Work
Some of the products I’ve worked on at You.com, Crate & Barrel, and G2.
You.com: Building an API that agents can adopt on their own
The problem
When the company moved from consumer search to a developer platform, the path to a working API call was built for people: sign up, verify an email, find the dashboard, create a key, talk to sales for a real rate limit. A growing share of new callers were coding agents, and an agent cannot fill out a form.
My part
I lead product strategy and developer experience for the platform, covering onboarding, provisioning, docs, billing, and distribution through MCP and agent frameworks. I changed the team’s north star from site traffic to whether agents reach for us, and organized the roadmap around an agent’s path from discovery to first call to paid use. That work covers keyless first calls, per-agent spend limits, payments that are not tied to a single protocol, and docs and errors written for machines. I also pushed for attribution in every SDK, plugin, and MCP server, so agent usage is counted rather than guessed.
What happened next
Median time to a first query fell from about 27 minutes to about 5. Self-serve monetization added more than $1.5 million in new annualized revenue, and developers can now find, activate, and integrate the API without talking to sales.
- FindDocs, MCP servers, and framework integrations an agent can discover and read in one pass.
- First callA keyless first request, so the agent can try the API before anyone creates an account.
- Paid usePer-agent spend limits and payments that are not tied to a single protocol.
- CountedA client identifier in every SDK, plugin, and MCP server, so agent usage is measured, not guessed.
Median time to a first query
You.com: Making search a conversation
The problem
People came to search with questions that rarely ended after one answer. Follow-ups and changing intent were part of the task, but the interface treated each search as a fresh start.
My part
I led the move toward a chat-first experience, bringing follow-up questions and source-grounded answers into the main search flow.
What happened next
Monthly users grew from roughly 1 million to 10 million as chat became the main experience.
Crate & Barrel: Getting the foundations of discovery right
The problem
Search, inventory, and product information did not always line up. Shoppers encountered inconsistent information, and the business paid for that friction.
My part
I led a rebuild of the underlying platform so product discovery could draw on consistent information across channels.
What happened next
The platform delivered seven figures in ROI in its first 30 days.
G2: Helping buyers make a confident choice
The problem
A large software catalog gives buyers options. It does not necessarily help them decide which product fits their needs.
My part
I owned the search roadmap, including ranking, personalization, recommendations, and AI-powered guidance.
What happened next
Core buyer engagement increased 145% year over year.
Ask about my work
Ask my AI about these projects or my approach to building products.
Email me at brian@sparker.ai.