IMAGE / 01
METHOD
THE PROTOTYPE IS A QUESTION
Notes on turning an ambiguous possibility into something a person can touch, critique, and use.
READ THE EXPERIMENTS →MATHIAS BURTON
/ buttons
Equal-parts maker and director: a hands-on product and design leader who finds the right problem, imagines a bolder possibility, and makes it useful.
/ products + design + people
= useful systems
SELECTED WORKSEE ALL WORK →
01 / PRODUCT + DATA
PitchBook
Connect the intelligence.
THE PROBLEM
Market data and editorial insight lived in different mental models. The opportunity was to help customers connect what happened with why it mattered.
THE MOVE
Use research and product thinking to bring data and expert commentary into a more continuous decision-making experience.
MY ROLE
Product and UX leadership, spanning discovery, interaction design, cross-functional direction, and the integration of LCD.
THE THROUGH-LINE / The strongest interface is not always another screen. Sometimes it is the connective tissue that makes existing expertise more useful.
02 / DESIGN SYSTEM
Tyler Forge
Make coherence scalable.
THE PROBLEM
Multiple teams were solving similar interface problems in different ways, creating friction for customers and makers alike.
THE MOVE
Build a shared system of principles, patterns, and components that could carry a family of products without flattening their needs.
MY ROLE
Design system strategy and hands-on direction across the Socrata and Tyler product landscape, aligning people as well as pixels.
THE THROUGH-LINE / A design system succeeds when teams can make better decisions with it—not simply when the library is complete.
03 / EXPERIMENTATION
LOGO
Working Experiments
Turn ambiguity into something testable.
THE QUESTION
How can new AI capabilities become genuinely useful products instead of impressive, disconnected demonstrations?
THE MOVE
Prototype the riskiest idea quickly, put it in context, and use what happens next to sharpen the product direction.
MY ROLE
Independent research, framing, concept development, prototyping, and synthesis—staying close to both possibility and evidence.
THE THROUGH-LINE / The prototype is a question you can touch. Its job is to create evidence and momentum, not merely look finished.
WHAT I MADE WITH MACHINESAN ONGOING JOURNAL
WHAT I MADE
WITH MACHINES.
A working record of the questions, prototypes, systems, and strange little useful things I make with AI and other machines. Less a finished blog than a trail of evidence: what I tried, what changed, and what I want to make next.
VISIT THE BLOGIMAGE / 02
PRACTICE
MAKE THE NEXT MOVE VISIBLE
Short dispatches from building products, dashboards, games, and systems with a machine as collaborator.
FOLLOW THE THREAD →IMAGE / 03
FIELD NOTES
WHAT CHANGED BECAUSE I MADE IT?
A running reflection on evidence, judgment, and the difference between an impressive demo and a useful thing.
OPEN THE NOTEBOOK →IMAGE / 04
CARE PRACTICE
THE HOUSEHOLD IS A SYSTEM
Stay-at-home parenthood makes the invisible work of care visible: decisions, handoffs, routines, interruptions, and recovery.
IN DEVELOPMENTHOW I WORKFOUR HATS / ONE PRACTICE
I change hats.
The thread stays connected.
The role changes with the problem. Research uncovers the model; design makes it tangible; product management turns it into coordinated action; leadership grows the team’s ability to carry it forward.
01
UX research
Find the right problem.I enter the work where it happens—interviews, contextual inquiry, working-session replays, usability studies, and mixed evidence—then build a grounded model of what people are trying to accomplish.
SKILLS + TOOLS
02
Product design
Make the possibility tangible.I translate evidence into flows, information architecture, prototypes, and functional direction—staying close enough to the artifact to keep judgment grounded in the experience.
SKILLS + TOOLS
03
Product management
Turn evidence into direction.I connect user value to portfolio strategy, requirements, sequencing, and release planning. TASTE is the operating rhythm that moves research and design through delivery without losing the original signal.
SKILLS + TOOLS
04
Team leadership
Create clarity and momentum.I use a player-coach model: lead the first pass, make the structure visible, grow ownership, and create the conditions for designers and researchers to carry decisions directly to senior partners.
SKILLS + TOOLS
THE OPERATING METHODDUAL-TRACK / FIVE MOVES EACH
RIPEN Discovery + design flowResearch · Ideation · Prototyping · Evaluation · Needfinding
TASTEProduct + operations flowTriage · Analysis · Synthesis · Tackling · Extraction
DISCOVERYRIPEN
DELIVERYTASTE
RESEARCHRIPEN / DISCOVERY
Study real work in context and gather the evidence before narrowing the frame.
SEE IT IN PitchBook / complete-deal inquiry ↗TRIAGETASTE / DELIVERY
Sort urgency, risk, opportunity, and constraints before work enters the system.
SEE IT IN SCGC / platform gaps ↗IDEATIONRIPEN / DISCOVERY
Open the possibility space, sketch systems, and choose a point of view worth testing.
SEE IT IN Socrata / connective platform ↗ANALYSISTASTE / DELIVERY
Make the ambition legible by examining feasibility, dependencies, and strategic fit.
SEE IT IN PitchBook / role model ↗PROTOTYPINGRIPEN / DISCOVERY
Make the riskiest assumption tangible enough for people to encounter and critique.
SEE IT IN RefWorks / redesigned workflow ↗SYNTHESISTASTE / DELIVERY
Connect separate observations into a model the team can use to make decisions.
SEE IT IN PitchBook / timing + agency ↗EVALUATIONRIPEN / DISCOVERY
Put the work back in context, invite critique, and judge it against observed behavior.
SEE IT IN PitchBook / CLO structure ↗TACKLINGTASTE / DELIVERY
Clarify ownership, sequence delivery, and remove the next constraint with the team.
SEE IT IN Tyler Forge / shared system ↗NEEDFINDINGRIPEN / DISCOVERY
Return to unmet needs as the work evolves; discovery continues after the first release.
SEE IT IN RefWorks / sustained field research ↗EXTRACTIONTASTE / DELIVERY
Pull learning, reusable patterns, and the next bet from what the team delivered.
SEE IT IN PitchBook / multi-year roadmap ↗
ABOUT / BUTTONS
MAKER / DIRECTOR / CONNECTORResearchProduct designSystemsDirection
I’m Mathias Burton—aka / buttons—a product and design leader who is happiest in the space between an unresolved question and a useful thing in the world.
I bring research depth, systems thinking, visual judgment, and organizational leadership to ambiguous zero-to-one work. I can set the direction, build the artifact, and help a team see how the pieces connect.
/ buttons is the shorthand: small points of connection that turn separate pieces into something that works.