Take the system apart. Improve one piece at a time.
I'm an AI product leader with a PhD in Systems Engineering. I break a complex system into its parts, work out how they interact, and improve one component at a time, so that it performs and so that a person can use it. For twenty years I've pointed that at one question: how do you deploy a system that decides things on a person's behalf, somewhere being wrong is expensive, and get people to trust it enough to actually use it?
The Arc
The chart starts in 2009, when product management became the job title. The work started earlier. I was a QA tester at a software company while I was still in high school, writing the user documentation on the side, and I held a technology job every year I was in school after that. 20+ years in technology, 17 of them leading product.
Product Manager, Blackboard
Started my career proving UX moves revenue. Shipped 84 mobile apps, contributed to a 64% year-over-year jump in sales, and helped build the case that led to the company's acquisition.
PhD Researcher, Virginia Tech, alongside IBM and Amazon/Sonos
Pursued a PhD in Industrial & Systems Engineering while working in industry at the same time: Product Manager at IBM (hired as a User Experience Engineer), cutting product setup from days to minutes and growing downloads 75x, then early-access UX research for Amazon Echo and Sonos Play:5. The dissertation asked what a system should surface to a person under load, when it should defer, and how it should fail safely. Selected as an NSF I-Corps Graduate Fellow.
Founder and Principal, Product, Redfearn Group
Another concurrent thread during the PhD years: TALOS, U.S. Special Operations Command's powered exoskeleton program. Defined the human-AI interaction model for the system, secured $750K in competitive research funding across two R&D programs, and shipped two prototypes on time and under budget.
Lab Director & Visiting Assistant Professor, Brigham Young University
Built the Advanced HCI curriculum around intelligent and adaptive interfaces: how people direct, correct, and override systems that decide for them. Founded a university innovation lab from zero, raised $325K, and mentored 200+ students.
Senior Technical Product Manager, Research and Technology Firm
Managed six contracts worth $45M and was an individual contributor on 14 programs in total, leading an org of 12 across five teams. Led applied LLM research at the Army Cyber Institute at West Point, including two published assessments of adversarial AI risk in critical infrastructure. Shipped a 0-to-1 procurement platform that processes about $5B a year, and helped launch a commercial AI/ML platform searching 400M+ documents.
Founder and Principal, AI Product, Redfearn Group
Led AI strategy and governance for Next Generation 9-1-1: where AI can be safely deployed in a call center where a wrong output costs a life. The assessments drove pilot and procurement decisions and fed national guidance on AI adoption in emergency communication centers.
Senior Solutions Strategist (Enterprise AI Platform Product Management), Large Public Institution
Architected the product spec for an enterprise AI platform serving more than 200,000 learners, and scaled from one program to four. I prototype in working software, building daily with Claude Code, so architecture decisions are tested against something running before they reach a document.
How I Work
Bridge, don't translate
I don't translate between engineering and the business. I sit in both rooms well enough that translation isn't necessary.
Governance as infrastructure
Compliance and ethics review, built into the pipeline from day one. It ships faster than bolting it on after legal finds the problem.
Numbers over opinions
If a decision can be modeled, it should be. Multi-criteria frameworks beat whoever presents last in the room.
Credentials & Recognition
PhD, Systems Engineering
Virginia Tech. NSF I-Corps Graduate Fellow. UPS Doctoral Fellowship. Dissertation: “Rapid Design and Prototyping Methods for Mobile Head-Worn Mixed Reality (MR) Interface and Interaction Systems.”
MS, UX Research
Brigham Young University. Thesis: “User Experience Engineering Adoption and Practice: A Longitudinal Case Study.”
BS, IT & Cybersecurity
Brigham Young University. IT Student Association. Research Assistant, 2010 to 2012: taught and ran the UX lab, where I redesigned Adobe’s network operations center and prototyped an electronic medical record system for pediatric ophthalmologists.
AA, Butte College
Student Body President, appointed by the faculty board to finish the term. Regional Vice President and Vice President of Service, Phi Theta Kappa. Also active in the Inter-club Council, the LDS Student Association, the Cultures & Civilizations Club, and Friends of the Wildlife Refuge. The community college chapter behind the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship below.
Jack Kent Cooke Scholar
Undergraduate Transfer and Graduate Scholarships, both highly competitive national awards.
Eagle Scout
The discipline started early.
AI Fluency & Claude Code, Anthropic
Four certificates, spring 2026: Claude Code in Action, AI Fluency Framework & Foundations, AI Capabilities & Limitations, and Teaching the AI Fluency Framework.
STEM Faculty Institute Award
Brigham Young University, 2019.
NIST RMF & CMMC 2.0 Certified
Implementing the NIST Risk Management Framework (2021) and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, CMMC 2.0 (2025), LinkedIn Learning.
Honor Medal with Crossed Palms
Scouting America's highest honor for lifesaving, awarded for extraordinary heroism at extreme personal risk.
Honor Societies
Golden Key International Honour Society, Tau Alpha Pi, Order of the Arrow, Order of the Engineer, and Phi Theta Kappa.
Publications
Peer-reviewed research from the PhD and MS years: human-AI interaction worked out in mixed reality prototypes, and what it costs an organization to adopt an unfamiliar practice.
Rapid Design and Prototyping Methods for Mobile Head-Worn Mixed Reality (MR) Interface and Interaction Systems →
Thirteen experiments applying user-centered design methods to 3D head-worn display systems in the first responder domain, and what each method was actually worth.
User Experience Engineering Adoption and Practice: A Longitudinal Case Study →
A three-year case study of what happens to a small enterprise when UX engineering is adopted for real, measured across ten metrics.
Mixed Reality Patients Monitoring Application for Critical Care Nurses →
A head-worn mixed reality application that puts patient vitals and live video in a critical care provider's field of view, prototyped on a state-of-the-art HMD.
All 7 publications, with abstracts and citations → · Google Scholar →
Tools & Methods
The specific research methods, product and program disciplines, and software behind 20+ years of delivery. Not just the job titles.
Research Methods
Product & Program Management
Tools & Platforms
Learning Log
What I build with every day, and the AI and security coursework underneath my last two roles.
AI, agentic systems & security
- Claude & Claude Code
- Generative AI
- Data Analysis
- AI Fluency
- Cybersecurity Foundations
- Artificial Intelligence
- LLM Agent Orchestration
- Prompt & Context Engineering
- Institutional AI Platform Design
- Machine Learning
- AI Ethics
- IT Security
- NIST Risk Management
What People Say
“I worked with Brady first cross-functionally, then later on the same team, across proposal work and our NTIA project. On NTIA, he led the technical evaluation of AI vendors and use cases feeding into the Early Adopters AI Strategic Roadmap, guidance with national implications for how emergency communication centers implement AI. What stood out repeatedly, was how he handled ambiguity. He'd narrow an undefined problem down to something concrete and answerable, then build the technical evaluation plan to match it. That's what made the vendor assessments hold up under scrutiny, and it's a big part of why the roadmap itself was credible enough to carry that kind of weight. I watched him do this under real deadline pressure, when it would have been easy to move forward without fully defining the scope. He held the line on getting it right first. Working with Brady guarantees two things: well-architected solutions, and a process you'll actually enjoy.”
Kody Higginbotham, Enterprise Cloud Strategy, Amazon Web Services
“He has been a pleasure to work with. He is extremely responsive, takes his responsibilities seriously, and strives for excellence in all he does. I was particularly impressed with how he developed and ran the Mixed Reality Lab, which has introduced many students from across campus to virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. He has an outstanding breadth of knowledge about many technical topics, but particularly VR and AR technologies.”
Derek Hansen, Professor, Brigham Young University
“Brady is one of the smartest, most diligent, and innovative people I have ever worked with. He is an excellent researcher, designer, analyst, writer, and project leader. Over two years he was almost single-handedly responsible for turning the culture of this software development company into what the CEO proudly termed ‘a UX company.’”
Bret Swan, Director of Product Management & Product Development, MetaSource
“Brady is a quick study and one of the few professionals who really understands software usability. We hope to work with him in the future.”
John Graff, Founding Partner, 2nd Story Capital
Outside the Work
I build things with my hands when I'm not writing code: LEGO with my son, restoring classic cars, designing my own home office down to the last cable run. I mentor students through the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, and I'm a technical advisor, advocate, and counselor for the Widower's Support Network. Member of Product Hive. Native English, limited working Spanish. Based in Spanish Fork, Utah.