system used by my 300+ person high school.
First paid job - building a simple website for my elementary school.
Certifications
- FAA Private Pilot2024
- PPG1 Power Paragliding2021
- SCUBA Open Water Diver2015
- Wilderness First Responder2013–now
Writing
Musings on product and our world. For academic writing, see Scholarship.
Transmit and Receive
More coming soon.
Get in touch
Drop me a line.