Mike Mongeau — Product Builder

What I'm building now

The age layer
of the internet.

As Head of Product at k-ID, I'm leading product, design, and research to make the internet safer for kids and families. We shipped at-scale age adaptive experiences for brands like Snap, Discord, Twitch, Hasbro, Konami, Scopely and Supercell.

TIME Best Inventions2025 Fast CompanyNext Big Thing

5x

Account graph growth

2x

MRR in 3 months

27M+

Verified users

10+

Major platforms shipped

Career Arc

From frontline support to Head of Product. 19 years of compounding empathy into outcomes.

2022 — Present

Led product for millions. Building trust at scale.

Shaped how millions of families play, stay safe, and stay together on Xbox. Now making compliance something platforms actually want to ship.

k-ID

Xbox

2017 — 2022

Turned support into growth. AI into seats.

Reframed support as a growth engine. Used AI + HI to grow 1.3M paid seats while leading Microsoft's highest-performing support program.

Microsoft 365 Windows

2006 — 2017

Built empathy from the ground up.

Started in frontline support. Eleven years of learning what breaks, what matters, and why. Every product instinct started here.

KIN Windows Phone

Zune

How I Think

01local_fire_department

You don't manage a backlog. You manage belief.

Conviction is contagious — so is doubt.

01local_fire_department

If the team doesn't believe in what they're building, no process will save you. Your job is to make the mission undeniable — then get out of the way.

02search

PRD before discovery? Not a spec — it's a story you made up.

Discovery buries the wrong ideas. Fast.

02search

Most PRDs are written to justify a decision already made. Real discovery means being willing to kill your favorite idea before lunch.

03speed

Velocity without clarity is expensive motion.

Speed amplifies direction — good or bad.

03speed

Shipping fast means nothing if you're headed nowhere sharp. The best teams aren't fast — they're focused. Clarity is the multiplier.

04edit_note

Narrative is a data compression device.

Words are the new code. Use them precisely.

04edit_note

A great one-pager beats a 40-slide deck. Storytelling is like fortune-telling — frame the future clearly enough and people will build it.

05balance

Capacity doesn't stretch. It trades.

Every yes is a silent no.

05balance

The most important skill in product leadership isn't prioritization — it's the discipline to say no clearly. When everything is a priority, nothing ships well.

06help

Great PMs make the right questions unavoidable.

The right question outweighs a dozen solutions.

06help

You're not the answer key. You're the pressure that reveals truth. Ask questions so clear that the answer becomes obvious.

How I Build

Products people trust, shipped fast and well.

favorite

Give a damn, fully

The bar is caring more than anyone expects.

rocket_launch

Ship relentlessly

Done beats perfect. Every time.

handshake

Bridge the gaps

The best products live at the seams between teams.

auto_stories

Tell the story

If you can't explain it simply, you don't own it yet.

person_search

Obsess over users

Every decision starts with a real person in pain.

magic_button

Apply magic, right

AI is a tool, not a strategy. Know the difference.

Give a damn→ Ship relentlessly→ Bridge the gaps→ Tell the story→ Obsess over users→ Apply the right magic→ Give a damn→ Ship relentlessly→ Bridge the gaps→ Tell the story→ Obsess over users→ Apply the right magic→

Select Wins & Recognition

TIME Best Inventions2025 Fast CompanyNext Big Thing in Tech

Key Talent ×6 Special Stock Awards ×6 Great Performance ×3 Community Award Gold Star Award Frontier Award

+21%

MAU growth
Xbox Family

$32M

ARR shaped
Xbox Family

1.3M

Seats added
Microsoft 365

+266%

Account creation
Microsoft Family

-58%

Incident reduction
Windows

Founder Energy

Always building on the side.

Building 2026

Squadly

A kid-first platform for safe community beyond IRL. Think "Discord for Kids."

Real friendships, fun, and digital citizenship. Turning an obvious gap into something kids actually deserve.

Sold 2006

NewsReactor

Bootstrapped a niche content platform to 15K+ monthly visits and 5,000+ community users.

Negotiated a successful exit to Usenet.com, one of the largest U.S. Usenet companies at the time. Proof I could build, grow, and sell.

I've builtproducts thatmillions of families trust.

The age layerof the internet.