About
I’m Kelly Upp. I’m a product person who likes figuring out what to do when there isn’t an obvious answer.
I’ve spent the last decade working in product, mostly in environments where the playbook isn’t fully written yet.
That means I’m comfortable with ambiguity, but I’m not interested in ambiguity for its own sake. My job is to turn a messy set of inputs — customer needs, business goals, technical constraints, competing opinions, limited resources — into better decisions and forward motion.
I work across strategy, discovery, 0→1, execution, measurement, and product leadership. I’m especially useful when a company has reached the point where product decisions have become too important to leave to chance, but the organization isn’t ready for another layer of process or a full-time senior product hire.
I also write Start Me Upp, a publication about product thinking and the realities of building things when the conditions aren’t clean.
How I work
How I work
01
Clarity over theater
A roadmap, framework, or workshop is only useful if it helps a team make a better decision.
02
Smallest useful move
I’d rather run a focused test than spend three months producing certainty no one can actually have.
03
Strategy has to survive contact with reality
Good product thinking eventually becomes a shipped thing, a customer conversation, a decision, or a measurable outcome.
04
Process should serve the work
The goal isn’t to install a methodology. It’s to create just enough structure for the team to move.
Let’s talk
Have a product problem you’re trying to solve?
Tell me what you’re working through. We’ll figure out whether there’s a useful way for me to help.